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FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

February 5, 2015

Billy Horschel

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

Q. Even par 72 in the first round. Pretty tough grouping you had.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, it's always a pleasure to play with Ricky and Tiger. And unfortunately, Tiger just wasn't feeling good today. I think his back started acting up and I think it was caused because of sort of that second delay. We all warmed up, ready to go, then had to wait around for awhile, and it's unfortunate, because I consider him a friend I want to see him get back to his level of play that we all know he can, and I don't think he's that far off. I just, if he can just stay healthy and be able to work on it and I think that we would see the results. And it's unfortunate, like I said, it was tough to see him go, but he was in quite a bit of pain out there.

Q. Were you a little distracted by that?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, not at all. I was in my game. I got off to a bad start, made a one bad swing all day and it cost me a seven and I was in my game just trying to try to battle back and I did a pretty good job, could have done a little bit better, but that didn't distract me at all. Tiger's very graceful out there in the sense that he doesn't allow the circus that surround him to affect his playing competitors and I think Rickie and I played well with everything that was thrown at us today. Today was a tough day, got off to bad start, but I think it made it a little bit tougher to see someone that I looked up to for quite awhile and someone I consider a friend having an issue with his back spasms again. It's unfortunate, I just talked to him a little bit, he was all good to go when we were right about to tee off and then we had that delay again and it sort of just tightened up and unfortunately he just couldn't get it loosened back up. It's very unfortunate, I think he's doing a lot of good things in his game, I think he's not that far off, considering where everyone else is thinking, but from my eye I feel like he's really close to playing well it's just a matter of getting some reps and staying healthy so he can work on his game still.

Q. Did you notice early on, it looked like he was laboring a little bit.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I knew early on, I knew, man, I probably saw it -- if I didn't see it on 10, I saw it on 11. Then I asked him when I walked off 12 tee, I said, back hurting you again? He said, spasms. And it was unfortunate.

Q. Were you surprised he made that decision?
BILLY HORSCHEL: To withdraw? He toughed it out a lot more than anyone else, than any other playing competitor, they would have dropped off earlier, but he's a fighter, he wants to get the reps in, he wants to play well, and he kept trying to play through it, hoping that it would loosen up and I think it was getting there and then we had to wait again on number, when we made the turn and from there it just, it just, it was real tough to see him walk and even make swings.

Q. Did it affect your game at all? Knowing he was hurting a little bit?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, like I said, I said earlier to someone, Tiger's very graceful in the sense that he doesn't allow the circus that surrounds him to affect his playing competitors. He does a good job of making them feel comfortable in the group or at least Rickie and I when I've been paired with him. He doesn't allow that to affect what we're doing and what we're trying to do out there. It didn't bother me at all, it was just tough to see a guy that I look up to, a guy I consider a friend, still go through just being in pain out there.

Q. Was it strange in the middle of your round to see kind of everybody just leave as he left too? You joked about it just now.
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, me and Rickie we got on number 3 tee and we sort of joked, I said, we saw Tom Byrum leave and all the cameras and then we saw all these media people scamper away towards him and we said, how many people will stay with us and we said about 50 and that was about true. So we went from 600, 700 people watching us to 50, so we became chopped liver. We realized where we stand in this game of golf and we had a good joke about it.

Q. You have a bunch of family in town, right?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Well basically it was 50 people watching us. Rickie has probably got 45 of them that live in San Diego, I got five, just because I won the FedExCup and they still don't even know who I am.

Q. You said that you see gains in Tiger's game, but it was pretty scatter shot out there most of the day. So, where are you seeing the gain? Because it didn't look like it.
BILLY HORSCHEL: For what you guys see, and not to criticize you all, but I have a golfer's eye, what I do as my profession, I have a better eye than what you all do. I've seen what his swing has become and I think it's a lot better, but it's tough to sort of describe to people what they have to, you know, how spasms are when you take it back and you're coming down with spasms and you block it or you flip it or whatever, it's tough to see. He couldn't swing the way he wanted to, and like I said, I'm not criticizing you guys, but my eye's a lot better than most of y'all's, I would say it's better than all of y'all's, I'm being nice, but since what I, being a golfer and being a professional and I feel like I have a decent understanding of the swing and the way things should look and way things should work. And I saw it at his event on Saturday, he was deadly sick and he played really well, he hit it really well that Saturday at his event, so I knew he was not that far off. I still don't think he's that far off. I think it's just some more reps and some more time practicing and getting it to where he feels a little bit more comfortable. But I know what you guys think and what you guys say, but to me, and to what I see and what I think is completely opposite.

Q. What about with the short game?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Obviously, he hit that bad one at number 10. But then he chipped in at 11. He actually hit some really good chip shots, it just didn't turn out. When you're dealing with poa annua, you're going to have bounces where it either lands firm, soft, it's always tough to chip on poa annua greens, it's tough to judge your reaction of the chip shots, but I think it's getting there. It's just a little bit that we discussed it yesterday, just a feeling he's trying to have. I think he, the feel he has now is not the feel he wants, it's trying to get a different feel to it. But I think, like I said, he knows what he needs to do, just being able to work on it and improve himself in competition, just like any other golfer out here.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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