Billy Horschel Rebounds With Compelling Irish Open Outing

The Florida Gator is in the mix at The K Club just three months after his emotional press conference.

DUBLIN, Ireland — It was just three months ago that Billy Horschel was teary-eyed after an opening round 84 at the Memorial Tournament and while he came back on Friday to finish with an even-par 72, the Florida Gator acknowledged a lot of work was needed.

On Saturday in Ireland, after a month off, that included no clubs for two weeks, Horschel shot a six-under 66 at The K Club and jumped into the fray at the Irish Open.

Sitting just four shots off the lead of Germany’s Hurly Long, Horschel, at nine-under, is following up a solid week at the Wyndham Championship.

In North Carolina, Horschel shot 67-62-63-72 to finish fourth, his best finish since winning the Memorial in 2022.

“It feels really good to play a good round of golf today,” Horschel said. “Should probably have been three or four better, a couple bad bogeys, still sloppy mistakes I'm making after being a month off. I missed a couple putts that I wish I would have had back, but overall, 6-under any day, you'll take it.”

In his three rounds in Ireland, Horschel has made an eagle and 17 birdies, but he has balanced that off with a double bogey and eight bogeys.

“Two bad bogeys, again, two sloppy mistakes, I've gotten it down to two, so hopefully there's no sloppy stuff tomorrow, but I felt like I should have shot easily eight or nine under the day. So little disappointed about that. Just because it would have got me a little bit close to two liters, but hopefully it won't go and run off too much, and I still have a decent chance to come tomorrow.”

Horschel, like Rory McIlroy who also shot 66, was under the misconception he didn’t do enough on Saturday, but as the leaders backed up and none of the chasers really did much, Horschel finds himself in contact and with a chance to win his second event on the DP World Tour.

“I don’t really play more aggressively, I just try and play the same game plan I always do, try to execute a little bit better,” Horschel said is his game plan. “I try not to push too hard. I found that when I do that, I wind up shooting bad numbers and I get more upset and more frustrated that I just didn’t play my game.”