Billy Horschel credits Premier League legend for PGA Tour bounce back at Wyndham

Former FedEx Cup champ Billy Horschel credits West Ham legend Mark Noble for turning his form around on the PGA Tour.

06 Aug 2023

Billy Horschel credits Premier League legend for PGA Tour bounceback at Wyndham — Billy Horschel credits Premier League legend for PGA Tour bounceback at…

Billy Horschel has credited West Ham legend Mark Noble for helping him turn his form around and share the 54-hole lead at this week's Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour.

Horschel, 36, admitted his confidence was "at the lowest it's ever been" when he shot an 84 en route to missing the cut at the Memorial Tournament in early June.

Why does Billy Horschel wear a band on his arm?

The 2021 BMW PGA Champion and seven-time PGA Tour champion was reduced to tears that day.

Fast forward to this week where the avid West Ham fan is in need of a win (or a solo second with some help) to progress into next week's FedEx Cup Playoffs, and Horschel has returned to the form of his 2014 FedEx Cup triumph thru 54 holes at Sedgefield CC.

Following an opening round of 67, Horschel has backed it up with blistering rounds of 62 and 63 to move to the top of the leaderboard on 18-under par alongside resurgent 2009 US Open champion Lucas Glover.

When pressed by journalists after his third round as to how he has managed to turn his game around following a tricky couple of months on the PGA Tour, and Horschel credits former Premier League star Mark Noble, 36, for giving him perspective.

Declan Rice & Mark Noble with BMW PGA Championship winner & West Ham fan Billy Horschel!
⚒️ #WHUFC #COYI pic.twitter.com/quMutqYjDg
— West Ham News & Views (@WestHamViews_) September 12, 2021

Horschel told reporters:

"You know, it was a lot of people that reached out to me. I mean, the one that comes to my head right now is my buddy Mark Noble. He's a West Ham legend, he just retired last year from West Ham, really close friends.

"He actually texted me two days later [after shooting 84 at Memorial]. He said, hey, sorry I'm two days late, but I couldn't write this text because I was so emotional writing it. We are very much wired very similar in the way he played professionally and the way I am professionally and the way we handle things and care so much. He was like, listen, there's a lot of times I would come home and I would cry because we were playing so bad or I'd be doing everything I can to get the team to play at a higher level and it wasn't happening.

"Just him sharing that with me, him telling me, which I knew already and I'm very well aware of, how great of a player I am and a person I am. Just those little things. Even though I may know that about myself, it never hurts to hear that from people that you love a lot."

Noble has the most Premier League appearances for West Ham, having spent 18 years with the club.

He scored 55 goals in 472 appearances.

Noble retired from the game in 2022 but he now assumes a sporting director role at West Ham.

Golfer Billy Horschel, West Ham captain Declan Rice, Hammers director of Sport Mark Noble and former Irons coach and player Stuart Pearce all watching the West Ham U18’s lift the FA Youth cup at the Emirates tonight pic.twitter.com/xtFY6GwHa0
— West Ham Football (@westhamfootball) April 25, 2023

Horschel and Glover take a narrow one-stroke lead into the final round over Russell Henley.

Justin Thomas finds himself in a tie for 11th on 9-under par with the 2017 FedEx Cup champion in need of a tie for 18th or better to progress into the Playoffs next week - as well as likely keep his US Ryder Cup ambitions alive.

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