Billy Horschel Misses Masters, Playing Way Back Into Major Championships

Billy Horschel spoke to the media ahead of the Valero Texas Open, where he was asked about his battle to enter the Aon Swing 5 on the PGA Tour and how he feels attempting to earn his way back into major championships after missing out on the 2024 Masters Tournament.

Last year was tough not to to play well for for a multitude of reason and this year um and one of those reasons is there’s events that I’m not in that that I’m accustomed to being into uh not being at Bay Hill this year was tough uh

I’ve played that event every every year since 2013 um I’m not in Hilton Head Right now I’m not in Memorial uh I haven’t played Genesis a lot but I had started playing that again so um yeah there’s a there’s a lot of events that I’m not in this

Year due to the play of last year and so um I know I’ve had to play well this year uh I haven’t played bad I just haven’t played well enough and and to play well the last couple weeks to finally get myself in a position to be

Uh able to qualify for one of the Signature Events um is huge we know what those events are um you know we can talk about the money we can talk about the points but for me it’s more or less the world ranking points you know getting to

Play against the best players in the world and comparing myself against the best players in the world is is where want to be um get myself back up in the world rank and get get myself back into the major so uh hopefully I can have another good week here secure my spot

Into um RBC Hilton Head I love that event such a great event um I’ve had success there as well and so you know we’re see what happens the game’s been in a really good spot all year um you look at it this the stats uh in in every

Department it’s in a really good spot um it’s sort of been more or less getting out of my own way I I say getting my getting out of my own way um when you hit shots that you don’t you not accustom to hitting the way I did last

Year you start to to have some uh mental little uh demons in there a little bit and so I’ve had to clear those out and put we repl them with better golf shots and um players was a tough one because I’d played well um at cognizant and I’d

Played well at uh Phoenix WM except for the final round I had a really bad final round so the game was trended in the right direction I was really excited about players but uh like I said there was some of those mental things that that arose again that week and I just

Had to address them with my team and and talk to them about them um and have a a better you know mental game plan going into to valpar and then last week and so yeah game’s in a really good spot I’m excited about where where it is where

It’s heading I’m excited about all the work Todd Anderson and everyone else on my team that we’ve been doing and you know just trying to build momentum over my career historically we can go back and look you know I T tend to play well um as I build momentum my wins come from

Playing well multiple weeks in a row and and that’s that’s how it’s always been in my career so hopefully uh I can continue to build that momentum until that Victory pops up again yeah listen I I I’m not very happy um that I’m not in austa uh I’ve been fortunate enough to play

Their uh quite a few times and I play the game of golf because I want to create a legacy that’s all I’ve ever cared about I don’t care I the money aspect is great but I’ve always understood that if you play well and you win golf tournaments the financial side

You know takes care of itself you know I want to be remembered for what I did on the golf course and winning golf tournaments and winning golf tournaments that you’re you can put your names next to Legends in the game of golf and and players that are you know the best and

That generation that you’re playing against so yeah I’m not happy um that I’m not in austa or any of the majors as we sit here right now but listen it’s my own fault I can’t do anything about that I didn’t play well last year um but you

Know the great thing is this game of golf gives you the opportunities to to correct that wrong and and I’m trying the best I can right now to to make up for you know a bad year last year and get myself back to where I feel like um

You know I I feel like I deserve to be in the game of golf where I want to be in the game of golf Taylor Swift is a is massive in my household my girls um went to a Taylor Swift concert last year in Atlanta with my wife and they are

Massive swifties and so uh my oldest one Skyler made me a bracelet and I’ve been wearing for almost a year now it just says sky cols and Axe and then um after the PLAYERS Championship uh talking with my team and my wife about you know I just need to go

Out there and play with les fear you got to be fearless and so my wife made me a fearless bracelet there’s a little more of a backstory behind it um I sort of had a dream I think I think Sunday night of uh players woke up Monday morning and

We were talking about uh valpar that week before I left that Monday morning I said yeah I think I’m just going to put sharpie on my left wrist that says Fearless you know because I just felt like I had a dream seing Fearless on my left wrist and she’s like well I’ll just

Make you a bracelet so she made me a bracelet and yeah I think and I didn’t realiz realize this either um I don’t think my wife realized it at the time I guess Taylor Swift’s second or third album is fearless and she has a song Fearless um so listen I’m not the

Biggest Swifty I get asked about it a lot from the fans now when I sign autographs they ask if I’m a Swifty or their friendship bracelets and everything so it’s a cool little thing but uh also just sort of puts me in the right mind frame of when I’m playing

Golf of what I what I want to be thinking about I like it you could have