Billy Horschel could write his name in the history books with a strong showing at this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship – the fourth and final Rolex Series event of the season.
The BMW PGA Championship winner is looking become the first American player to lift the Race to Dubai trophy, but faces stiff competition from compatriot Collin Morikawa.
Horschel, who also won the WGC Match Play this year, sits just 236 points behind Morikawa in the season-long rankings, knowing a win this week would guarantee top spot. He could still finish as high as eighth and have a chance, provided Morikawa struggles and the four players below him don’t win.
“Growing up in the States, all I thought about was winning on the PGA TOUR, winning majors, being the Player of the Year on the PGA TOUR,” said Horschel who was crowned FedEx Cup champion in 2014.
“I did grow up watching a lot of European Tour coverage, but I never envisioned myself playing over here or having the success I’ve had. So to be in the spot I am now, I tried the last couple months to sit back and picture the whole thing, try and decompress and understand everything that is in front of me. And I think this point in my career, this is probably the best year I’ve had of my career. I know I won the FedEx Cup, but that year I didn’t play great until the very end, and this year I’ve been pretty consistent.
“But to win two big tournaments in WGC Match Play, BMW PGA Championship, those are two massive events to win, especially when you sit back on your career résumé and you say these are the events I won. And then to add possibly the Race to Dubai, be the first American to win the Order of Merit, obviously by far would be the best of my career. And I think that it’s just another step closer to my ultimate goal of being a Hall of Famer, to have a heck of a career that I can be inducted into the Hall of Fame at one point in my career. There’s a lot on the line this week, and we’ll see how it all plays out when it comes Sunday.”
After making his debut in the BMW PGA Championship in 2019, Horschel has since gone on to play the Scottish Open and the Alfred Links Dunhill Championship on the European Tour. Dubai is another new stop for the 34-year-old, who plays most of his golf in America, and he seems to be enjoying the place.
“It’s my first time in Dubai,” he said. “It’s a cool place. Obviously I’ve watched this event and Dubai Desert Classic and a few other events over here and seen on TV. But to be here and experience this amazing place is pretty cool. It’s cool to see some of the holes and see some of the shots I’ve seen on TV some of the guys pull off, and to see it first-hand now is great.”
And his thoughts on the Earth course?
“I think it’s a big golf course,” he said. “It’s exactly what I’ve seen on TV, and the bunkers are deep. But I think if you’re in control of your golf ball, this course lends itself to some low scores, the way the greens are shaped. I like to call them like sectional greens where you have little bowls and pockets on the greens that, if you have real good control of your golf ball, you can hit a lot of really close shots inside 10, 15 feet and even some tap-ins. And I understand now why the scores have been so low here in the past.”
