Crouched over his ball, his face was a mask of concentration and his blue shirt stained with sweat. His cap looked slightly too large for his head. As he prepared to play from nearly 100 yards down the fairway, silence fell over the big grandstand cupping the 18th green at Wentworth. His ball arced away from his clubface, up over a guardian stream and landed on the green, rolling to within a hand’s width of the hole. A birdie four was a formality and a tidal wave of voices roared their approval as he walked briskly towards the green.
Who was this golfer who was being cheered so loudly at one of the great golf courses in the United Kingdom? You might have guessed Justin Rose, the well-liked Englishman who had grown up not far away and often played here down the years. Or perhaps Rory McIlroy because it seems that wherever he competes, but particularly in the United Kingdom, McIlroy is like Vera Lynn, the singer who was so famous in the second world war and known as a nation’s sweetheart.
But it was not Rose, though earlier he had nearly holed his second shot to give the gallery something to cheer about. Nor was it McIlroy, because the northern Irishman was not competing in this event. It was instead, er, … Billy Horschel, a man born and brought up in Florida.
Why was Horschel getting a hero’s welcome at this most English of golf courses where the castellated clubhouse is enmeshed in Virginia Creeper and in springtime gorgeous rhododendrons line the roads leading in? What is it about Horschel that makes him so popular in the United Kingdom?
First some history.
We didn’t immediately take to William John Horschel when he played on this side of the Atlantic as a member of the 2007 winning US Walker Cup team. As we say in Britain, ‘Frankly, he wasn’t our cup of tea.’ It seemed to us that he thought he was chocolate. He was brash, loud and full of himself, adjectives and characteristics that do not sit well with British people who prefer dry humour, dry sherry, dry weather and understatement. Boasting is frowned upon in Britain. Although he won three points out of four in that Walker Cup, he didn’t win many friends with some of his behaviour at Royal County Down when he was in a U.S. team that also included Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson.
In Britain we remember and admire Generals Patton and Eisenhower for their leadership in World War Two. We loved Elvis Presley for his songs, John F. Kennedy for his good looks and New England manners. And we loved the American GIs who were stationed here during the War. “Overpaid, overweight and over here” we said about them but we said it with affection.
But Billy Horschel?
We loved Arnold Palmer. Is there a person man enough to admit they didn’t love Arnold Palmer? Not in Britain there isn’t. He saved the Open, our championship, by competing in it at a time when many of his countrymen wouldn’t give it the time of day. We loved Bob Hope and so we should because he was born in a London suburb. And we loved Bing Crosby and we laughed at George Burns and Gracie Fields. We love the way most Americans admire us even if they are slightly embarrassed us by commenting on the way we speak. “I love your accent, honey,” they say or words to that effect.
And so we come to Billy Horschel, this garrulous golfer who deservedly won the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour’s flagship event, with that skilful approach shot on the 18th at Wentworth last Sunday and has won his way into our hearts.
We didn’t take to Sam Snead after he spoke disparagingly about the Old Course when he won the 1946 Open at St Andrews and declined to come back to defend his title the next year. We loved Ben Curtis for his golly-gosh character as he won the 2003 Open, Tom Lehman for his sheer righteousness and Brad Faxon for the way he came over for an Open and went through the slog of qualifying, carrying his own bag to boot.
Nowadays our affection for people and things from the new world extends to the size of our refrigerators (enormous, big enough to hide a golf bag, just like those in America), Netflix television programmes, Amazon’s extraordinary ability to sell stuff cheaper than in shops and deliver it promptly, too. Facebook, Google, deck shoes and baseball caps.
And so we come to Billy Horschel, this garrulous golfer who deservedly won the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour’s flagship event, with that skilful approach shot on the 18th at Wentworth last Sunday and has won his way into our hearts.
Football, or soccer, is the national game in Britain and Horschel is a football fan, a follower of West Ham United football team. His golf bag at this year’s Open at Royal St George’s was in the claret and blue West Ham colours and bore the West Ham logo of crossed hammers.
How come Billy?
“So, during my sophomore year of college (University of Florida from 2006 to 2009) I moved into a new apartment and the cable television wasn’t going to be hooked up for a couple of days,” Horschel explained. “So, we went to Best Buy and bought a couple of DVDs and one of those DVDs was Green Street. I loved the movie, I loved Charlie Hunnam as an actor and obviously the film is about the firms (supporters) at Millwall and West Ham. From there I started following them.
“For about 10 or 12 years I’ve been paying really close attention to them since NBC Sports started showing Premier League games. I am always watching their matches and any Premier League matches actually. But I follow them (West Ham) very closely and I’m aware of how they’re doing, the transfer window. (I am) just a diehard supporter like I am for my Florida Gators.”
That Sunday night six days ago Horschel went out to a celebratory dinner with two of his West Ham friends, Declan Rice, a midfielder, and Mark Noble, the team’s captain, who were watching Horschel from the stand around the 18th green. “I don’t mind picking up the bill,” Horschel said, knowing that hours earlier he had pocketed a cheque for nearly £1m. He and Noble have become good friends. “We’re so proud of him,” Noble said. “It was an honour to watch him win.”
There is another reason for the popularity of a new Englander in the land of old England. For the past 10 years he has been working with expert statistician Mark Horton, a Briton who used to work for Tesco, the supermarket chain. “He helps me prepare for every golf course I play in competition,” Horschel said. “He makes my life easier.
“Everyone is always intrigued about Mark and what he does. They see him and they know he’s not a swing coach; they know he’s not a putting coach. He’ll break down every course, look at where I need to miss shots, what holes are scoring holes, how holes are played historically on the Tour. He does all that and so much more. Our first chat, he told me my short game was absolutely rubbish and I had stone hands. He was absolutely right. My short game was awful and it’s gotten a lot better. Now it’s no longer rubbish in his eyes. It’s decent.”
The sort of analysis Horton does shows that Horschel led the par-four scoring for the week at Wentworth with an average of 3.77 and was ranked first for both strokes gained and approach to the greens. His iron play was exceptional, enabling him to gain 14.29 strokes over the field for greens in regulation. He hit 80.55 percent of those, the second best of any player in the field.
There is one more reason why Horschel has become so popular in Britain and that is that he has studied Britain more than most visitors. “When I visit a different country, I try and embrace it,” he said on Sunday evening, talking in the gathering darkness with his trophy by his side. “I have done a really good job of embracing the surroundings and the people over here and I think they have taken kindly to me and I appreciate that.”
Horschel has a more than working knowledge of cricket, which is impressive. He could even be accused of overegging the cake when he kept referring to the Wentworth event as the equivalent of The Players in the US. The BMW-PGA aspires to that level of status but is not there yet.
So, Billy Horschel has become an Anglophile, as popular on this side of the Atlantic as many who were born here. He probably drinks English breakfast tea, has his suits made in Savile Row and buys his shoes in London’s Burlington Arcade.
Well done Billy. We like you. You are a jolly good fellow.