Farmers Insurance Open interview: Billy Horschel

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Q.  It's kind of a surreal day out here at Torrey Pines.
BILLY HORSCHEL:  Yeah, it's crazy.  I knew it was going to get foggy out here, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.  Obviously, Pebble, I've been up there when it's been foggy, and had it several hours to wait.  But nothing where the whole day has been washed out.
Maybe two groups have teed off, and we've been put on the go a couple times and haven't gone.  So it's a crazy day.

Q.  How about just the talk was at half an hour and an hour, so forth, like you mentioned.  Tell us how you've killed the last seven hours?
BILLY HORSCHEL:  Eat a couple times, sit down, relax, chit‑chat, come out here and putt, chit‑chat with everyone else.  Just try to stay loose.  It's all I've done, really.  Just another day for me.

Q.  You haven't really warmed up?  You don't have the golf shoes on.  You haven't really gone through that process yet?
BILLY HORSCHEL:  No, I never even came close to warming up.  Usually I get going about an hour and a half before my team time with a 30‑minute warm‑up, doing some stretching and running a little bit in the trailer, and then start putting and hitting balls.  So, yeah, I never even came close to starting a routine.
So, yeah, just the day off.  Obviously, it's a little bit more of not a relaxing day because you're not sure what's going to happen because you've got to be prepared.  It is what it is, and we'll come out here and play however many holes we have to play tomorrow and finish it off on Monday, I guess.

Q.  Given the pairings, does that add a little extra excitement to the waiting process?
BILLY HORSCHEL:  You know, yeah.  To make it more anticipation to play with Tiger, maybe a little bit, but not much.  I think the coolest thing that can come from it is that I think it looks like we're going to be paired together for 36 holes.  So it's a pretty cool thing that's going to happen.
It's just going to be a fun day tomorrow and Monday, if we have to go into Monday.  So we'll see how it goes.

Q.  What do you do from here for the rest of the afternoon, if, in fact‑‑ well, it doesn't look like you'd play either way.  So what do you do from here?
BILLY HORSCHEL:  Go back, do a light workout, relax, and just hang out, really, not do much.  Just pretty much a normal day.
I thought about going to hit balls, but I'm not going to hit any balls.  You know, the swing feels good.  There is no need for me to go and hit balls.  I could tinker a little too much, and get too much in my own way.

Q.  Is this week potentially more important than another week given the scope of it, your position on the leaderboard, playing with Tiger and things like that?  Does that magnify what's going on this week or do you try to eliminate that and discount that?
BILLY HORSCHEL:  No, I don't think this week's any more important than any other week.  It's another tournament, another golf course, another round of golf.  It means no more than what last week's tournament did, and it means no less than what the next tournament's going to be like.
So it's just a regular tournament.  I'm going to come out here, play my best the next 36 holes and after the 36 holes, we'll just see where I stand, and we'll see what the results are.

Q.  Have you played with Tiger before?
BILLY HORSCHEL:  Never have.  It's going to be exciting.  I'm excited to play with him.  I've got a lot of good advice from other players who have texted me who have played with him before and given me some good advice.  So I'm just going to do my own thing, take a couple of things that some guys have mentioned to me and just go about that.

Q.  Can you share a couple of those?
BILLY HORSCHEL:  Furyk just said, Jim Furyk texted me this morning and said just play your game.  Do your thing.  Don't try to do anything that you wouldn't do if you were playing with him or you weren't playing with him.  And Snedeker gave me a little advice and said just focus on yourself.  It's going to be a crazy atmosphere.  You're going to have to grind some stuff out.  Don't try to match him or anything that he does.  He's going to be making some incredible shots, whether he's 8‑over par or 8‑under par, it doesn't really matter.
I think the gist of it comes down to that everyone just said play your own game.  Don't focus on anything he does, and go about everything that you would do.