TROON, Scotland — Billy Horschel was hanging on. Hanging onto his dream to become a British Open champion, a major champion.
He took a one-shot lead into Sunday’s final round at Royal Troon and embraced the challenge of closing it out for the biggest win of his career.
Horschel wasn’t playing poor golf. He shot 3-under-par 68 on Sunday. The problem was eventual winner Xander Schauffele was playing better.
So the pressure mounted on the back nine.
Horschel tugged his drive a little left off the 13th tee and admonished himself, muttering, “Damn it, Billy. My swing is failing me at the wrong time.’’
Horschel should walk away from Troon with nothing to be ashamed of.
Schauffele was simply better.
In the end, Horschel made a birdie putt on 18 to tie Justin Rose for second place, his finest career performance in a major.
“It’s what’s in my DNA, I’m going to always fight, always going to battle until the end,’’ Horschel said afterward. “I’m disappointed. I should feel disappointed. I had a chance to win a major. I was in a really good position. I just made a few too many mistakes today when I didn’t need to.’’
Horschel blinked on the par-3 eighth hole, the “Postage Stamp.’’
He hit his tee shot into a bunker and made a great sand shot to 4 feet, but missed the putt.
He, too, bogeyed No. 10 to fall to 4-under as Schauffele was making his move.
“I obviously lost momentum at 8 and 10 with those two bogeys when Xander was making a runaway charge and trying to pull away with the golf tournament,’’ Horschel said. “He played great. Listen, he’s the second-best player this year in the world. No one has played better than him in my opinion. He’s got two majors.
“We’ll look back on this in an hour, I’ll be very happy with how I played, I’ll be very happy with what I did this week. I did a lot of great things that I can take on to the next few years of majors, and hopefully one of these will be my time to step through the door and hold one of them.’’