Billy Horschel gets it.
Is he cocky? Maybe, but no one should question that as soon as he made it, Horschel began figuring out how he can give back to the game that has provided him so much.
This week, the third annual Billy Horschel APGA Invitational is being contested (Oct. 18-20) at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, where 18 of the top APGA Tour players will compete for three days and have the chance to network and engage with key sponsors and industry leaders. Horschel also hosts an AJGA event too, and in both situations he doesn’t simply lend his name to the billboard and show up for the prize-giving ceremony.
“Usually when celebrities do tournaments or events they show up and leave,” said Ken Bentley, one of the founders of the APGA Tour. “Following the first round of the first tournament Billy did for us he was on the putting green playing putting games with the guys for dollars. They were on the green until dark. Billy gave each player his phone number and email address and said he was going to do all he could to see that the guys got to the next level. In telling the guys this he had the same level of determination and commitment in his eyes that he has when he’s trying to win a tournament. The guys all believe Billy is in their corner.”
Shoutout to @BillyHo_Golf, @britthorschel, @HorschelFdtn and everyone who came out to support the Billy Horschel @APGA_Tour Invitational Pro-Am at The Concession Golf Club. Should be a great two days of #golf. pic.twitter.com/Ja1AI7PBWf
— Michael Eaves (@michaeleaves) October 19, 2023
So, what made Horschel “get it?” And why did he choose the APGA as a way to give back? His longtime instructor Todd Anderson offers insights while explaining Horschel’s higher purpose.
“He’s not the kind of person that does it to get notoriety for it, he does it because he cares and because he wants to make a difference in the people he comes in contact with, and I really respect that about him,” Anderson said. “I see other people going out there trying to do things to get attention, but he doesn’t do that. He wants to see the minority professional golfers succeed and be a part of the PGA Tour. He wants to help develop junior golfers by giving them opportunities that he didn’t have. He does a lot of things for charity to help other people, just because he really cares, not so you or anyone writes a story about it, but because he wants to make a difference in the people that he’s around and the things that he sees that need to be changed.”
Ask Horschel and he will tell you that he gives his time, money and resources for a variety of reasons.
“COVID happened,” he explained. “A lot of guys were struggling to have a place to play. I got to know Willie Mack and we have something in common in that his family wasn’t well off and mine wasn’t either. Some of our experiences were different but I thought to myself, if I hadn’t gotten an opportunity to go to Florida and play well and get sponsorship opportunities from equipment companies, where would that money have come from for me? My parents couldn’t have supported me. Maybe some friends would’ve supported me for a year or two but where would that financial aid have come from? If things had played out differently for me, I could’ve been in their (APGA members) shoes. That was the first thing.”
Horschel barely takes a breath before he delves into the second reason he chose to support the APGA, and his response is telling.
“For the game of golf, we’ve made strides but we can still make golf more inclusive,” he said. “To grow the game, we need to get more minorities in. That’s where there is room for growth. That’s just a fact. That’s what the numbers say. It was a perfect scenario because I thought these guys have the ability to change the way golf is looked at and change the way who plays it and change the opportunities in people’s lives. The one way to do that is to support them and make a tournament that allows them to play for more money, and bring in sponsors that are looking to change their charity side and be a part of it. They can meet these guys and see how good they are. One of these guys – Willie is going to be on Tour in a year or two – but they are going to change the way golf is.
“There is someone who is African-American and sees me play golf, that’s cool. But if they see someone who looks like them play golf that’s going to percolate interest more. That’s just a fact,” Horschel continued. “And then when he sees that Willie has a similar background to the way we were raised, if he can make it, I can make it. I want to be involved in golf because I want to do what he’s doing. That’s why basketball and football have been so successful. That’s why it was something I wanted to be part of and have a little bit of a piece of trying to help grow the game of golf. Am I going to be the one that is going to get more minorities involved in the game of golf? Probably not. But I can support the guys that will have a bigger influence on getting them involved in golf and backing those guys to be successful and hopefully with their success they are able to have an outreach to grow the game of golf. Whether you play professionally or recreationally, it can open so many doors. Even if these guys don’t make it, they can have connections with people in the business world that can help them on the next path in life. It’s huge to be able to influence someone’s life and make it better for them down the road.”
There are currently just three Black golfers on the PGA Tour: Tiger Woods, Cameron Champ and Joseph Bramlett.
Mack III, who played at Bethune-Cookman, a historically Black college in Daytona Beach, Florida, is a two-time winner of Horschel’s event and earned his Korn Ferry Tour card in December. Horschel sent the first congratulatory text. “No one in professional golf has done more for me than Billy,” Mack said.
Horschel recalls meeting Mack at the Farmers Insurance Open in 2019, where Mack and some of the other APGA members showed him a picture they’d taken at TPC Sawgrass when they had toured the PGA Tour Academy there.
“I was shocked I didn’t remember it,” Horschel said. “Willie and Kamaiu (Johnson) started working with my teacher. Hanging out with them, listening to their stories all played a part in me wanting to support their journeys.”
Shortly before Mack headed to Q-School, he was working with Anderson and mentioned to Horschel how he hadn’t been able to play as much due to an injury to one of his fingers.
“I said to him, ‘This is probably a blessing in disguise that you got hurt. You’ve been going a lot the last couple of years. You haven’t had a time to recharge your batteries and come back with a new focus.’”
After Horschel texted congratulations, Mack wrote back, “You were right. That talk after my lesson was massive.”
Mack struggled this season on the Korn Ferry Tour but recently advanced through the first stage of Q-School and is hard at work on his game. He’s not going for the three-peat this week at Horschel’s APGA event but told him he may pop out to root the guys on. That means someone else will go home with the trophy and a check for $40,000 from the $150,000 purse.
“I have a number in mind that I want the purse to get to,” Horschel. “I want to keep making it bigger and better.”
