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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2015

Billy Horschel

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. I could see you from six fairways away out there.
BILLY HORSCHEL: That was my plan. I was a little sleepy when I woke up and I wanted to wear something that would brighten my day, so I put on some bright yellow pants to go with it.

Q. You didn't even need to turn on the light this morning.
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, I didn't.

Q. Did anyone sing the Michigan fight song to you today?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No. (Laughter.) Yeah, good day today, 4-under par. Obviously it's probably the best round first opening round I've had this whole year, and I needed it. I feel like my game's been in pretty good shape the last couple weeks, and I felt like I was going to play well going into today. I had some really good practice sessions the last two days, and I just needed to stay out of my own way, and I felt like if I did that today then it was going to be a good one out there.

Q. Do you log a lot of rounds here now that you're a quasi local?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't play here ever.

Q. Ever? Practice here, anything?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I practice here. But that's sort of dwindling down. I'm sort of practicing at my club, The Plantation, a little bit more. More or less I'm going up to Sea Island to Frederica. It obviously is an hour and 15 commute, so but there's a lot of guys that practice out here now, and it sort of gets congested, so it's easier for me to go up to Frederica and spend four hours there and drive back. I don't play here much. Maybe I can count five times since last year's PLAYERS that I played here. The course is -- isn't the same as this week, and we have to tee off early, so when you come off the road of after being on the road for three or four weeks you really don't want to wake up early to go off first, so I don't play here very much.

Q. The bad news was you didn't finish the deal against Rory; the good news was, like you said, you played so well last week and you got a few extra days' rest.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I should have finished -- I mean I can say I should have finished it off, I made him do something special to beat me. Unfortunately, I look back it, I probably should have hit a different iron going into No. 18. The chip should have been a different played shot. I wouldn't say it's a good thing that I got some extra days' rest. I would rather kept playing and win the event like he did. But, hey, I'm happy now. It's a new week, I'm focusing on this week, and if I can keep playing the way I did today, very smart, and making some putts, I feel like we'll see what happens on Sunday.

Q. It seems that you are able to remember so many shots, some of which aren't always your best. How do you do that? How do you recall those your memories of particularly this course and how does that help you when you're out on a round, especially like today when you were 4-under like you said?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I just have somewhat of a freakishly good memory. I can probably remember every shot I hit the last year at every tournament. I can remember holes that I've only played the course once and tell you a lot about it. I just unfortunately -- I mean, it's not unfortunately, it's a good thing and a bad thing to remember good stuff, and sometimes you remember the bad things. But I have a really, really good memory and it helps sometimes, and sometimes it's not a good thing to remember some shots.

Q. How did it help you today?
BILLY HORSCHEL: It actually didn't help me today. I misread a couple putts out there that I should have known, but I knew the way the course played in this wind. I played it -- I said haven't played it a lot in the last year, but when I first moved here I played the course a lot, so I've played it enough in this north wind. I know what to expect in these conditions, and you just know where to miss and where not to miss around these greens, especially to certain pins.

Q. Did it add salt to the wound to see Rory go on that run over the weekend?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, I mean if you guys would have heard what I said to him after he beat me, I said, I said, go on and win this. Make sure, make it, make me feel better that beating me was something good. And I -- unfortunately, even the year before I had Jason Day three or four down after nine or ten holes, and he wound up beating me and went on to win the Match Play, and we went into extra holes. We went into -- played six extra holes I think maybe, and with Rory this year I made him do something special. We went into extra holes again. So I lost -- the last two years I lost to the champion of the Match Play. I feel like if I would have got by that match, I think I should have been the one winning that tournament. But hey, you know what, there's -- I'm happy. It's not -- I'm not sad at all. I'm happy that he won. I want to make sure that him beating me came something good out of it.

Q. You birdied 16 today. How crucial is it to get that birdie going into that stretch, knowing what 17 and 18 hold and just where that kind of ranks for you when you go through that stretch.
BILLY HORSCHEL: 16's an easy hole today, playing straight downwind. I hit driver, 7-iron. So you really don't want to walk off with a par there because you know you lost probably at least three quarters of a shot to the field by not making birdie. I don't think you can never -- you can never have enough shots extra shots in your pocket when you go to 17 and 18, especially playing into the wind today. So, it was just two tough holes; 17 not too bad because it's playing short, but you can catch a gust or the wind can die down and it could just be a little bit of a challenge. But I guess making a birdie makes you feel like you don't have to get anything back.

Q. I know you don't play a lot here, but is this a place you feel comfortable on? A lot of players talk about not feeling comfortable here and the course can make you uncomfortable. Do you feel comfortable here?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I feel comfortable with the tee shots and the shots into greens. I think that's where I can get the comfort factor out of it. But when you are chipping and putting, these greens are probably a good four to five feet slower and softer. So, it makes it a lot easier when you miss greens. But I think the comfort factor is, I played a lot when I moved over here, so I'm comfortable with hitting the tee shots, what they call for, and hitting iron shots into the greens, and I've seen this golf course in every type of wind, from no wind to the hardest wind coming from every direction.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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