At first glance there would appear to be nothing that a handicap golfer could learn from the career-best major championship performance of Billy Horschel in last week’s Open at Royal Troon.
But dig deeper and there are lessons that transfer across all ranges of ability and competence.
Of course, the 37-year-old Horschel has long been something of a golfing enigma.
He is good enough to have won eight times on the PGA Tour. He’s proved himself in elite company when winning the 2014 Tour Championship and the 2021 World Golf Championship Dell Match Play. He’s even displayed the rare-for-an-American ability to embrace the rest of the world when winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2021.
And yet, having finished tied fourth in his first major as a professional in the 2013 US Open, at the start of this year he had not landed another top 10 in the majors in another 39 attempts.
This summer, however, he was tied eighth at the PGA Championship, he ended the second round of the US Open in the top 20 when T41, and he was the 54-hole leader of the Open before finishing in a share of second behind the champion Xander Schauffele.
And while results of that quality mean little to any handicap golfer, his feelings and how he has dealt with them do tally with some of our own failings.
Because, after 15 years as a professional, Horschel admitted last week that he has finally: “Learned how to handle my emotions and I’ve learned how to embrace a lot of things.”
Key among them is something we should all embrace: “I’m never afraid to fail.”
He was quick to explain this train of thought.
“In the majors I’ve had a different approach the last couple of years. The results have been better this year, but I think it started in 2022 by just understanding that I’m a perfectionist at heart.
“I want everything to be perfect and it’s weird because at regular events I know I don’t have to be perfect to win, but at majors I’ve always felt I’ve had to be perfect.
“In the back of my mind, I knew I didn’t, but I just couldn’t get that thought out of my head.”
Who among us hasn’t played about with his or her golf on the range or in a quick nine holes and produced good golf, then next day put the game face on, built pressure, and made a mess of a card that mattered?
Horschel has also learned acceptance.
“If it’s my time tomorrow, it’s my time and I’m going to be ecstatic,” he said ahead of the final round at Royal Troon. “If it’s not, then we’ll get on the horse again, and we’ll work hard to get back in that position again.
“I’m content that, if a major championship victory doesn’t happen in my career, I can be satisfied with what I’ve done in the game of golf, that I’ve given it everything I’ve had. I know that I can look myself in the mirror the next 10 to 15 years and say, ‘Hey, listen, I did everything I could to be the best player I could, and it just wasn’t in the cards for me to win a major.’”
For some of us that might be accepting that a 12-handicapper is what we are. In fact, accepting that reality might make you play better golf than forever chasing an unattainable six (and being miserable in the process).
Horschel also felt that a bit of pillow self-talk helped, too.
“Something I have done this year is to sort of manifest seeing myself holding the trophy before I go to sleep every night,” he said. “I envision myself holding that trophy on 18, walking out to the crowd and being congratulated as Open champion.
“That’s what I’m going to do again tonight, and hopefully that comes true tomorrow.”
It didn’t but he got a lot closer than he ever has in the past.
And if you’re not convinced by mind games, Horschel also promoted a very old fashioned message of hard work.
“I’ve just always embraced the toughness of anything,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed it. I think that’s the best way you can give yourself a chance to play well.”
Moreover, he explained that his third round playing partner, Justin Rose, has been an inspiration.
“I’ve looked up to Justin for many years now and I’ve told him that,” he said. “The way he goes about his business, the way he checks every box, I’ve emulated that a little bit in what I’ve done.”
Acceptance, abandoning the fear of failure, visualisation and the grind: it’s the Billy Horschel way and we can all learn from it.
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