News

The stats behind Horschel's Rolex Series win

The statistics behind Horschel's first Rolex Series victory at the 2021 BMW PGA Championship

Billy Horschel

A first-class all-around performance from tee to green helped Billy Horschel make history with his first Rolex Series title at the 2021 BMW PGA Championship.

The American was left near-speechless as he joined Arnold Palmer as the only other American to have won this event, doing it in style with an accurate up and down from 91 yards at the last to set the clubhouse target of 19 under and ultimately secure his win.

“Man, I'm speechless, which is very, very rare,” Horschel said afterwards.

“As I've said two years ago and as I said this week the crowds are absolutely unbelievable here and they supported me when I came over in 2019 and they supported me this year. Played really good today, really well. Obviously missed a few putts. To win this event means a lot.”

Horschel, whose win moves him back inside the top 20 on the Official World Golf Rankings, led the way in a number of impressive statistics throughout the week.

Not only did Horschel lead the par-four scoring for the week with an average of 3.77, he also ranked first for both Strokes Gained: Approach the green (gaining 2.36 over the field average), and first for Strokes Gained: Tee to green (where he gained 3.65 strokes on the field average).

His win was a combination of accuracy off the tee, but more than that an exceptional display with his irons which led him to gain 14.29 strokes over the field for greens in regulation, which he hit 80.55% of and ranked second in the field for.

One of those greens in regulation he hit was the par four 15th, which he birdied three of four days. It was the hole he credited as important to his victory, as it moved him in to a share of the lead and provided momentum in the home stretch.

“I played really great all around. Making the birdie at 15 was huge. I knew if I could birdie two of the three I probably would win the event. But one birdie was good enough.”

Click here to find Horschel's complete statistics for the week.

Did you know

For the last ten years, Billy Horschel has been working with his statistician Mark Horton, who helps him prepare for every golf course he plays, as well as with a variety of other things that in Horschel's own words "makes my life easier".

“Everyone is always intrigued about Mark and what he does, they see him and they now he’s not a swing coach, they know he’s not a putting coach," Horschel said when we spent a few holes catching up with them earlier in the week.

“What it does for me is it makes my life easier. He’ll break down every course, look at where I need to miss shots, what holes are scoring holes, how holes are played historically on the Tour and he does all that and so much more.

“Our first chat, he told me my short game was absolutely rubbish and I had stone hands and he was absolutely right, my short game was awful and it’s gotten a lot better and now it’s no longer rubbish in his eyes – it’s decent."

Watch below for this week's episode of 'Mic'd Up' with Billy Horschel and Mark Horton.

Read next