Wild Billy Horschel torches MVGC to take five-stroke lead

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Billy Horschel gives a fan a fist bump after finishing his third round of the Memorial Tournament. Photo courtesy of pgatour.com.

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Billy Horschel is a name that golf enthusiasts will recognize. After all, the 35-year-old Florida native has been a pro for 13 years. For the layperson, however, seeing his name atop the leaderboard at the Memorial Tournament may raise some eyebrows and ask, “Billy Horschel?”

After Saturday’s third round, though, Horschel is a name that will probably stick in people’s minds after ripping the course with a Memorial career-best seven-under par, 65. It was the low-round of the day and he was the only guy to go bogey-free.

In his previous eight tournament appearances, the lowest round Horschel ever shot was a 68 and his best finish is tied-for ninth, which came three years ago when he went nine-under.

He’s now at 13-under for the tournament with a five-stroke lead with one more day to go.

Asked if he’s ever had a five-stroke lead going into the final round, Horschel answered point-blank.

“Nope. But I’ve had it in my head plenty of times,” he said with a laugh.

Horschel started off his third round with a birdie on par-4, No. 1 and kept the momentum rolling by holing out three more birds on the front nine. Nine holes later, he had three more for a total of seven.

He came into the third round tied-for fourth at six-under with a 70 on Thursday and a 68 on Friday.

However, Horschel hasn’t necessarily played consistently well this year.

He’s had seven top-20 finishes, including three in second-place, which is nothing to sneeze at. But when it comes to a major or major-like tournament, that’s when Horschel tenses up and begins playing wildly.

He made the cut at both the Masters and PGA Championship but finished 43rd and 68th, respectively. At The PLAYERS Championship back in March, he withdrew after Friday’s round.

Then came last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge where he missed the cut, his first of this season. At that point, he and his caddy, Mark “Fooch” Fulcher, sat down and had an earnest heart-to-heart about his game.

“We were both really ticked off about missing the cut and so we just said we need to get back to what we do best and if we do that then it’s giving us the best chance to succeed on every shot,” Horschel said.

He said when he actually listens to people on his team as well as Fulcher and takes things into account like taking the time to talk about the upcoming shot, club selection, wind speed and all of the other things it normally takes a championship-level golfer to be consistently good, then that sort of repetition allows Horschel to have a clearer picture of the end result and more of a higher acceptance level of how the shot turns out rather than most of the time when he doesn’t approach it that way.

“Everyone on my team has told me that for years, when I have that (mentality) then I’m able to make better swings on a regular basis. We didn’t do that well the last two weeks.”

When it comes to this week, though, he knows he hasn’t been perfectly on-point but certainly much better than the last few months.

“I’ve put myself, probably, in a couple of bad spots the last couple of days but I’ve been fortunate enough that I’ve hit really good shots and made a putt. I’m very aware of everything I’ve done on the golf course and I just feel very comfortable right now in what we’re doing on the golf course. I’m not really worried about score, I’m not really worried about the result of the golf shot. I’m just really worried about the process that Fooch and I are trying to do.”

He said he’s not going to be either protective or overly aggressive when it comes to his approach on Sunday.

“I’m going to play the way I have the past few days. We’re going to hit the golf shots that are required and if we do that then I know that’s going to give me the best chance to be victorious come tomorrow.”

He said 13 years of experience on the Tour should be enough to give him the knowledge on how to approach a championship Sunday.

“I think I should have a pretty clear understanding of what I need to do and the feelings and emotions I’m going to have tomorrow.”

As of this writing, the official pairings have yet to be announced for the final round but it’s likely that he will play with either Aaron Wise or Cameron Smith, both of whom are tied-for second at eight-under.