It was a text message Billy Horschel was not expecting but it contained words that gave the golfer an almighty lift.
On June 1, Horschel, the defending champion, shot a 12-over-par 84 in the opening round of the Memorial Tournament. It was the highest opening round by a defending champion in tournament history, surpassing the 80 that Jim Simons posted to start his title defence in 1979.
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The 36-year-old, who is a massive West Ham United fan, displayed raw emotion in his post-round chat with the media as he described what went wrong and why his confidence was at an all-time low. Two days after, Mark Noble, West Ham’s sporting director, felt compelled to reach out.
"I'll go out there and give it my all like I always do."
Transparency and raw emotion from defending champion Billy Horschel after an opening round 84. pic.twitter.com/4Cx7r6hmPL
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 2, 2023
“Nobes sent me a lovely message which read, ‘Billy Ho, there’s been times mate when I’ve come from games and I’ve cried my eyes out. There’s been seasons when I took everything on my shoulders and cried my eyes out. It’s because we strive to be perfect at everything and work day and night to get better and care for the people that rely on us. You are a fucking champion not because of the money you have earned but because of the man you are. Keep believing my bro, things will get better. Love you mate’.
“That meant so much to me and I was almost drawn to tears again. When I spoke to him on the phone, he said, ‘I started crying when I watched your interview. I couldn’t text you straightaway because I couldn’t stop crying without texting. I had to take a couple days to send it’. Noble doing that was pretty special and I’m lucky to have him as a friend.”
Horschel, a seven-time PGA Tour winner, believes his candid interview after the Memorial was a turning point for his season. He made the cut at the US Open and Scottish Open and will begin his Open bid tomorrow, alongside Canada’s Corey Conners and Alex Noren of Sweden for the first two rounds at Royal Liverpool.

“Looking back at it it was like a line-in-the-sand moment,” he says. “It allowed me to share everything and just move on. Since I’ve done that, I’ve been playing better, seen better results and I feel more at ease. I tell a lot of people shooting 84 that day didn’t make me cry. It was just six months of grind, of putting in hours in the gym, looking at videos and trying to figure out with my team how I can improve.
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“I’ve never declined an interview. After I signed my scorecard one of the media officials for the PGA Tour asked if I could answer a few questions. But then he said, ‘You don’t have to.’ Being the defending champion, it wouldn’t look good if I didn’t speak to the media. I was at a very low point with my confidence and my golf. I gave an honest and real interview. I was able to get things off my chest.
“But my game is finally starting to turn a corner. It’s been the toughest year I’ve had on the PGA tour, but over the last month or so I’m finally starting to see improvement. I’m hitting better shots and now I need more results in tournaments which will help build up my confidence.”
When Horschel reflecting on one of the lowest moments of his career, he was grateful for the support of Noble. The latter reached out to the golfer in 2021 and the pair have remained close friends ever since. In April, Horschel attended the FA Youth Cup final with Noble and Declan Rice. The trio regularly play golf when Horschel is in London.
“I had just won the matchplay championship in 2021 and I received loads of text messages,” he says. “Then all of a sudden I received one that said, ‘Hey mate, this is Mark Noble, captain of West Ham. I’ve been following you since I found out you’re a West Ham fan. I just want to say congrats on the win and if you’re ever in London, let’s connect’.
“I’m not one that gets shell-shocked but when Mark texted me, I shouted to my wife, ‘Babe, Mark Noble just texted me’. Then we started texting back and forth every day. My wife (Brittay) and I went to a game at the London Stadium in October (2021) against Tottenham. Michail Antonio scored and we won. After the game, me, Mark and our wives went out and had a blast.
“I played golf with him before the Scottish Open and joked, ‘When you played football we would talk every other day. Now you have this job as sporting director you’re so busy, I talk to you like once a week’. He loves what he’s doing now, he’s just super busy. He’s not bad at golf — plays off around 12-14 handicap. I also played with him at Dunhill last year as my partner.
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“I played golf with Scott McTominay (the Manchester United midfielder) the other day. I told Nobes I’m the unofficial sporting director and joked with Scott and I can work on a deal right now to get you to West Ham, Nobes will sign off on it.”
It was in 2006 when Horschel became a West Ham fan — by 2021 he had got the bug so much his bag was claret and blue for the Open.
Ready to rock the @WestHam bag at @TheOpen this week! ⚒⚒ pic.twitter.com/7cURlCmJXB
— Billy Horschel (@BillyHo_Golf) July 12, 2021
“I was in my sophomore year in college and moved into a new apartment,” he says. “The cable hadn’t been set up yet so I bought some DVDs and somehow Green Street was one of them. I watched the movie and I was addicted! I watched it several more times over the next couple of days and became a massive West Ham fan. Now I’ve watched it over 30 times.
“My stats guy Mark grew up a West Ham fan and whenever someone wants to find a Premier League club, he tells them ‘You have to watch Green Street so you can become West Ham’. It’s a good movie to watch because it shows you what it was like back in the 80s off the pitch.
“Tons of West Ham fans follow me in the gallery now. When I told Nobes I was going to debut the West Ham bag at Royal St George’s, he said, ‘Bill when they find out you’re a West Ham fan, they’re going to love you’. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t hear, ‘Come on you Irons’.”
Noble often laughs when Horschel explains how he became a supporter. But it is not just Noble who Horschel formed a bromance with. Before Rice’s £105m switch to Arsenal, the pair spoke and met up often. They also played together at Wentworth in 2021, along with Noble.
Rice followed in the footsteps of Billy Bonds and Bobby Moore by lifting silverware as captain in Prague. Horschel hopes the England international achieves similar success at Arsenal.
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“I was 34 when I met Dec and he was 22,” says Horschel. “I was like, ‘Man this guy is only 22 and he’s this good’. It’s cool to see where Dec’s career leads to and what he will achieve. For me, as a golfer, you want to win trophies and win things that will get you remembered. Dec wants to win Premier League titles and the Champions League. Hopefully, this move to Arsenal will allow him to accomplish that.
“He’s given us a European trophy and we have to respect that he wants to win trophies elsewhere. If we had owners that were willing to really commit to the financial side then Declan would stay. But he understands that isn’t always going to happen.
“Dec could’ve easily left two or three years ago, but he didn’t. He wanted to stay and then he wanted to make sure he left the club in the best way possible. Some of his family are West Ham through and through so it’s going to be a little weird for them now.”
One of Horschel’s highlights of last season was watching the Conference League final with his four-year-old son, Axel.
“I knew the final was June 7 and my wife is really cool with me going to games,” says Horschel. “Tripp Smith (West Ham’s minority owner) and others invited me to come along but I wanted to check with my wife first. She was like, ‘It would be nice if you were home for a week instead of going around doing other things’. So that was like, ‘You’re welcome to go if you really want…’
“We had a family foundation we planned on launching the Tuesday before the final. So my plan was to stay home, do the foundation and watch it with Axel, who is a massive fan. Tuesday happens and the PGA tour and LIV Golf announces a merger so we couldn’t announce our foundation because everyone was focused on that. My wife said, ‘Seeing as this is cancelled now, go to Prague’. She was pushing me to go but I decided to stay home and watch it with Axel but he fell asleep in the 55th minute.
“Then Jarrod Bowen goes through and scores and I’m going crazy. Axel wakes up like, ‘Dad, what’s going on?’ I tell him, ‘We’ve just scored, we’re going to win’. Then he starts celebrating too. We FaceTimed Nobes in the changing room after and all the boys were going crazy.
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“When Bowen was through on the goal, my first thought was, ‘Thank God it’s not Antonio’. He’s awesome but we’ve seen what happens when he’s in one-on-one situations. I had the pleasure of meeting David Gold (who passed away in January) and I was saying, ‘Come on David, lend us a hand here’.
“But I was delighted for the manager. David (Moyes) has been great to me and, when I first met him a couple years ago, I was shocked at how much of an open book he was. He gave me a lot of inside information and shared a lot of things. It was a nice moment for him to finally win his first major trophy. But when we were struggling in the league last season I was on the fence contemplating whether we should change things or not. You have to give it to him because he rallied the troops around and ended the season strong. Hopefully, we can get off to a better start this season and push on.”
(Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
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