Horschel hopes golf dreams continue at Masters

Given his tendency to have dreams that eventually come true, Billy Horschel would love to have one that ends with him slipping on a green jacket.

So far, nada.

“No Masters dreams. Would be nice if I did before then,” he said, referring to the start of this year’s tournament.

Early in the PGA Tour’s 2013-14 season, Horschel dreamed he’d win the FedExCup at the end of the season.

“I woke up and I wasn’t sure if it was real or not because it was very faint, but I remember holding up the FedExCup trophy, and as the season went along, I never thought about it, but I just said, well, maybe it was just a dream that wasn’t real,” he said.

It was, thanks to his run in the FedExCup playoffs. After missing the cut in the first of the four events, he tied for second in the next one and won the final two.

“There’s certain things throughout my life that have come true, and I’ve sort of seen it beforehand when I sleep at night,” Horschel said. “I just sort of have a premonition or whatever you want to call it.”

After he won the third playoff event – the BMW Championship – Horschel remembered his dream, he said.

At the FedExCup’s finale the following week – the Tour Championship – he thought “maybe this is actually something that is supposed to happen.”

It did, thanks to rounds of 66-66-69-68 at East Lake, beating Rory McIlroy and Jim Furyk by three shots.

About five months earlier, Horschel made his Masters debut, shooting 75-72-75-73 to tie for 37th place.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “A lot of learning. I probably struck it better than anybody that week and probably putted worse than anyone that week. I realize it was a week I didn’t putt well. You could probably blame the greens a touch, but not much. It was just a week I didn’t feel comfortable with my strokes.”

Horschel hit 52 greens in regulation, one less than leader Jordan Spieth. But he had the worst putting week among the players who made the cut with 131 putts – five more than the next highest total.

“I like to be firm with my putts and not let them break out of the holes too much,” Horschel said. “We would practice the week before the Masters on really fast greens – faster than they are at Augusta – so when you get there you feel like you’re not worried about the speed. You feel like you can hit the putts a little bit. There are putts you have to be careful with and putts you need to be a little aggressive with. Sometimes you know you’re going to have a 6-footer coming back if you miss it, so just go ahead and hit it the way you would. If you miss it, you miss it.”

He did more than he wanted, leading the field in bogeys, with 21.

“Like I said, a lot of them were putting more or less,” he said. “I hit a lot in greens in regulation so it surely wasn’t my ball striking. It was just short game or putting. The majority was putting.”

Horschel is excited about his return to the Masters and having another crack at Augusta National.

“It’s stuff you learn,” said Horschel, who added, “and I learned the course fits my game very, very well.”

He also wants to be the first player to successfully defend the FedExCup, which started in 2007.

“For me more personally, it would be huge,” Horschel said. “There’s only been one guy to win two FedExCups and that’s a guy by the name of Tiger Woods (2007 and 2009), and he’s not too bad.

“But I want to be the first guy to defend the FedExCup, and I’ve made that known to my wife and my family and people, my instructors and everyone else and we’re saying it in interviews, too, that I want that chance to defend the FedExCup. That would be an unbelievable thing to do.”