Billy Horschel is not thrilled with his play on the course so far this season. The eight-time PGA Tour winner was ranked a dismal 107th in the FedEx Cup rankings heading into this week’s Wyndham Championship.
Even a hot start was not enough to satisfy the veteran Tour pro.
Following his opening-round 65 at the Wyndham, Horschel said he didn’t think he “did anything particularly special” and his wedges weren’t “sharp.” Overall, he called it a “pretty boring 65,” except for that one bomb for eagle, of course.
“There wasn’t really much excitement except making a 45-foot eagle putt on No. 15,” Horschel said in his press conference after Round 1.
But Horschel saved his harshest critiques for his season-long stretch of poor play.
At 39 years old, Horschel has probably entered the twilight of his career, but he’s made his mark. In addition to his eight Tour wins, Horschel is a former FedEx Cup champion, having won the Cup back in 2014.
Not so much this year.
Horschel has missed 10 cuts in 23 starts in the 2026 season. He’s only earned one top-10 finish, though that came at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event.
All of that is to say that his FedEx Cup rank of 107 is justified by his results. But you don’t need to tell him that.
When a reporter asked Horschel to grade his season after his opening-round 65 at the Wyndham, he took himself to task.
“I think they grade now from A to E, right? There’s an E in there? If there was below an E, it would be that. It’s been awful,” Horschel said.
He went on to explain that he is a “very harsh critic” of himself.
“My team understands that, I’m realistic,” Horschel explained.
And then he proved it by finally offering up a grade for his season: “It’s an F.”
“It’s an F, there’s no doubt about it,” Horschel said of his lost season. “I could try and make it sound better or find something good, but I’m going to put it as it is right now, it’s an F. And there’s only one way to go and that’s up, so that’s the great thing about it.”
Given his poor ranking, Horschel would need to win this week’s Wyndham to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. But he said he’s not putting any pressure on himself, describing the possibility of missing the playoffs as “not the end of the world.”
Instead, he hopes to build momentum for next season.
“Been out here for 17 years, I’ve seen everything, I’ve done everything for the most part. I just have to use my experience to understand that, yeah, it’s been a bad year,” Horschel said.
He continued: “Yeah, I mean, there’s no pressure. I mean, if I don’t make the FedEx Cup Playoffs — I didn’t make it in ’23. I didn’t make it last year, I was injured. So it’s not the end of the world. You know, when it’s all said and done with my career, no one’s going to be looking back and say, hey, Billy didn’t make the FedEx Cup Playoffs in ’26 possibly and lessen my career by that aspect,” Horschel explained on Thursday. “To me, it’s more or less just getting myself back to the quality of golf I was playing in ’24 and early in ’25 and taking that momentum into the rest of this year, then starting off ’27 really strong and getting myself back to where I want to be in this game of golf and that’s competing for tournaments, that’s being up there in world ranking, that is competing for majors like I did in ’24 and sort of have a strong last few years of my career out here.”
After a 65 that left him in the top 20 early at the Wyndham Championship, Horschel’s strategy of intentionally not putting pressure on himself seems to be paying off. It could even lead to a season-extending victory.
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