DUBLIN, Ohio – Swing instructor Sean Foley likes to say that the relationship between PGA Tour pros and their coaches should be measured in dog years.
That’s because when Tour pros hit a slump they typically point fingers at either their caddie or their coach.
“You can’t change your wife,” Foley joked.
Billy Horschel returns to Muirfield Village Golf Club this week as the defending champion, but his game has soured since he claimed his seventh PGA Tour at the Memorial last June. Horschel didn’t try to sugarcoat it when asked to assess his play during a pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday.
“The season’s been pretty bad, pretty abysmal, to tell you the truth,” said Horschel, who entered the week No. 108 in the FedEx Cup standings, with only the top 70 advancing to the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and reconnected with caddie Micah Fugitt earlier this month.
Billy Horschel walks the ninth fairway with his caddie Micah Fugitt during a practice round ahead of the 2023 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
But it has only sent the 36-year-old Horschel, who played on his first U.S. Presidents Cup team last fall, back to the drawing board with his longtime coach, Todd Anderson. The duo is approaching 15 years of working together, which is a lot of dog years.
In the fall of 2008, Horschel was on the verge of graduating from the University of Florida, where coach Buddy Alexander had helped turn him into an All-American talent. But Alexander also knew that Horschel would need someone to look after him on a full-time basis once Horschel turned pro. He recommended three potential coaches for Horschel to visit.
“I was the first one that he came to see, and he didn’t go see the other two, and we’ve been working ever since,” Anderson said.
In addition to the Memorial last year, Horschel has won a World Golf Championship, a Tour Championship and FedEx Cup (2014), and the BMW Championship, the flagship event of the DP World Tour. Horschel demands a lot of himself and those on his team, and he and Anderson, who he calls one of his best friends and a mentor, have developed a trust and confidence that have made their relationship thrive.
“He takes care of me like I’m a family member,” Anderson said. “He’ll pick you up on the way to the course, whatever it is. If he hears I have to take a shuttle to the course, he’ll say, ‘No, I’ll just come by and get you.’ It might be a mile…
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