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THE NORTHERN TRUST

August 25, 2018

Billy Horschel

Paramus, New Jersey

Q. What time do you get to the range in the morning?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't know. Go look at the commercial.

Q. Can you talk about what went right today?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I felt like I hit the ball better today. I felt like the last two days, the ball-striking hasn't been really good, especially the short irons, and I gave myself opportunities. So I knew coming out today, the course was probably going to play, I thought a touch tougher because the greens were going to be a little firmer.

But you know, I just grinded out the front side. Hit some good shots and get rewarded, and then started missing some greens and struggling with the speed of the greens and where the pin locations were.

What really got the round kick-started was holing the bunker shot on 10 for birdie and from there I knew coming in, there was going to be a lot of opportunities to make birdies, and I did a really good job of that.

Q. How much do you scoreboard-watch on a Saturday and that people were scoring?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I saw somewhere on the front side that there were some low scores out there. Probably around 6, 7, I sort of looked to see, you know, just see what was going on up there, and I saw hot rounds for today, I saw there was quite a few low rounds and I saw a few guys had moved up above me.

So I knew I needed to get after it, but I knew the front side, you try to be too aggressive, you put yourself behind the 8-ball. So if I just stayed patient, I knew the back side lent itself to some more birdies and I did a really good job of that.

Q. You've gotten hot in the Playoffs before. Where does making it to THE TOUR Championship rank in your list of accomplishments for the season?
BILLY HORSCHEL: It's huge. Right now, unfortunately the way I've played all of 2017 and for the first half of this year of 2018, I mean, my World Ranking is way down, so I'm not in any of the majors next year.

So if I can get to THE TOUR Championship, means I'm going to be in all the majors. It boosts my World Ranking where it needs to be. I want to get back to where my game, where I feel like I should be. Right now, being somewhere 90th or whatever I am in the world, I have no clue. I don't feel that does me justice for how good of a player I am.

Q. When did it flip? You said the first half of 2018. When did it flip?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Probably, obviously I missed the cut in the Masters and I played well at Hilton Head, Valero and won at Zurich. Right around there I started working with Brett McCabe at calm that, it was sort of a mental thing. I had been in a mental rut for a year and a half and working our way out of it, and then just hitting the ball a little bit better. The ball-striking had been pretty bad for 2018 and 2017, so the stuff that Todd and I had been working on was starting to finally come together.

You know, just a lot of hard work that had been put in for the year and a half is finally starting to show itself.

Q. Why the mental rut? Was it off-the-course stuff?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, it's nothing -- my life off the golf course is the greatest it's ever been. My wife is doing unbelievable. Kids are great. I have no issues off the golf course.

They were just expectations I put on myself and at the same time some golf shots I hit over the last year and a half, I had not hit my entire life. When you hit foul balls and you hit in places you're not accustomed to, you lose a little bit of confidence in hitting the shots you want.

Hitting the good shots, seeing the stuff I had done my entire career and getting that mentality of I've always been out there, try to attack and go out and try to shoot a score and don't try to play protective, which I've done a little too much.

Q. Given your history in the Playoffs and that they redid the system for Ryder Cup because of what you did, is that in the back of your mind at all?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I mean, a little bit. I'm not thinking about it a lot. Whatever Jim does, Jim does. I feel like there's only two spots left. I feel like Tiger and Phil are going to be picked.

I think there's several guys I would pick right now. To be honest with you, I think Tony Finau deserves to be on the team, and I think you could make a case for Kevin Kisner to be on the team. I think those are two guys that, you know, I think if it were to end now, those are the two picks I would pick.

I think I have to do something special like I did in 2014, and whether I'm able to do that, we'll see what happens. And as I said in 2014 and I'll say now, I had an opportunity to make the team. I knew when the deadline was, and obviously I didn't play well enough to make the team, and I was nowhere close to making the team.

Obviously I left it up to Jim to pick who he feels is going to round out the team.

Q. How important to have Mark here this week?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Mark's a great friend of mine. He's been awesome. Obviously when he came on my team in 2014, I won the FedExCup. He does a lot of good stuff.

You know, he's a good friend. He's great. I mean, what can I say? He keeps me relaxed and gives us good information, and we get to give him a good ribbing every time we see him. That's what we love about him.

Q. You won the last two events in 2014 in the Playoffs, and for a guy that has done that, would you rather see it go to three next year? Do you like the fact that they have made that change?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I understand why we went to three, and I had no problem with going with three. I think the entire Playoffs are going to change next year. You're not going to see the same ending to the TOUR Championship that you've seen over the last decade.

So if we kept it the same way -- I felt like the points needed to be adjusted for three events instead of four, go back to five times the points instead of four times the points.

Obviously there's a brand new way THE TOUR Championship is going to end, and so it's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. So obviously there's less opportunity, but I think what it does, though, it allows guys that -- it makes it more favorable for guys that played well throughout the entire year than someone who, myself, came in at 69 in THE NORTHERN TRUST at 2014 and missed the cut and get on a hot run.

It's not going to lend itself to that anymore, unfortunately but it's going to favor the guys and it's going to allow the guys that play year-round and higher up on the FedExCup, give them a better opportunity to win the FedExCup.

Q. Based on how the golf course changed this week, what do you think you'll need to do in terms of score? Do you think 62 is going to be out there tomorrow based on the way the course is changing?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I think the greens are still pretty receptive. There's still cloud cover, so to see them firm up anymore, you could see it a little bit but it's not going to get where you're going to get a five-yard-bounce type deal. The greens are still pretty receptive.

Depending how the other guys go out, I'm going to have to try to get to 15, 16. Probably going to have to shoot another 5- , 6-under par round tomorrow to have a chance to win. Mark will give me the winning score, always does.

Q. What was the over/under this week?
BILLY HORSCHEL: 11. And I rolled Rex to take the under. Throwing myself under the bus.

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