Tour Championship Recap: Billy Horschel is A Rich Man

Joe Namath. Mark Messier. Billy Horschel.

Billy Horschel?

In retrospect, what Horschel said after winning the BMW Championship a week ago amounted to one of the more audacious comments a professional golfer will ever say publicly: "If I were a betting man, I'd put some money on me," he said, referring to the next event, the Tour Championship.

They just don't say things like that in the still mostly gentlemanly game of golf. If ever any golfer could have said something like that, it was Tiger Woods, and he never did.

Perhaps not quite along the lines of the bold-faced guarantees of Namath before Super Bowl III and Messier before Game 6 of the 1994 NHL Eastern Conference semifinals, Horschel's 12-word proclamation still proved equally profound.

On Sunday, he completed the most impressive run in the eight-year history of the FedEx Cup playoffs, winning the season-ending Tour Championship along with the FedEx Cup -- oh, and $11.4 million -- just three weeks removed from near playoff extinction.

Horschel, who topped Jim Furyk and Rory McIlroy by three strokes, figured his woeful season was all but over after missing the cut in the first playoff event, the Barclays. But he was runner-up in the Deutsche Bank Championship and then won the BMW before Sunday's exclamation point.

No golfer had ever won the FedEx Cup from a starting playoff position worse than 19th. Horschel began at No. 69 and, after the Barclays, fell to 82nd.

While this is one of the great golf runs in recent memory, it came too late on two fronts: Horschel will not usurp McIlroy (two majors and a WGC) as PGA Tour player of the year and he will not be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, which takes on Europe at Gleneagles in Scotland in two weeks.

Perhaps waiting till after the Tour Championship to tab the three captain's picks is too late, but Tom Watson moved up the selection date one week from when the prior captain, Paul Azinger, made his then-four captain's picks. Waiting one more week would have showcased Horschel and Deutsche Bank winner Chris Kirk, while Watson's three supposedly hot-hand selections, Keegan Bradley, Hunter Mahan and Webb Simpson, limped onward.

Of course, Horschel and Kirk are the hotter hands now, but not necessarily in two weeks. Anyone can be great one week and awful the next, or awful one week and great the next. Just ask Billy Horschel.

MONDAY BACKSWING

Jim Furyk

Furyk had one of the best non-winning seasons imaginable. He was 21-for-21 in cuts, with 11 top 10s and four runner-ups. Unfortunately for Furyk, the cynics will say the reason he had four seconds is because he can no longer close, winless since 2010. Maybe so - probably so - but in the fantasy world, if you had Furyk on your team, well done. And if you pick him next year, you'll be happy again.

Rory McIlroy

McIlroy talked of mental fatigue throughout the playoffs, but since the PGA Championship, he played the same number of events as all the other top players. Maybe that just means mental fatigue to perform at his lofty standards: After a T22 at the Barcalys, McIlroy went T5, T8, T2. Most golfers would kill for that type of mental fatigue. But if McIlroy really was too tired, maybe his off-the-course commitments were what cost him; he has more than most. He's got one week to revitalize for the Ryder Cup, but one suspects that won't be a problem. As for next season, whether you draft in October or in January, McIlroy will be the consensus top/costliest pick. And while a second straight year of winning two majors may be pushing it, there's no reason to think the world No. 1 can't run off multiple wins as the Tour's leading money winner.

Chris Kirk

Kirk didn't win the $10 million season-ending bonus that Horschel won. But he finished an impressive T4 at East Lake to wind up second in the FEC standings, netting a $3 million going-away present. As with Horschel, if the U.S. doesn't win the Ryder Cup, fingers will be pointing at Kirk - as in, Watson should've picked him, too. Kirk will be back in all the majors (and WGCs) next year after performing quite well in three of the four this season. He may not win on Tour next year, but he could still be a top 20 player.

Justin Rose

Rose didn't duplicate his 2013 season, when he won the U.S. Open, but he steadily crafted another banner campaign, with top 25s in all four majors, plus top 5s in two WGCs and The Players. And he won the Quicken Loans National. With a T4 at the Tour Championship, Rose set himself up nicely for the Ryder Cup. And next year, look for the Englishman again to be a top-10 force.

Jimmy Walker

It's hard to gauge Walker right now, because anyone would've slumped after those three early wins. You just can't keep that pace. But Walker missed the cut at the Barclays, only his fourth MC all season, then wound up T17 this week (out of 29). He had a bunch of top 10s after this third and final win at Pebble Beach back in February, but never really was in contention to win again. It will be interesting to see how he does in his first Ryder Cup, because he surely isn't playing his best golf now. With regard to Walker in 2014-15, his price is likely to be inflated and, if it is, I'd pass.

Patrick Reed

Similar to Walker's season, Reed won twice by March, locking up his Ryder Cup berth, and hasn't done a whole lot since then - he was T19 in Atlanta. We haven't heard a lot about Reed's self-proclaimed "top 5" golfer in the world comment since soon after it was uttered following his win in the WGC-Cadillac Championship. But don't for a minute think it won't resurface in the European team's discussions. Reed may very well win again next season, but he'd be another golfer I'd be wary of, based on the last six months.

Zach Johnson

If you're looking for yet another American limping into the Ryder Cup ... Zach Johnson, come on down! Johnson wound up 21st in the Tour Championship and used some strong early-season play to qualify. But he may be playing as poorly as anyone on either Ryder cup team, with only one top 10 since March, and that was as the runner-up in the ever-weak John Deere. But unlike Cup rookies Walker and Reed, Johnson seems more capable of turning it around in the team competition. As for next year? Yeah, Johnson probably will make his way to East Lake yet again, even though if you owned him this year, you undoubtedly weren't as pleased as you thought you would be.

Webb Simpson

The most controversial of Watson's three captain's picks, Simpson clearly did not have the hot hand that was said to be a prime criterion. He fortuitously wound up T9 in the Deutsche Bank the day before the selections were announced, but he had done almost all his heavy-lifting in the early part of the season (sheesh, sound familiar?). Simpson proceeded to end up T53 in the 70-man BMW and T23 in the 29-man Tour Championship. As mentioned, none of that may matter if Simpson suddenly turns it around at Gleneagles. But there may be more pressure on him than any other U.S. golfer, and a poor Ryder Cup could carry over into next season.

Hunter Mahan

Mahan didn't even have a hot hand to cool off. He was awful all season. Until stepping up to win the playoff-opening Barclays, ensuring a captain's pick. Since then? Solo 64, T59, T23. Mahan, of course, has some impetus to do well in the Ryder Cup (other than the obvious impetus), after losing the deciding match to Graeme McDowell four years ago. As for next year, it's hard to imagine Mahan being in a similar season-long funk, but some golfers just lose it and don't get it back.

Jordan Spieth

There hasn't been a lot of talk about Spieth playing poorly. After all, he's in the top 10 in the world. Oh, wait? ... What? ... He's not? Spieth peaked at No. 7 in the OWGR back in April, but has been slipping since. He's now 13th (14th before Tiger Woods fell behind him). Spieth tied for 27th at the Tour Championship, during which he shot a third-round 80. Yes, Spieth did finish T8 at the BMW, but outside of the John Deere, that was his first top 10 in five months. Watson's hand was forced with all the automatic qualifiers not playing well, but then he went ahead and chose three more. Spieth did not post a win in his sophomore season on Tour, but that shouldn't give you pause for next year. It would not be a surprise if his next win comes no later than next April, at Augusta.