Billy Horshcel broke down in his tears after his title defence at this week's Memorial Tournament got off to a nightmare start in Thursday's opening round.
Horschel headed to Muirfield Village as defending champion, having won the tournament by four shots back in 2022. 12 months on though, his seventh PGA Tour win will have felt a world away having kicked off the 2023 event by shooting a round of 12-over-par on day one.
The 36-year-old was unable to find a birdie across his 18 holes, carding six bogeys and three double bogeys in a difficult afternoon for the defending champion.
Quickly after his round of 84, Horschel faced the media and his struggles on the course seemingly proved all too much, as he gave an honest and emotional account of his performance. The American stat said: "Yeah, I mean, it's tough right now.
"As I said, I mean, I'm working really hard, trying to do the right things, and the team's doing everything really well. It sucked today. Yesterday, sort of thought I didn't hit it very good in the pro-am and even after the round it wasn't bad. I mean, on video it looks good. Technically it's not that far off.
"But I'm not able to hit the cut the way I want. I can't get the ball to start left the way I want. So then when it comes down to having to be more precise on a course like this, it's just, it's tough." Horschel will no doubt have come to the conclusion that his chances of making it to the weekend are almost slim to none.
Despite this, the seven-time Tour winner remained resilient and is ready to go again in Friday's second round. "Yeah, I mean, I'll keep working," he added. "As much as I would love to throw in the towel and not come out tomorrow, that's just not in me. I'm just not one of those players.
There's plenty of those guys out here on Tour that would make an excuse about being injured and everything. But I'll show up and I'll go out there and give it my all like I always do and try and find something, try and play well, and move on. I mean, it's a day and I've had plenty of these days this year. Not this bad, but it's just a day. We'll get by it."
Admitting his confidence had reached an all-time low, Horschel went on: " Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm making a big number on every single hole it seems like. I'm struggling every hole. Listen, the group in front of us played quick and we got, I was taking a lot of extra shots than what we normally would do.
"I mean, we got warned at number 13, but we I think we were back in position by number 15 tee. They were still on the hole when we got there. So, yeah, listen, my confidence is the lowest it's been in my entire career."
