Had Jim Furyk been able to wait until after the BMW PGA Championship to make his captain’s picks for the Presidents Cup, it is hard to imagine that Billy Horschel would have missed out on making the team for Royal Montreal.
Billy Horschel was perhaps at the centre of one of the more contentious decisions Jim Furyk made ahead of the Presidents Cup, with the 37-year-old missing out on making the team despite an impressive end to the season on the PGA Tour.
Furyk opted to pick the next six names in the qualification standings, which meant that the likes of Max Homa and Brian Harman made the side – neither of whom had been in particularly good form in recent months.
Horschel suggested that he did not expect a pick after sustaining a back injury during the FedEx Cup play-offs. But it really does appear that Furyk has made a big error not picking Horschel for his second Presidents Cup appearance.
Billy Horschel shares whether Presidents Cup snub inspired his BMW PGA Championship win
Certainly, the 2014 FedEx Cup champion sent a message to the USA captain by winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth this week, with Horschel edging Rory McIlroy and Thriston Lawrence in a play-off.
Some may have wondered whether missing out on a Presidents Cup spot has motivated Horschel, but he insisted after winning on Sunday that there are no hard feelings over the snub.
“Listen, I would love to be on that Presidents Cup team. Jim Furyk is a really good friend of mine. Him and Tabitha are great friends of my wife and I. We think the world of them, and we look up to them at what they have done in the northeast Florida community with charities and everything, and we have sort of copied them and supported our northeast Florida area. Jim has been a great mentor, and I can ask him questions throughout the years, especially early in my career. And I would have loved to have been part of that Presidents Cup team,” he said.
“But honestly, I didn’t think I was going to get a pick. You know, there’s people around me who felt like I probably should have been on this team. But I didn’t think I was going to get a pick for some reason.
“Yeah, there was no motivation or added motivation to not being picked on that team. So you know, I’ve just got to do a better job of playing well on a more consistent basis, so I don’t have to worry about picks going forward.”
Pressure is now on Jim Furyk’s captain’s picks
Obviously, no player who finishes outside the automatic qualification spots can have any complaints about a captain’s decision, and Horschel was not even in the top 12. But it has been apparent for a little while that he is hitting form at the perfect time.
And when you consider the course he has just won on, it is hard not to think that he would have been perfect for Royal Montreal, with the Canadian track certainly testing accuracy. It also felt significant that he made impressive putts to make the play-off, stay in the play-off and then win the play-off.
The USA team should still have more than enough to win if their big names turn up. But should they suffer a surprise loss in Canada, plenty will feel that not picking Horschel was a costly mistake from the captain.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
