'It's been awful': FedEx Cup winner gives season 'F' grade after hot Wyndham start

Billy Horschel, a former FedEx Cup champion and eight-time PGA Tour winner, is not hiding his disappointment with his 2026 season. Heading into this week's Wyndham Championship, he ranked a dismal 107th in the FedEx Cup standings, reflecting a year far from his usual standards.

Even a strong start at the Greensboro event couldn't salvage the overall impression. After shooting a first-round 65, Horschel stated he hadn't done anything 'particularly special.' According to him, his wedges were 'not sharp enough,' and the round, apart from one impressive 45-foot eagle putt on the 15th hole, was 'pretty boring.'

'There wasn’t really much excitement except making a 45-foot eagle putt on No. 15,' Horschel shared at his post-round press conference.

However, he saved his harshest words for his season-long performance. At 39 years old, likely in the twilight of his career, Horschel has already made a significant mark in golf history. Besides his eight PGA Tour wins, he is the 2014 FedEx Cup champion. This season, however, his results have been far from championship caliber.

Horschel has missed 10 cuts in 23 starts. His only top-10 finish came at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event. His 107th position in the FedEx Cup rankings accurately reflects his current performance, and the player fully agrees.

When a reporter asked Horschel to grade his season, he didn't shy away from a direct answer. 'I think they grade now from A to E, right? There’s an E in there? If there was below an E, it would be that. It’s been awful,' he stated.

He added that he is a 'very harsh critic' of himself. 'My team understands that, I’m realistic,' Horschel explained. And then he gave his grade for the season: 'It’s an F.'

'It’s an F, there’s no doubt about it,' Horschel said of his lost season. 'I could try and make it sound better or find something good, but I’m going to put it as it is right now, it’s an F. And there’s only one way to go and that’s up, so that’s the great thing about it.'

Given his current ranking, Horschel needs to win the Wyndham Championship to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. However, he isn't feeling excessive pressure, viewing the possibility of missing the playoffs as 'not the end of the world.' Instead, he hopes to build momentum for next season.

'Been out here for 17 years, I’ve seen everything, I’ve done everything for the most part. I just have to use the source author’s experience to understand that, yeah, it’s been a bad year,' Horschel said. 'Yeah, I mean, there’s no pressure. I mean, if I don’t make the FedEx Cup Playoffs — I didn’t make it in ’23. I didn’t make it last year, I was injured. So it’s not the end of the world. You know, when it’s all said and done with my career, no one’s going to be looking back and say, hey, Billy didn’t make the FedEx Cup Playoffs in ’26 possibly and lessen my career by that aspect,' Horschel explained on Thursday. 'To me, it’s more or less just getting myself back to the quality of golf I was playing in ’24 and early in ’25 and taking that momentum into the rest of this year, then starting off ’27 really strong and getting myself back to where I want to be in this game of golf and that’s competing for tournaments, that’s being up there in world ranking, that is competing for majors like I did in ’24 and sort of have a strong last few years of my career out here.'

After a first-round 65 that placed him in the top 20 at the Wyndham Championship, Horschel's strategy of intentionally not putting pressure on himself seems to be paying off. It might even lead to a victory that extends his season.