Horschel one of many chasing future at q-school

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Billy Horschel returns to q-school once again in search of full status on TOUR.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- A year ago at q-school, Billy Horschel had to wait until the final hole of the final round to see if he would get a PGA TOUR card. Thanks to a bogey by Will Strickler -- a former teammate of Horschel's at the University of Florida -- Horschel made it on the number and got his card.

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Fast forward to the final month of the 2011 season and Horschel was in a similar predicament, this time needing to play his way up from the depths of the money list to secure his playing privileges for next season.

In his first 19 starts this year, Horschel had missed 13 cuts and earned just under $200,000. Over his next five starts, however, he didn't finish outside the top 30, which included a tie for 10th at the Reno-Tahoe Open and a tie for seventh at the Frys.com Open, where he shot a final-round 65.

He followed that with a pair of 64s the first two rounds of The McGladrey Classic, where he went into the final day trailing by a shot and seemingly destined to avoid a return trip to what many consider golf's toughest tournament.

Instead, he shot 75 to tumble into a tie for 20th.

"I was more nervous about playing well," Horschel said. "I didn't want to mess up at all. It wasn't my day."

Or his week.

A few days later Horschel missed the cut at the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic to finish outside the top 125 on the final money list. As a result he's headed back to q-school, which begins Wednesday at PGA West.

"I wish I would've had a week or a couple more days [after McGladrey] to deflate," Horschel said. "I practiced [at Disney] Tuesday and Wednesday and you get out there and nothing's really happening. You're trying not to think 'God, I need to play well.'

"I was just worn out from the week before. I didn't handle [McGladrey] the way I wanted coming in."

As a result, Horschel, who had spent much of his rookie season in 2010 on his couch following season-ending wrist surgery in February, will be making his third trip to q-school in as many years.

He was successful each of the last two trips, but it's not a place many imagined the former Gator would be.

In 2006, Horschel won individual medalist honors at the U.S. Amateur, where he posted an opening-round 60 before becoming a four-time All-American at the University of Florida. He was twice named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and in 2007 posted a 3-1 record in the Walker Cup.

Horschel turned pro in 2009 and later that year finished seventh at q-school, seemingly destined for a permanent spot on the TOUR.

But just four starts into the 2010 season, Horschel tore a tendon in his left wrist. He didn't play again until August on the Nationwide Tour, where he missed four of five cuts.

"You may be healthy, but your confidence and the way you think and feel out there isn't the same, and the trust take a little bit longer," Horschel said. "You make compensations for having a bum wrist and when you come back healthy you try to get out of those bad habits.

"It took me longer than I thought and I probably stood in my own way."

The only thing standing in the way of a now healthy Horschel is six days of q-school.

If there's a positive for Horschel, it's that by finishing 140th on the money list he will at least have conditional status on TOUR next year -- meaning he would likely get something in the neighborhood of 15 or more starts.

That of course is not the case for most in the field this week at PGA West, where Horschel thinks his experience will be a benefit.

"I'm not in a dreadful place where I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do next," Horschel said. "If I do what I did the last couple of months I'll be fine."