He is doing so as an improved player in major championships since he turned his head around starting with the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he started strong but didn’t finish well.
“I just didn’t handle that situation very well, but since then the feeling, the mentality I have are in a better spot,” Horschel said. “Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to see the results. It’s nice to finally see those results, to finally get the validation from all the hard work we’ve been putting in.”
“I’ve always been an early riser,” Horschel said. “I think there may have been one guy before me, and that was Henrik Norlander — and he’s really early every morning,”
Horschel noted the worldwide tech outage that disrupted thousands of flights delayed some golfers coming from the Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nev., on Sunday evening.
“It made it look like I was only guy out there first thing in the morning,” he said.
A former FedEx Cup winner, Horschel tied for 13th last year in his 3M Open debut. He said he never considered withdrawing from the tournament despite the emotions and fatigue remaining from such a week at a major.
Former U.S. Open winner Justin Rose withdrew Monday after he had entered three weeks ago. Rose also finished tied for second last week with Horschel, two shots behind Xander Schauffele, the new Champion Golfer of the Year. He was replaced by MJ Daffue.
