Billy Horschel Q&A: Supporting the APGA Tour, Hip Surgery, and More

Thanks to our friends at Cisco, we were able to chat with eight-time PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel about his recent surgery, the future of the PGA Tour, as well as his upcoming APGA Tour event in Florida this week.

Billy, how has your return to action from hip surgery been this fall? How are you feeling?

The hip is really good. It's been nice to get back out and play some golf. The perfectionist in me doesn't take satisfactory results very well and my first two events have been just okay, but I have to understand it's only been six months since surgery.

We're now a couple years into the Signature Event model. If you had full control over the PGA Tour, what tweaks would you make to the structure of the Tour?

Ideally I think you have about 25 events per year, and I would make every event equal. I don't know if it actually works where every event has the same purse and offers the same number of points because when you go to bigger markets – Chicago, Philly, New York, Boston, LA – they are going to put up more money because it’s a bigger market and they want to be the premier event.

But I say we go to a 25-event schedule where we try to make every event the same. Every tournament has a 120-man field. It's a smaller tour, but it gives every member of the PGA Tour the full ability to play all 25 events. From the time I got on Tour, I’ve always said that it’s weird to not be guaranteed a spot in every open PGA Tour event as a member of the Tour.

If there is a way to create a tour where every full-status PGA Tour member is guaranteed to play every PGA Tour event that is open, it would benefit both the PGA Tour as an organization and the players themselves.

With the current structure of professional golf tours, as well as NIL changing the dynamics of collegiate athletics, what would your advice be to a college player who is deciding if they should turn pro or stay in school to develop for another year or two?

I had the opportunity to turn pro after my junior year of college but decided to return for my senior year. Four years is a very short period of time. It allows a person to grow and to learn about themselves. It allows them to learn more about the game and be more prepared for when they do turn pro.

Unless you’re a world beater – Jordan Spieth, Jackson Koivun, Luke Clanton – and you’ve accomplished everything you wanted to do at the college level, my advice would be to stay because there is so much to be learned at the college level.

Professional golf isn’t going anywhere. The money will still be there. The opportunity to make the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, or wherever anyone wants to play will be there. You just have to make sure that you're playing really well and that you are good enough to rise to the occasion when the time comes.

The Billy Horschel Invitational presented by Cisco takes place this week in Florida. For people who may not be familiar with the APGA, what does the organization represent and why has it been important to you to be involved?

The APGA is an unbelievable tour. It doesn't solely cater to minority professional golfers, but that is their main focus. It gives them the opportunity to compete at the professional level and to try to live a dream of making it to the PGA Tour and playing at the highest level.

I started getting involved a few years back for multiple reasons. One: I grew up very blue-collar. At one point, one of my parents was out of a job for several months so only one parent was bringing in income. I understand what it means to not always have the financial security to play in every tournament or have all the equipment and teaching and everything else to compete at a high level.

Also, I love the game of golf. It’s the greatest game in the world and I want everyone to experience it. As much as I can hopefully inspire the next generation of golfers, it can be tough for someone with a minority background to relate to me. To be honest, skin color plays a part in that.

The APGA guys have the opportunity to reach golfers that I'm not able to. They can go into inner cities as the APGA does and introduce people to golf and show them that, yes, there is a way to make money, but there are also other benefits of playing golf. Finding opportunities, creating relationships, and opening up doors that you never knew you would be able to open. Plus, there are mental and physical health benefits.

By supporting their dreams and giving them an opportunity to play tournaments, make money, and financially back themselves, I'm helping to give them a platform to do what they want to do in the game of golf on their own and give back the way they want to.

What are the biggest challenges a player on a developmental tour faces? How does an event like yours at Concession help players achieve their goals?

There is no way around it: developmental tours are tough. You are paying a lot of your own expenses. Maybe you have some sponsors or some family and friends that are helping you. Even with some potential financial support, the money that you play for is minimal. You’re often just breaking even.

For these guys to continue developing, regardless of the level, you need the financial support to be able to work with an instructor, a trainer, a sports psychologist, etc. People think that golf is an individual sport, but it takes a team. It’s really tough to spend money on these things when you’re just trying to stay above water.

With the support of Cisco and the other sponsors of my APGA event, we've made sure that the financial reward for this event is great. They're playing for a lot of money.

Gabe Lench won my event two years ago when he was about to give up on golf. He had been deciding between playing my event or going to Q-School and opted to play my event and won $50,000. He took a portion of that money to pay off credit cards that he'd been charging everything to.

So this is a life-changing opportunity for them because of the money that they can make not only at my event but all the other events on the APGA Tour.

Editor's Note: This segment is brought to you by our friends at Cisco.