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Billy Horschel isn’t anyone’s idea of a fun time in a match play event, and it came true this week at WGC-Dell Match Play as the quick shooter won for the sixth time in his career on the PGA Tour by beating Scottie Scheffler. 2 & 1 in the final at Austin Country Club.
Horschel is relentless both as a personality and as a golfer, and that can make the week tough for his opponents. Horschel never stopped chatting. You could hear him screaming “good shot”, “good start”, or “nice roll” the minute the shots were in the air Wednesday. Horschel beat Max Homa in Game 1, lost to JT Poston 4-2 on Thursday, then beat Collin Morikawa 3 and 2 in a flawless performance to move on to the weekend.
The former Florida Gator is always hooked and apparently never slows down, which can be half the battle when you play up to seven games in five days. This is especially true towards the end of the week, when Horschel entered on Saturday, having to win four games in 36 hours to win the tournament. He won the first two against Kevin Streelman and Tommy Fleetwood over 36 holes on Saturday.
“If anyone knows me, my tank isn’t empty,” Horschel said after doing some extras with Fleetwood. “It was empty at the start of this week. We had a long, fun spring break with my family, and I was pretty exhausted Monday and Tuesday, but yeah, I have a lot of energy.”
He brought that energy to Sunday on a tough and windy day in Austin. The wind held the birdies at bay as Horschel sent Perez to the semifinals on Sunday morning with just two of them and defeated Scheffler in the final with just one.
“There is so much emotion, so many turns,” Horschel told Golf Channel. “I didn’t hit him very well, I didn’t feel good with my swing. I was just grinding him. I would have liked better to hit him. I had two opponents who played really well today. ‘yes but who didn’t. putts and I did, and that was the difference today. “
While the end was a pillow fight – Horschel played the first 17 holes in 1 to take the victory over Scheffler – the week was an absolute dream for him for the guy who never stops. Over the course of a long (sometimes boring) week, Horschel’s energy and attitude has grown out of proportion to the start of the week. If five more rounds had been added to this tournament, he probably would have won even more.
As it stands, all he needed was seven of them to win the first WGC title of his career and some momentum ahead of the Masters in just under two weeks. Quality: A +
Here are the rest of our notes for the 2021 WGC-Dell Match Play.
Sergio Garcia (quarter-finals): Sergio has been awesome all week and probably clinched his place on the European Ryder Cup squad with his playing style. Unless he does well over the next six months, Padraig Harrington will be forced to take him (and probably Ian Poulter) because of the signs of life he showed in qualifying for the quarter-finals. Sergio hasn’t been great at the biggest events since winning the Masters in 2017, so there was a way for him to miss out on this year’s Ryder Cup squad, but even if he didn’t not succeeding in points, his debut in 2021 combined. with what will be the most recent reminder of his 1 on 1 magic will be enough to lead him to Whistling Straits. And by magic, I mean making an ace to finish a match against one of the hottest players in the world. Grade: A
Jordan Spieth (Round of 16): There is now a world in which Jordan Spieth is expected to be one of the Masters top three favorites in two weeks. This is how good it has been the past two months. He lost to Matt Kuchar in the round of 16 but finished fourth (fourth!) Of the week from tee to green. Spieth has now won shots on approach shots in 25 of his last 27 rounds, which is exactly how you earn a green jacket. Don’t be fooled by the loss of Kuchar – All in on Spieth at Augusta National. Grade: A
Patrick Cantlay (MC): Although he wasn’t out of the game of pool, Cantlay hit the ball (much) better than anyone at the tournament. His 3.0 strokes gained per round from the tee to the green were over 1.0 more than anyone in the tournament (which is amazing). He had 15 birdies and an eagle in 54 holes, but defeated a bit against Hideki Matsuyama in a game to advance to the round of 16 because he just couldn’t put a putt. It’s a really intriguing choice, slightly lower for the Masters after this week’s performance. Grade: A
Dustin Johnson (MC): DJ actually hit the ball pretty well this week and looked like he was coming out of the pool when he led Kevin Na 1UP with just two holes to go. However, Na birdied the last two and Robert MacIntyre left the DJ pool. However, there was two bigger news when it came to Johnson. The first is that he and Na fell out a bit on a conceded (or not conceded) putt. that Johnson picked up before Na told him to.
“So I called him up and said, ‘Hey, I’m not going to take the hole off you, but I just want to let you know before I say something as you hit the ball,’” Na said. . “‘But I’m going to give you that putt, so we’re going to call it a half and go to the next hole.'”
I’m sure DJ took it right. Quality: B +
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