Rookie Horschel to undergo season-ending wrist surgery

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Billy Horschel got his card at the 2009 PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament.

Billy Horschel will miss the remainder of the year with a left wrist injury that will require him to have season-ending surgery, he said Tuesday.

Horschel, a former standout at the University of Florida who is a rookie on the PGA TOUR this year after finishing seventh at q-school, said the sheet protecting his ECU tendon is torn. Luke Donald had a similar injury two years ago. Donald had surgery in August of 2008 to repair a tendon in his left wrist and missed the remainder of that year.

Horschel said he isn't sure how he hurt the wrist, but that it's been bothering him since last October, when he slept on it awkwardly.

"It's gotten progressively worse since then," Horschel said Tuesday via cell phone. "I got a shot for it earlier this year, but I've been dealing with [the pain] for the last month."

Horschel, who had yet to make a cut in four starts this year, will receive a Major Medical Exemption and should have essentially the same status on TOUR next season that he had as a q-school grad this year.

"It happens," said Horschel, who was scheduled to play in this week's Waste Management Phoenix Open. "Everyone feels bad for me, but something good will come from it. Look at the bright side, I get to keep my card for another year."

Horschel will have the surgery sometime in the next couple of weeks, he said. Dr. Andrew Weiland of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, the same doctor who Donald saw two years ago, will treat Horschel.

Prior to becoming a member of the TOUR, Horschel was a four-time All-American at Florida, where he was the SEC Player of the Year in 2007 and 2009. Horschel also received medalist honors at the 2006 U.S. Amateur and was a two-time member of the U.S. Palmer Cup team as well as the 2007 Walker Cup team, posting a 3-1 record.