While Rory McIlroy has won twice on the PGA Tour already this season, it is probably fair to say that the Northern Irishman is yet to reach top gear with his game.
Rory McIlroy has been the standard-setter on the PGA Tour in 2025. He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship – ensuring that he had two wins stateside before April for the first time in his career.
But that only tells part of the story. McIlroy threw away a three-shot lead on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass to end up in a playoff with J.J. Spaun – after Spaun had left a birdie putt on the 72nd hole agonisingly short.
However, McIlroy found another level in the playoff. While Spaun struggled with the stage, the four-time major champion looked assured, with his impressive tee shot on 17 all but securing the title.
And it seems that Billy Horschel took plenty of confidence from McIlroy’s performance.
The comment Rory McIlroy made at the Players Championship which helped Billy Horschel
It has been a tough start to the year for Horschel. He has missed four cuts, while his most recent top 20 before the Valspar Championship came at Pebble Beach. In fact, that was his only top 20 of the year.
Horschel admitted on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast that he was in something of a mental slump with his game in recent times. However, a comment McIlroy made following his win at the Players Championship proved to be extremely helpful.
“My game this year, it hasn’t been great. It hasn’t been bad. It’s just sort of been blah. The driver wasn’t good at the beginning, the driver and putter – which are two of my strengths – haven’t been good, and sort of figured that out coming back to the east coast. But mentally, I’ve just been sort of in a blah state mentally, I’ve been playing golf where I want to hit good golf shots, but I also don’t want to hit bad golf shots. I haven’t been truly committed,” he said.
“It was funny listening to Rory’s interview after the Players Championship, talking about walking to 17 in the playoff and he saw himself hitting it in the water, and he’s like, ‘I had to get back and I had to do a really good job of self positive talk and seeing the quality golf shot I want to hit’. And it’s funny, obviously, I had my coaches and I had my sports psychologist and we’ve talked about this, but it’s funny how just hearing other guys’ talk and the way, hearing that quote from Rory, sort of just say, ‘hey, I need to do a better job’. I know we all are in the same boat, we all think the same way, sometimes we think other guys are superhuman and don’t have these bad thoughts, but they do. And it sort of just reset me, I need to go out there and commit to every shot because that’s what’s holding me back.”
How Billy Horschel reacted to his impressive finish at the Valspar Championship
The results speak for themselves when it comes to Horschel. He responded by finishing in a tie for fourth at the Valspar Championship this past week, having been one of the numerous players who had a chance of winning over the final day.
Of course, few will ever forget the incredible left-handed shot Horschel hit to set up a birdie on the front nine. But it seems that the 37-year-old was a lot happier with how he conducted himself over the week at Innisbrook.
“Good week. Listen, came into this week, game sort of been – haven’t done anything special. I haven’t played great, I haven’t played bad, it’s just sort of been treading water. I sort of felt closer to playing good golf than bad golf, but mentally I had to do a better job of committing to shots and focusing in on what I want to do and not worry about of a bad shot happens,” he said after his final round.
“Technically, a couple things that Todd Anderson and I have been working on we’re a little bit closer to. Needed some momentum to go into the Masters, needed to see some quality shots, and I saw that this week. And, yeah, a little disappointed today. I feel like last couple days could have been a little bit lower, just burned a lot of edges, but overall it’s solid week of work.”
Horschel had an outstanding year in 2024 as he won on both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, so perhaps it is no surprise that he has taken just a little longer to get things going at the start of 2025.
Hopefully, he now feels ready to turn a corner.
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