Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron has won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward for a record-breaking fifth time. The 36-year-old has been a finalist 11 straight seasons.
DUBLIN, Ohio – Billy Horschel won’t begrudge you the memory if all you take away from his victory at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday on Sunday is his eagle at the 15th hole. His nearly 55-foot putt, curling from right to left, was a splendid stroke and extended his two-shot lead to four, the final margin as Horschel (72) bested Aaron Wise (71). But while the eagle stood out, shiny things do not excite Horschel, who obsesses more over peak performance and what goes into it. He wants to understand success like a cheetah understands speed. What works? What doesn’t? He thinks about this as it relates to real estate, business – he doesn’t want to play professionally forever – and, for now, golf. On a list of the hardest workers on the PGA TOUR, he puts himself in the top five. RELATED: What’s in Horschel’s bag? That work is paying off, and in capturing his seventh TOUR title over a cast of younger players – Wise, 25; Joaquin Niemann, 23; Will Zalatoris, 25; Sungjae Im, 24; Sahith Theegala, 24 – Horschel, 35, also authored a victory for professionalism itself. “I think today, knowing the golf course, knowing how it was going to be fast and firm again, it was knowing the pin locations,” Horschel said. “I didn’t have to do anything to do anything special out there. I’ve got a five-shot lead.” In other words, Horschel is 13 years into his TOUR career; he knows what it takes. When Tiger Woods converted all those 54-hole leads/co-leads, Horschel was paying attention. He knew to appraise the difficulty of the course, the rock-hard greens, the pin positions. “I love watching golf,” he said. “As I’ve said for many years, I probably watched more golf than any PGA TOUR player. Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe it’s a bad thing.” Given that he is now 3-for-5 at converting 54-hole leads/co-leads to victory, it’s probably a good thing. Horschel has not only studied the game, he has assembled an all-star cast around him that includes his (longtime) swing coach, Todd Anderson; fitness guy, Alex Bennett at the TPC Performance Center; stats guy, Mark Horton; and caddie, Mark “Fooch” Fulcher, who was on the bag for Justin Rose’s 2010 Memorial victory and joined Team Horschel last summer. Horschel’s wife, Brittany, has his back, too, although she had never been there to witness one of his wins until Sunday. She’s been too busy with their three young children, Skylar, Colbie and Axel. She’s also, ahem, superstitious. “My wife has never wanted to fly in on a Saturday night when I’ve had a chance to win,” Horschel said, laughing at the running joke in their family. “She feels like she may be bringing bad luck or something. “I had a chance to win Bay Hill this year,” he continued. “My family was there. They were right there on the 18th green. As I was walking up, had a chance to make a putt to go into a playoff with Scottie Scheffler.” The most important, relatively new addition to the team is probably Fulcher, who thought that this might have been his 40th victory between caddying on the PGA TOUR, LPGA, and DP World Tour. (When your caddie has lost track of how many times he’s won, you’ve got yourself an experienced caddie.) After Horschel missed the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge last week – his first missed cut on TOUR since the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, nearly a year ago – he called a team meeting with Fulcher and statistician Horton. “We just said, ‘We need to get back to it,’” Horschel said. It, meaning their process, even if it sometimes feels too slow and deliberate for pedal-to-the-metal Horschel. “To be honest, it was probably long overdue,” Fulcher said. Not missing a cut since the U.S. Open was becoming too much of a story. Also, they were not thinking well, and consequently making poor decisions. Perversely, the missed cut at Colonial, and the ensuing meeting, prepared Horschel for winning. Deep into his successful but somewhat underrated career – he has never played on a U.S. Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team – he is enjoying his best run since winning the 2014 FedExCup. He captured the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play last season, plus the BMW PGA Championship, the crown jewel of the DP World Tour. And now he’s earned the coveted Jack Nicklaus handshake at Muirfield Village, moving from 30th to 10th in the FedExCup. “He’s an incredible professional, and I think he’s getting better,” Fulcher said. Teeing it up against significantly younger competition, Horschel is a throwback to an earlier era when guys like Ben Hogan and Tom Watson and others routinely peaked in their mid-30s. He would know all about that. He also knows where success has eluded him: in the majors. It just so happens the next U.S. Open, at The Country Club in Boston, is in two weeks. Horschel will continue put in the work; he loves the grind. If it doesn’t pay off at the U.S. Open, then it will at The Open Championship, and if not at St. Andrews, then next year. He admits the majors get him extra riled up, maybe too riled up. “He’s emotional,” Fulcher said. “What I have seen, though, is he’s a lot quieter on the golf course now, especially in moments like today. He’s a lot more set in his process than even when I started with him. He was a bit loose.” Work hard, stick to the process, and success will get in the way. Horschel firmly believes that. “Sometimes they get a little tired,” he said of his team, which he calls the best in the business, “because I want to just keep pushing and keep going forward. But they all understand it’s all for the betterment of the team and hopefully gives us the best chance to be victorious. And it’s great to have three wins in roughly the last 15 months.”
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Billy Horschel ended any doubt about his victory at Muirfield Village with an eagle putt from one end of the green to the other on the 15th hole, sending him to a four-shot victory Sunday at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Horschel was staked to a five-shot lead at the start of a sun-soaked final round and no one ever got closer than two shots. He closed with an even-par 72. Horschel moved to No. 10 in the FedExCup standings after earning a whopping 550 points. There still a few nervous moments. Horschel’s streak of 49 consecutive holes without a bogey ended on the sixth hole. He didn’t make his first birdie until the 10th hole. He had to scramble for bogey on the par-3 12th that dropped his lead to two over Aaron Wise. Before the long eagle, Horschel saved himself with par putts of 12 feet on the 13th hole and 8 feet on 14. And then it was over. From the front of the green on the par-5 15th, Horschel’s putt from just inside 55 feet had the perfect line and perfect speed, bending left and dropping in the left side of the cup as he stretched out both arms in a quiet, disbelieving celebration. “Just like you, big man,” Horschel said to tournament host Jack Nicklaus when it was over. His lead was up to four shots, and it was a comfortable finish. Horschel finished at 13-under 275 and won $2.16 million, the largest paycheck of his career. As an elevated event, the win comes with a three-year PGA TOUR exemption. Horschel said he has learned from Tiger Woods and Nicklaus that he didn’t need to do anything special with a five-shot lead unless the moment called for it. It was calling on the 15th hole after Wise stuffed a wedge into 2 feet for birdie. “If I had to do something special, I was ready for it,” he said. “Making that was huge.” Wise did what he could in a final round so difficult that no one shot better than 69. He and Joaquin Niemann were the only players to apply any serious pressure on Horschel. He opened the back nine with a pair of birdies sand saved par from the back bunker on the 12th. But he dropped a shot on the 13th just as Horschel was looking shaky. Wise made a bogey on the final hole for a 71 to finish alone in second. Cameron Smith, who had the 36-hole lead, also started five shots behind. He had a pair of double bogeys for a 42 on the front nine and was never a factor. Niemann, who won another elevated event at Riviera in The Genesis Invitational, made a strong move and was creeping within range until his wedge on the 14th found a bunker, leading to double bogey. He answered with two birdies, finished with a double bogey and shot 71. He tied for third with defending champion Patrick Cantlay (71). Before the handshake with Nicklaus, Horschel was mobbed by his three children. He now has seven PGA TOUR victories. His wife has watched him win. His parents have seen him win. This was the first time his children were there, and they were bouncing on the firm greens. That might have been as great as any pressure as Horschel felt. “Having a five-shot lead, knowing it was mine to win, I really wanted to get the monkey off my back,” he said of winning with his kids in attendance. Horschel moves to just outside the top 10 in the world, the highest he has ever been, thanks to a year that finally has brought some consistency in a hit-and-miss game. He has three victories in the last 15 months, all of them against strong fields — the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last year, and now this. It might even be enough to finally be considered for a U.S. team with the Presidents Cup later this year.
Billy Horschel battled tough conditions and a charging field but pulled away Sunday at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday at Muirfield Village. It is Horschel’s seventh PGA TOUR win. Here’s a look inside Horschel’s bag … Driver: Titleist TSi3 (8 degrees) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X 3-wood: Titleist TSi2 (15 degrees) Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black Smoke 70 6.5 TX 5-wood: Titleist TSi2 (18 degrees) Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black Smoke 80 6.5 TX Irons: Titleist 620 CB (3), 620 MB (4-PW) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X10 Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (52-12F, 56-10S), Vokey WedgeWorks Proto (60-V @62) Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Black Onyx S400 Putter: Ping Sigma 2 Tyne 4 Ball: Titleist Pro V1 Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
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The RBC Canadian Open returns to the PGA TOUR schedule after two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. FedExCup leader and world No.1 Scottie Scheffler headlines the field with Rory McIlroy returning to defend his title from 2019. FIELD NOTES: Scottie Scheffler, a four-time winner already this season, will make his RBC Canadian Open debut… Sam Burns, who topped Scheffler in a playoff to win the Charles Schwab Challenge, will also make his Canadian Open debut… Rory McIlroy returns to defend… Justin Thomas is making his second-straight Canadian Open appearance… Cameron Smith, winner of THE PLAYERS Championship, returns to Canada… Other notables include Tony Finau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry (who finished tied for second in 2019), Justin Rose, Tyrell Hatton, and Patrick Reed… Corey Conners, the top-ranked Canadian in the FedExCup standings, leads a contingent of 21 Canadians in the field… Taylor Pendrith hopes to make his return after being on the shelf since THE PLAYERS due to a broken rib… Mike Weir makes his 29th appearance at the Canadian Open, the third-most all time… David Hearn will make his 18th start at his country’s national open… Sponsor exemptions include Albin Choi and Stuart MacDonald off the Korn Ferry Tour, plus Jared du Toit, who tied for ninth as an amateur in 2016, when he played in the final group Sunday. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: St. George’s Golf and Country Club, par 70, 7,014 yards. The Stanley Thompson gem, first constructed in 1929, is consistently ranked as one of Canada’s top courses – if not its best. Located just 11 miles from the CN Tower, St. George’s has hosted the Canadian Open five times – most recently in 2010 – along with the CP Women’s Open five times. Playing up, down, and across valleys, golfers will have to contend with uneven lies, thick rough, and slopey greens (which were all re-worked in 2014 after an ice storm caused turf damage in the winter of 2013). Due to the location and size of St. George’s practice area, Islington Golf Club (just down the road) will be the home of the tournament practice area. Golfers will be shuttled from Islington to St. George’s and will tee off No.’s 1 and 9. STORYLINES: The RBC Canadian Open was the only North American-based TOUR event to miss both 2020 and 2021 and returns with plenty of excitement for the Canadian crowds. The Chief Commercial Officer of Golf Canada, John Sibley, calls this year’s effort the “largest operational undertaking” in the organization’s history… Haskins Award winner Chris Gotterup will make his debut on TOUR as a professional. Gotterup had a standout collegiate career and finished seventh in the PGA TOUR U rankings. The last golfer to make his TOUR debut as a pro at the RBC Canadian Open, in 2019, was Collin Morikawa, who tied for 14th… “The Rink” returns. The hockey-themed fan experience on the par-3 16th hole features boards along both sides of the hole… Five of the world’s top-10 golfers will be in the field. This will be the fourth consecutive TOUR event with at least three of the top five… A Canadian hasn’t won the RBC Canadian Open since 1954. Brooke Henderson won the CP Women’s Open in Regina, Saskatchewan in 2018. 72-HOLE RECORD: 258, Rory McIlroy (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Carl Pettersson (3rd round, 2010 at St. George’s G&CC) LAST TIME: Rory McIlroy captured the 2019 RBC Canadian Open by seven shots after firing a 9-under 61 at Hamilton Golf and Country Club – flirting with a 59 for most of the day before making bogey on No’s 16 and 18. McIlroy, who was 5-under through his first seven holes Sunday, held the 54-hole lead after firing a Saturday 64 and never looked back. It was his 16th win on TOUR. Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson tied for second at 15-under while Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar were two shots further back and tied for fourth. Adam Hadwin finished sixth and was low Canadian. He also earned a spot in The Open Championship with his top-8 result. The last time St. George’s Golf and Country Club hosted the RBC Canadian Open, in 2010, Carl Pettersson won by one shot over Dean Wilson. Pettersson made the cut on the number but shot a tournament-record 60 in the third round. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes
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