After his appearance at Augusta National in April 2025, Billy Horschel missed every other major this season. No, it’s not because he didn’t qualify for the tournaments. Instead, the 39-year-old was recovering from hip surgery for nearly six months. While he may be disappointed about missing them, Horschel expressed that he has a unique relationship with the majors because of his attempt to replicate the approach of Tiger Woods.

Writing for The Player Tribune, Horschel told the fans, “It’s not lost on me that the biggest is by playing well in the majors. But for me, with the majors, it’s always been a real love-hate relationship. And I’d say it’s been a lot more hate than love.”

Horschel has often struggled to perform in the majors. He has made 42 appearances across all four majors, making the cut 28 times. However, the golfer from Florida has only made it to the top-10 three times. And he explained why he has not made a huge impact in the majors.

“Growing up, we all watched Tiger dominate them. Everything about his game seemed perfect. So when I turned pro and started playing more consistently in majors, I tried to be perfect, too. I thought that to win one, you had to be absolutely dialed. That everything had to be at 100.”

“And I’d get so caught up in my own head that I’d get off to these horrible starts and just forget to be myself. I’d lose the joy of looking up and seeing the ball fly at my target. And for a decade, really, I struggled like that.”

Trying to achieve perfection, Horschel failed to do the minimum. It’s not like he’s a bad golfer. He has eight PGA Tour wins to his name. The 39-year-old has won some big titles, like the Memorial Tournament and the AT&T Byron Nelson. He has also won the BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship in 2014 against Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, and Co. This showed that he can also go on a dominating run. So when it comes to the majors, it’s only a question of overcoming his mental barriers.

But Horschel revealed that it’s not as easy to do so at the biggest stage in golf: “It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, just treat it like another event,’ or ‘Just be yourself.’ But even now, with a better attitude and some good results at the majors under my belt, I still have to work hard to relax, to be me, when those events roll around.”

Not everyone can remain composed in tense situations like Tiger Woods. Even McIlroy struggled to calm his nerves at Augusta National for over a decade. So, for someone who has never won a major, it becomes even more difficult. But overcoming that first mental block is the real test.

Interestingly, Billy Horschel nearly overcame the challenge a year ago. And his views about the situation would have been different today had he achieved his dream in 2024. Let’s see what happened last season.

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Billy Horschel nearly fell in love with the majors in 2024

It was one of the biggest tests of his career as Billy Horschel faced off against Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele on Championship Sunday. They were fighting Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Thriston Lawrence, and Sam Brown at the Royal Troon for The Open Championship title.

Going into the final round, Horschel was leading the field by 1 stroke. He had caught a lucky break since Shane Lowry shot 6-over par on Saturday to drop 8 places down to the 9th position. This was his only chance to seal the deal.

With a 3-under par, Billy Horschel gave it his best shot to try and maintain a lead. Unfortunately, his three bogeys in the round proved to be costly as he ended the tournament at 7-under par, 2 strokes shy of Schauffele. Had he scored an error-free round, then Horschel’s nightmare in the majors would have ended. He would have also probably hated them a lot less today.