Billy Horschel was extremely happy with his return to form at the Bank of Utah Championship, but he was unable to keep up with the pace set by Michael Brennan at the Black Desert Resort.
Brennan won the Bank of Utah Championship in his first ever PGA Tour start – a truly incredible achievement which has happened only one time before in the history of the game when Jim Benepe triumphed at the Western Open in 1988.
Meanwhile, Horschel had to make do with a tie for 11th after firing his third consecutive 66 – still a fine effort considering the fact that he’s only been back playing for six weeks after recovering from hip surgery.
The 38-year-old returned to action on the DP World Tour at the BMW PGA Championship in mid-September.
However, Horschel only made his PGA Tour return two weeks ago at the Baycurrent Classic, where he ended the week in a tie for 54th.
So his solid performance in Utah last week would have been a big confidence boost for him.
After his final round in the Utah desert, Horschel took time to praise Brennan after his stunning victory, as he made a prediction about what the future may look like for the PGA Tour.
Billy Horschel makes PGA Tour prediction after Michael Brennan’s win
Horschel, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, knows what it takes to succeed at the very highest level of the game.
However, his chances of winning regularly over the next 5-10 years are seemingly decreasing all the time, due to the sheer volume of ultra-talented young players emerging on the scene.
Michael Brennan is clearly one of those. The 23-year-old proved in Utah on Sunday that he not only has the technical ability to win PGA Tour tournaments, but he has the mental strength required as well.
And after Horschel’s final round, he took to his official X account in reaction to his week’s work in Utah.
He said: “Great week here at the Bank of America Championship. Really cool and unique course here at Black Desert Utah. After being 4 over thru 11 holes and 3 over thru 22 holes, not a bad week after all of that. Nice to see my game starting to show life. Still work to do but we are getting closer.
Horschel then praised Brennan for his win, while making a prediction about what lies in store for the PGA Tour moving forward.
The 38-year-old said: “Congrats to Michael Brennan on his victory. Impressive what these young kids are doing in professional golf. Professional golf has been getting younger for a while now and that’s not changing anytime soon.“
New PGA Tour trend developing
Horschel is absolutely correct with his take on what the future holds for the PGA Tour.
These young players coming out on the PGA Tour are fearless now, and that never used to be the case.
In previous decades, there was definitely a case of the rookies coming onto the Tour being intimidated by the big names.
It used to be a case of players requiring one or two seasons to settle in before they felt comfortable enough to challenge for titles and, indeed, win.
These young players are just so good now, though. Guys like Jackson Koivun, Luke Clanton and Aldrich Potgieter have proven that they’re fearless.
Now Michael Brennan has added his name to the list of talented young players to have announced themselves on the world stage.
The key for Brennan will be to maintain some real consistency over the next few years. We’ve seen the pitfalls of winning tournaments at a young age.
Just look what has happened to Tom Kim over the past 12 months or so.
After winning the Bank of Utah Championship, the future looks to be very bright for Brennan. Now the challenge will be for him to remain at the top of his game for as long as he can.
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