BMW PGA: Billy Horschel vows to return after 'loving' Wentworth debut
"It's exceeded my expectations. It's a beautiful golf course"
Sunday 22 September 2019 18:50, UK
Billy Horschel has vowed to return to the BMW PGA Championship after "loving" his first appearance at Wentworth.
The 32-year-old equalled the lowest score of the week for the second time as he carded a seven-under 65 in the final round to share fourth place with his fellow American Patrick Reed, and he hopes to be back on the West Course trying to improve on that next year.
"It's exceeded my expectations. It's a beautiful golf course," said Horschel.
"To think about the modern-day player and technology, it still holds up. We're still shooting 17-, 18-under par but the thing about this golf course, you have to put it in the right spots to score well.
"You can't fake it around here. If you hit shots off-line, you're going to get penalised for it. It's a beautiful test of golf and I absolutely have loved my entire week here.
"I will come back and hopefully it fits in my schedule every year because I want to be here because I think I would love to hold this trophy up.
"I think this event is world-class. The course is world-class. European Tour does an unbelievable job. This is my first time playing an actual European event that wasn't co-sanctioned with another tour and it's just fabulous. Keith Pelley (chief executive) and his staff and the fans here have just been really warm and welcoming to me."
There was some surprise that not more Americans had made the journey over and Horschel will encourage his compatriots to make the trip in the future.
"I'll tell them that this is a beautiful week and the course is unbelievable," he said. "Everything that encompasses this event can rival the best of the best on the PGA Tour in my opinion.
"I'll tell everyone, if they are thinking about coming over here, go ahead and book that ticket."
Relive a dramatic final round from the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
As for his own performance on Sunday, Horschel added: "I just wanted to come out and play one more really good round of golf. I have three weeks off after this and this has been a really great week for me to build on for the last four or five events I have for the rest of this year.
"Just come out. Try and keep improving on things I've been trying to work on all week and see what happened. It was a really great day of golf. It could have been a few better, but I'm never going to complain about 65."
Reed was only one shot worse than Horschel as his flawless six-under 66, which included an eagle at the 12th, lifted him to 15 under.
"It was hot and cold," he said. "Starting the round, I wasn't hitting the ball very well. I was having to scramble early, and the good thing was my short game was where it needed to be. I was getting up and down and making the crucial pars to not fall too far behind.
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"Once I was able to switch it around and get the full swing where it needed to be on the golf course, I was able to attack and make some birdies there and towards the end.
"Any time you come out, especially in an event I haven't played before, one of the largest events on the European Tour and to have such a large, world-class field and play the way I did; to really hang in there and have a chance, if not win the golf tournament, to scare the leaderboard at the end, was always nice."
