Jeff Swinger-Imagn Images

Billy Horschel Makes Move at PLAYERS

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Alex Miceli | Last updated Mar 13, 2025 8:19 PM ET

Billy Horschel’s last win came in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club.

In the dew-ladened countryside outside of London, Horschel took on the giant of the DP World Tour, Rory McIlroy, and won in a playoff.

Six months later, Horschel finds himself tied with McIlroy after the first round of The PLAYERS Championship.

Recording a 5-under-par 67, Horschel, who had never finished better than T13 in 2015, tied his best round of his career and his best opening round in his 12 appearances.

“This morning, I woke up and I was in a really good space, and I felt really good with my warmup, and get on the first tee -- I birdied the first two holes, which should calm me down, but it didn't,” Horschel confessed after his first opening round in the 60s since 2019. “I started playing defensive and trying to steer things around and not make mistakes, because I knew things were going well.”

Horschel would struggle with three birdies and three bogeys in the opening nine holes and would give himself a proverbial kick in the ass on the walk to the 10^th hole, which seemed to work with birdies on the 10^thand 11^th holes.

A bogey on the 12^th hole would move Horschel back to just 1-under, but then his game that has had some signs of life in the early part of the season, produced four birdies over the last five holes, including a finish of three consecutive birdies.

“Monday, Todd Anderson and I, we hit about 10 different putters on SAM (PuttLab) to figure out which one was the best, and we went with one that I used a little bit at the end of '23 and beginning of '24 and felt really good with it,” Horschel said of a changing a putter. “Made some putts, which I expected to make with that, because the data showed when I used it, I made quite a few putts outside 15 feet. And the driver was better.”

Horschel feels his game is in a good place technically and mechanically, but he needs to do a better job of trusting it—trust that he will hit good golf shots.

“Trust that I'm going to hit good golf shots., because, like I said, technically everything is really good,” Horschel said. “I'm squeezing the rope really, really tight right now and my hands got a little burn on them.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: