The Open Championship will be missing one of golf’s great personalities in Billy Horschel when it gets underway this week but the American has seemingly picked his preferred winner from afar.
Horschel is recovering from injury at the moment and will miss the event in Royal Portrush.
The popular American was firmly in contention to win at Royal Troon last year before Xander Schauffele eventually produced the goods to win out and capture his second major of the year.
However, Horschel was not too far away from success and in terms of those players many fans would love to win a major, Horschel is right up there.
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Another name, though, who fans – especially in Europe – want to see do well is Ryder Cup star, Justin Rose.
Rose was playing alongside Horschel in 2024 as they both narrowly missed out to Schauffele but ahead of The Open getting underway this week, Rose has now received the backing of his playing partner.
Billy Horschel backs Justin Rose to win The Open at Royal Portrush
Anyone who has a bad word to say about Billy Horschel must either have a serious agenda or just not understand the game.
He’s as popular as they come, and Horschel often speaks of his fondness of players like Rory McIlroy.
However, while Horschel might be a fan of McIlroy, this year, he’s thrown his weight behind Justin Rose by sending the Englishman a heartfelt message on Instagram.
“Hey Rosey it’s Billy, I know we’ve discussed this before but once again, I want to reiterate how lucky I was to be paired with you and Fooch on the Saturday at Royal Troon during The Open. You two guys are two great friends of mine, we battled it out in some tough conditions and we were pulling for each other, fist pumping each other. It would have been a different day if I wasn’t paired with you guys,” Horschel said.
“So I want to say how enjoyable it was but I want to wish you good luck at Royal Portrush for The Open. I’m disappointed to not be there but I know you’re going to hold it down for the old guys…my bad…the veterans. Hopefully you get another major, I do believe you get another and I know how much the Open means to you. I’ll be watching from my couch pulling for you and I hope you win it. All the best buddy.”
Billy Horschel deserves to win a major before he retires
There’s still plenty of miles left in the tank for Billy Horschel but he is on the wrong side of 30 now and that suggests that time starts to run out in terms of landing a major.
While his good pal Justin Rose has got that one US Open triumph, Horschel is in danger of becoming a bit of a nearly man.
He has won big tournaments like the BMW Championship and FedEx Cup but in majors, he falls short.
His record at The Open before finishing T2 last year was pretty dismal and his best performance in the other majors are a T4 way back at the US Open in 2013 and a T8 at last year’s PGA.
Nevertheless, Horschel is a player who so many would love to see get at least one major before his time on TOUR finishes.
He’s got the game on his day, he just needs to execute on the big occasion and get over the line.
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