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WGC CADILLAC MATCH PLAYApril 30, 2015Billy HorschelSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA CANDACE REINHEIMER: We have Billy Horschel in the interview room. Billy finished 3 and 2 over Jason Dufner. Start with your round today and tell us how it went, and going tomorrow with Rory McIlroy. BILLY HORSCHEL: I started out well. Obviously getting an early lead on Dufner is an advantage, doesn't matter what match you're playing. Playing someone of that caliber, you want to make sure you get up early if you can. And I took my advantages. I played pretty solid, except for the one 7 where I just made a mess of that hole. I played really good today. Didn't hit it nearly as good as I did yesterday but I was smart, didn't get too aggressive out there. And made some putts when I needed to. But unfortunately the putt I missed on No. 12 I would like to have made that to go 3‑up with six to play. But overall it was a good day and I can't complain at all. Looking forward to playing McIlroy tomorrow, the No.1 player in the world, and see what happens. Obviously we have a track record against each other. And seems like when we play against each other, we play our best. So I would expect a very well‑played match tomorrow. Q. If it comes down to the two of you 2‑0, is it better for you, because no other match matters, it's just that? BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't think any other match matters. I beat Snedeker already. Q. Is that the way you like it? BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't know how this all new format works, Wacker was trying to describe it to me yesterday, and I'm just trying to win every match. We'll see how it works out. Obviously I know if I win tomorrow I move on. Q. You've got some pretty good chops in match play history, what is it about the format you like? BILLY HORSCHEL: I think this format just‑‑ it lends itself to me being aggressive but also putting the pressure back on my opponents. I'm a guy that hits a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. So there's really not a lot of pressure on me. The pressure is on my opponent to match me. Sometimes you get someone who plays better than you that day and other times the pressure is on them where they feel they have to do something special to beat you. So it's just that. I'm not worried about score out there. Sometimes when I play a regular tournament I'm so much focused on score I get taken out of what I need to do. In this I'm just trying to hit the best shot in this part of the fairway, this part of the green to put the pressure on my opponent and see if he can match me. Q. Billy, golf and tennis, particularly, always looking for rivalries because there's no team loyalty. And you're getting one of course with Rory. I just wondered, you win The TOUR Championship, all of a sudden here comes Jordan Spieth and everyone is talking about the new guy in golf. Does that bother you at all or, okay, just another guy and I just will go out and win and play my matches? BILLY HORSCHEL: Does it look like it bothers me? No. Q. The attention, you know what I mean? BILLY HORSCHEL: No. You know what? I learned a long time ago not to read articles. It's not my thing. It does me no good. Too much information is never a good thing for me. And it gets me thinking and sometimes it gets me to putting more pressure on myself. And I already have a high standard for myself. What Jordan did is unbelievable. 21 years old, win the Masters, I would never have thought of that when I was 21. If they want to say‑‑ obviously right now Rory and Jordan Spieth are the 1 and 2 player in the world. Sure they have the top two guys and maybe a rivalry. But there's too many young players in this game and there's too many great players in this game to say that these guys go head‑to‑head. We play so many tournaments a year, and the top players don't always play the same events, so it's tough to really get a true rivalry in my opinion. I feel like each week is a little different depending who is playing each week. It could be me and Jordan one week, the next week Patrick and Rory, and the next two weeks me and Rory. I think the game of golf is so tough because we all play different schedules. Sure, there are some events we play similar, but we all play the schedule we want to play. Q. This is a follow to Brian's question.  If you had one round where your life depended on you winning, would you rather it be stroke or match play? BILLY HORSCHEL: Match play. I'll take match play every day. I love match play. It's something that I never played a lot of growing up. And I learned how to play match play. Obviously we played Nassau and everything, played for some money, you learned that. But I got a better education when I was at University of Florida under Buddy Alexander, who has a tremendous match play record, won the U.S. Amateur and playing Walker Cups. So he's taught me some of the little nuances of the match play and how to put more pressure on your opponent. Q. How much of it is just your personality? Ian was talking the other day about how it requires a grit and a toughness and a resilience and maybe even an edge? BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I think you've got to be cocky. You've got to be confident. Sometimes you're not going to be the favorite in that match. But you've got to have so much confidence to the point it's bordering on being cocky and arrogant when you go up against certain players. And I'm not afraid to show some of that. Obviously I'm not nearly as outward emotional as I have been when I was younger. But inwardly I feel I can beat anyone, heads up. You never know what can happen in 18 holes. At the same time you've got to be a grinder, you've got to be like a Jim Furyk, someone who just never gives a hole away, in every shot, and not out of the hole or just conceding the hole. You want to be in every hole because I think that also if you're in every hole you could possibly wear down an opponent who is lesser in that area than you are. Q. I know Brian probably did a correct job of explaining this all to you. But when you looked at the group that you were in, did you have an idea if the first two days played out like they seem to have played out, that it's going to come down to Rory and you, was there any kind of motivation? BILLY HORSCHEL: I didn't know until Brian told me yesterday after I finished my round. I looked at the group and I saw that‑‑ it's a tough group. And I saw that. And I knew only one guy advanced. So many different scenarios that I didn't realize it until I literally got to the course yesterday and we were in the fitness warming up and Zach Johnson and then Brian tried to put his influence on it a little bit more. But, you know, it's a new system. I think it's a system that a lot of people like so far. It's better than the one and done system. It gives you a chance. I didn't know that it was going to come down to me and Rory until Brian told me yesterday that we both won our match, that our match would be a big match on Friday, no matter what. Q. When Rory was in here a couple of days ago, he said when he saw your name in his group he chuckled to himself. And that he reflected a little bit on the Walker Cup matches that you guys played. What are your recollections of everything that happened during that event? BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't remember anything (laughter). No, obviously he was 18, I was 20. Like I said, back then I was a very confident, could be called a cocky person, a very emotional person about things, especially in that match, where you're representing your country and you're playing for not only yourself but you're playing for your teammates, that just gets me going even more. It's one thing playing for yourself, but when you're playing for yourself and your country, you don't want to let them down. So obviously I get a little more amped up. And there were certain situations over there that my enthusiasm probably‑‑ I don't want to say got out of hand, he may say got out of hand. It's water under the bridge. I said going over there I was probably the most emotional guy on the team. And I was going to be like Sergio. A lot of people didn't like Sergio on the United States side with the way he acted and did things. I didn't feel there was anything wrong with what he did. But I felt like I'm going to be the emotional leader of this team and set the tone. That's what I tried to do. There was stuff said that wasn't a big deal to me. Obviously we're 18, 21 years old, very young, very young adults, a little bit immature on both sides, I think we can both admit that. It's water under the bridge, I never took anything hard from it. We were still talking a couple of years later when I got back out on Tour, when I got out on Tour. There's no hard‑‑ there's nothing between us, no tension at all. Q. Said he kind of mocked you the next day, that he kind of went overboard with his emotions. Did that kind of break the ice? BILLY HORSCHEL: You know, if he went overboard, I didn't think it was anything over the top. Maybe he did. But like I said, I mean I'm an emotional guy. So you've got to do something even more than what I can do for me to stand out in my mind. So obviously, like I talked to Brian yesterday, I beat him in the singles Saturday afternoon, Rickie and I had beaten him in the foursomes that morning. So we had lost to somebody‑‑ he had lost to somebody twice. I'm sure he didn't want to lose to a guy the third time. So he was going to come out and change it up a little bit. And I know he made a big putt on No.1 and gave it a big fist pump, I think he yelled or something. Didn't bother me at all. It wasn't anything affecting me at all. Q. (Inaudible.) BILLY HORSCHEL: Me and Rory have a great relationship now. There's nothing‑‑ no tension between us at all. As I said, a lot of people want to look at the Walker Cup and say, you know, there's going to be something going on tomorrow. But, you know, there's something that's more recent, The TOUR Championship, FedExCup. If he wins The TOUR Championship and wins the FedExCup that's probably one of the top five greatest seasons of all time. And I was the roadblock. I stopped him from that. If anything, he's going to come out with a little bit more, not that he needs it, but a little more fuel to maybe redeem himself from that, I don't know. But listen, it's going to be a great match. We're great friends. There's going to be plenty of talking between us, I'm sure. But it's going to be an intense match and we're both going to want to play the best we can. Q. Back then did you call what his game was like? Was it obvious how good he was? I'm pretty sure that year he was the low amateur at the Open. Was he well known to you before you ever met him or played against him? Did you know much about him? Could you tell he was going to be pretty good? BILLY HORSCHEL: You know, honestly I've never heard of him until he was low at the Open. He never came over to the States and played amateur events that we did. He played a lot of stuff over there. But when we went over there we knew he was the best player on the team. And I was fortunate enough to play him in three matches. And as I've said to a lot of people, I knew he was a good player. I knew he was going to be something special. But did I see him winning, you know, several majors by double digit shots and doing what he's done in tournaments and becoming this ultra talented mega star that we have in the game of golf? No. You can't predict that. But I knew he was something special. And obviously he worked his butt off to get to the level he is now. Q. Especially because you're representing your country, would you have liked to have seen match play in the Olympics instead of stroke? BILLY HORSCHEL: You know, I don't know, because it's so tough to figure out how to do match play. Because one country can have four guys and another country only have two. At the same time I'm happy that golf is in the Olympics. I'm sort of on the fence whether there should be amateurs in the Olympics and not professionals. I understand that as a professional if you win the Olympics, or you win the golf in the Olympics and get a gold medal, that's mega dollars coming your way, because now it's being broadcast worldwide. But at the same time with the way our schedule is and trying to fit that in with our schedule, it just is a lot. I think I would rather have seen possibly amateur golf, amateurs play in the Olympics than possibly professionals. But I'm on the fence, I go back and forth both times. Q. Would there have been a part of you at all that would be disappointed if it didn't come down to you and Rory tomorrow to see who advances out of that group? BILLY HORSCHEL: No. I haven't thought that far ahead until Brian told me last night that our match was the deciding match. I knew that Rory and I played Friday and we were the third of the pool matches. But like I said, I didn't know how anything could break down. How any of the wins and losses and ties and everything else, I didn't know how any of that went down until Brian described it to me yesterday. And would I have been disappointed? No. You're playing against the No.1 player in the world. Whether it was Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, you want to match up against them and see where your game stands against them. I would have been just as excited on Wednesday as I am going to be excited tomorrow. CANDACE REINHEIMER: Thank you, Billy. Good luck tomorrow. BILLY HORSCHEL: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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