Billy Horschel: I thought 2024 was going to be year I won a major championship

Multiple PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel has claimed he believed 2024 was finally going to be the year he won a major championship before he was sidelined with a hip injury. 

Horschel had a strong season last year, finally entering the winner's circle on the PGA Tour again for the first time in nearly two years at the Corales Puntacana Championship. 

The American golfer backed that up with a thrilling play-off victory in September at the BMW PGA Championship, prevailing over Rory McIlroy. 

In between, the 38-year-old led a major championship after 54 holes for the first time in his career at The Open. 

Horschel ended up finishing in a tie for second with England's Justin Rose at Royal Troon but the performance would've undoubtedly given him confidence he could build on his momentum. 

But then Horschel started to experience pain in his right hip. He elected to have surgery in April following the RBC Heritage as a preventative measure and only returned in September at the aforementioned BMW PGA Championship. 

He told Sports Illustrated that he still needs to get some reps in. 

But he claimed he truly believed 2025 was going to be the year he finally won a major championship title and represented the stars and stripes at the Ryder Cup. 

“I felt this was going to be the year I get over the hump and make the Ryder Cup team, win a major, check some things off of my career goals," Horschel said. 

"And I wasn't playing bad but look back and swing-wise, it was a little bit of a struggle and I didn't know why. 

"And the Monday after Hilton Head I woke up with a sudden pain in my hip that I had never felt before."

Horschel has represented the United States at the Walker Cup and the Presidents Cup but never in the biennial clash with Europe. 

Billy Horschel urges PGA Tour to run US Ryder Cup team

Elsewhere, Horschel has outlined his desire to see a huge shake-up with how the US Ryder Cup team is run. 

Currently, the US arm of the Ryder Cup is run by the PGA of America. 

The DP World Tour runs the event when it is held on European soil. 

Following Europe's 15-13 away victory at Bethpage Black in September, Horschel claimed that the US team is too disconnected from the PGA of America. 

It's time for that to change, he argued, and put forward the idea that the PGA Tour run it. 

Such a prospect is hugely unlikely. 

"I've had some conversations with some people, some other players, players that are bigger names and have been part of Ryder Cups, after this Ryder Cup," Horschel said. 

"And the thing that I shared with them is that over the last five or six years being on the European Tour, understanding that the European Tour runs their Ryder Cup, so they see these people, they know the backroom staff, they can have conversations over their playing about the Ryder Cup.

"Even if it’s a couple of years in advance, about hotels or anything that you know comes across their mind about how to make things better."

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