Defending Memorial champion Billy Horschel opens with a first-round 84

DUBLIN, OHIO — Five seconds. Ten seconds. Awkward silence. Fifteen seconds. Billy Horschel was a beaten man, brought to the lowest point of his golf career.

Twenty seconds, which is a long time for a PGA Tour player to stand in front of a microphone, head bowed, and concentrate on not crying. It is saying something that it was easier for Horschel, the defending Memorial Tournament champion, to shoot a stomach-sickening 84 Thursday than it was to hold it together when a reporter asked, “Is this a day you just hug your kids and move on?”

But the question prompted another one: move on to what? Where do you go when the job you have excelled at for nearly 15 years suddenly feels like trying to learn a foreign language. Like an accountant who can’t add. A firefighter who is afraid of smoke.

You go to dark places, that’s where.

Someone reminded the 36-year-old Floridian that earlier in the week he explained how he was still struggling with his golf swing, but that things were trending up.

But from the jump Thursday, the hoped-for improved swing was nowhere to be found. By the end of 18 miserable holes, Horschel had entered the Memorial record book as carding the highest opening round of any defending champion. His 12-over afternoon slotted him 118th out of 119 golfers.

“Yeah, I mean it’s tough right now,” he said, composing himself enough to speak without breaking down. “I mean, I’m working really hard, trying to do the right things.”

But …

“My confidence is the lowest it’s been my entire career; I think ever in my entire golf life.”

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In that moment, only the heartless would feel no compassion for Horschel.

But golf, being heartless, felt nothing. It is a brutal game. Untamable. Unbeatable. Undefeated when inflicting misery on even the best players in the world, which Horschel is. Just not on this day, when his game resembled a California mudslide. At several points, Horschel’s hat covered his face more than his head as he pulled it down to conceal his pain.

What high-handicapper can’t relate? On any given swing, the vast majority of amateur golfers are about 40 percent sure where their ball will go. About 80 percent of the time they’re wrong, and seldom to their advantage. But the pros? The guys who always finish with their belt buckle to the target and drain 5-foot putts like they’re gimmes believe the ball obeys their command. That belief is central to their…