THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2025

Billy Horschel

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Would you like more wind on Saturday or Sunday?

BILLY HORSCHEL: The wind we're expecting to project the next two days is going to be one helluva challenge, and yeah, you always want it to be tough, but when you start getting wind conditions like that, quality golf shots don't always turn out well. It's one of those days of acceptance and understanding that you're going to hit some good shots that turn out well and some bad shots that turn out in some really bad spots.

Q. Did you play any differently yesterday than today as far as hitting the ball?

BILLY HORSCHEL: I felt better. I did a better job of committing to what I want to do. I felt like I actually may have played a little bit better. Shots didn't turn out as much, as good as I thought they would, and a couple times I was handcuffed in between some numbers.

The greens were really receptive. I've never seen 7-, 8-irons spin back 15, 20 feet the way they were early in the round, which made it sort of a little bit of a challenge. Yeah, I felt good with today. Wish I could have got a couple more, but I'm happy with the solid round of golf.

Q. What's the worst conditions or hardest conditions you've faced playing in this event?

BILLY HORSCHEL: 2023. I played, so I teed off, I don't know if we teed -- round one I played like one hole maybe, maybe two holes, and then we came back out the next day and I think we got to 16, something like that. All I know is I remember we stopped on 16 and we knew the next day the weather was going to be bad the entire day.

That's when the first 12 guys that played 17, 11 of them hit them in the water, and I hit 7-iron, and then I hit driver, 3-wood into 18, which I've never done in my life. So we played 21 holes in that conditions.

I actually played really well. I think I shot like 3-under that second round. Easily could have been 5, 6, 7. I just didn't make anything. If you go back, I think I hit 16 out of 18 greens. Quality round of golf. Tomorrow, if it's anything similar to what we played in 2023, it's going to be very, very tough.

Q. I wasn't able to look at wind direction. What direction is it coming from, and 18 is into the wind on --

BILLY HORSCHEL: So it would have been a northwest wind when it's that way. So I think tomorrow actually is supposed to be out of the south, southeast, which by and large, the south wind is always makes this golf course play easier. But we'll sort of see what the weather has in store.

Q. When you look at your round yesterday of a whole lot of birdies and a bunch of mistakes, bogeys, compared with today, which is a better recipe for around this place if you're looking for someone who is going to do well? I mean, you know what I'm saying? A lot of birdies and you got to account for the rare double or just someone who is playing boring golf?

BILLY HORSCHEL: For me, even though I made a lot of birdies, I'll take today's round of golf. Because the way I felt out there, the way mentally I played, I committed to a lot more golf shots than I did yesterday. Even though I made nine birdies, I made several -- I made nine birdies yesterday; yeah, it's not bad. But I put four bogeys in there which were some bad, just really uncommitted golf shots.

Yeah, I liked today's round better. I would have loved to have made a couple more birdies. I felt like, like I said, I just didn't get everything out of it I thought I could have or should have, but today I felt I can build off today. Not that I can't build off yesterday. It's easier to take more confidence from today in the sense of the way I swung and the way I committed to more golf shots.

Q. Was your lack of birdies a lack of opportunity or just putts didn't go in?

BILLY HORSCHEL: Just not hitting great iron shots. Just sort of in between some numbers. Trying to judge some of the spins on the greens. Spinning 8-irons back 20 feet just was insane. Harris English spun a 9-iron back 30 feet on No. 15, and it sort of played with my mind a little bit where I was trying to land it. Yeah, just maybe just some of the numbers weren't ideal to be, to take full advantage of everything.

Q. The putting experimenting on Monday, how are you feeling about your putting then and how do you feel now?

BILLY HORSCHEL: I feel better. I think I tried 10 different putters on Monday on SAM, and every one of them actually did fairly well. But the one I'm using now is the one I've used at the end of 2023 and a little bit of 2024 last year. I feel better. Outside 10, 15 feet I feel really good. Inside 10 feet it's gotten a little bit better. It's just how fast the ball comes off.

The putter I had before was a very soft insert, so I could feel like I could hit it. This one, the stroke, if I give it a little hit, it really jumps off the face. So just got to sort of change up the stroke a little bit and be cognizant of it.