Billy Horschel and his daughter Skyler at the 2016 Masters Par 3 Contest.
Harry Howe/Getty Images
While Scottie Scheffler continued his dominance at the star-studded RBC Heritage last weekend, the Dominican Republic was hosting another official PGA Tour event, the 2024 Corales Puntacana Championship.
In the tour’s otherworldly competition, 37-year-old former FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel won his eighth PGA Tour title, ending a long winless streak.
While Horschel’s prize money (a modest $720,000 by tour standards) pales in comparison to Scheffler’s ($3.6 million), Horschel’s victory may have been more meaningful for several reasons.
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The result moves him up to 40th in the FedExCup rankings and likely qualifies him for his next signature event, the Wells Fargo Championship. Horschel will also climb further in the Official World Golf Rankings, giving him a better chance of qualifying for the final three majors in 2024.
After firing a final-round 63 to win by two strokes, Horschel expressed relief about what the accomplishment meant for his career.
“Hopefully I can play at Wells Fargo. It’s going to be a great tournament and hopefully my world ranking will put me closer to qualifying for the U.S. Open and the British Open, which I’m not yet qualified for,” Horschel said Sunday night. “But like I said, I’m still on my way. I’m nowhere near where I want to be and I’m not back, but this win is just satisfying and I’m just…I can’t find the words. Everybody has worked so hard and it’s good to finally see the results coming.”
But not only will the win bring relief to Horschel at work, he said it will also bring relief at home, especially with the “too honest” questions his children have asked him about his performance during a difficult year on Tour.
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“My kids and my wife were just unbelievably happy. I knew they were going to be over the moon watching it on TV. Last year was just unbelievable. Growing up, I never had to worry about my dad making cuts,” Horschel said. “The cut percentage was so high on an annual basis.”
He continued, “Last year they went from, ‘Dad, did you win? Are you going to win?’ to, ‘Dad, did you qualify?’ And now they’re always asking me, ‘Did you qualify?’ or ‘Are you qualifying?’ It feels like a cold, hard slap in the face.”
“You know, kids are super honest and they don’t have a filter yet, so it’s really humbling,” Horschel concluded. “And, yeah, I have an amazing support system at home and they’re just overjoyed for me.”
But Horschel can’t go home and celebrate in person with his kids just yet. For now, he’ll head straight to New Orleans for the 2024 Zurich Classic team event, where he’ll join forces with Tyson Alexander in pursuit of an even bigger first place prize than he won last week in the Dominican Republic: $1,286,050 for each winning team member.
