Billy Horschel's ball blown off green into water

Billy Horschel was striking the ball well during Sat­ur­day’s third round and got a huge emotional lift with a long birdie putt at the par-4 ninth hole and a two-putt birdie at the par-5 13th.

Facing a 13-foot, uphill putt for birdie at the par-5 15th, Horschel liked where he stood: make the putt and go to 2-over for the Masters Tourna­ment with three holes to play, and perhaps enter the final round on the fringes of the top 10, or in it.

What happened next was scarcely believable.

“The golfing gods … I think they owe me one, hopefully,” he said.

Horschel went for the green in two and missed slightly to the left. He chipped on and left the ball in a flat spot below the hole.

Hor­schel marked his ball, then replaced it and walked around to have another look at the putt from the side. Sud­den­ly, a gust of wind from behind the green blew the ball about a foot, enough for it to catch the downhill slope and roll into the water.

Horschel gestured in frustration and looked for a rules official. However, he said he knew what the ruling would be. He had to place the ball as near as possible at the spot where he chipped for his third shot, at the cost of a penalty stroke. He chipped onto the green again and got a four-foot putt for bogey.

Horschel regained his composure and hit the final three greens in regulation, two-putting for par to shoot 73 and finish in a tie for 15th at 4-over 220.

“I had an uphill putt … you couldn’t ask for anything more,” he said. “And the wind just gusted. It’s just an unfortunate situation … I’ll move on from it and hopefully (Sunday) I come out and play a really good round of golf.”

The stiff wind this week has blown some putts off line, but Horschel’s was the first reported case where the wind blew a ball into the water.

The incident might have tested Horschel’s emotions in the past, but he held himself together and blamed no one.

“I wasn’t happy,” he said. “I expressed some frustrations to the rules official but it was nothing out of hand, nothing out of line. They wanted to get the course on a fine line and it’s been on a fine line, but fair. Everyone knows I’m an emotional guy. I’m just trying to learn as I get older to harness it a little bit. It’s bad luck. It’s not the rule official’s fault, it’s not Augusta’s fault, it’s nobody’s fault for that happening.”

In retrospect, Horschel said he should have waited to replace his ball and remove the mark at the last second before putting. Had the mark been there and the ball moved by the wind, he could have replaced it at no penalty.

“In the past, where I thought a ball could move, I kept my coin there and not put the ball down until I was ready to hit the ball,” he said. “In that case, I didn’t think anything about the
wind coming to blow it or anything. It wasn’t gusting that hard”

Horschel was asked whether the rule his situation came under should be changed.

“I’m not in the business of changing rules,” he said.