Billy Horschel has had a rough few days… make that a month or a year. The eight-time PGA Tour winner has struggled considerably. Ever since his victory at the Corales Puntacana Championship in 2024, Horschel has struggled for major stretches on the Tour. While his only saving grace was a T2 finish at the 2024 Open Championship and a title victory at the TGL, Horschel has been consistently hitting below his expectations, missing cuts he was expected to make, and finishing way below where he was projected to finish.

This year in 12 starts, the PGA Tour pro only reached the Top 10 twice in 12 events, a 9th-placed finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and a T4 finish at the Valspar Championship. Amid a turbulent season, a new misfortune has landed on his plate. While travelling to Denver, the PGA Tour pro had his luggage misplaced. The American golfer had taken a flight out of Jacksonville to Denver with a connection in Atlanta. The initial flight was delayed, and that caused the subsequent connection to be quick. He had realized that the luggage could have trouble doing the same jump in the small amount of time.

However, thankfully, not all hope was lost. He had reached out to the airline, Delta Airlines, via X and asked them to send the bags through as soon as possible. His request was pretty straightforward. “Would love it if they make it on the next flight to Denver out of Atlanta. Can send the bag tag # to see if we can make this happen.” The Florida resident tweeted.

The airline did not take long to heed the request and send the luggage on its merry way, with Horschel himself updating on X that the bags are en route. “Looks like all the bags are on the next flight to Denver. Thanks @Delta.” Disaster averted. A loss of luggage would have been a difficult thing to deal with for Horschel mentally, as he is now preparing to take an extended break from the PGA Tour and golf, in general, after deciding to undergo hip surgery.

Billy Horschel opts for hip surgery

The surgery is scheduled to take place in Colorado, which is why the whole travel fiasco happened in the first place. Oh, the irony. Horschel had been struggling with his performances of late, missing 5 cuts in 12 events. He had withdrawn from the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a competition he had won twice, and announced that he would be undergoing surgery as a preventative measure. He had also opted out of participating in the upcoming PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Horschel will spend some time in rehab post-surgery and will be looking to return to the tour by late summer or early fall. The problem is that he would be missing the remaining majors, while reducing his chances of featuring in the Ryder Cup squad. He is currently 16 in the rankings and could easily able to qualify for the squad with strong performances in the coming months.

What do you think of the preventative surgery choice made by Billy Horschel? Do you think this is the apt moment for the same, considering a Ryder Cup spot hung in the balance?