'They would grow as people...' Horschel fires message to Scheffler and other PGA Tour stars

Billy Horschel believes a number of fellow PGA Tour players such as Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele would "grow as people" if they took a leaf out of his book and competed in more tournaments on the DP World Tour. 

Horschel, 37, made his feelings be known after travelling from Florida to Dubai to compete in this week's season-ending DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

To the American's credit, this week's event on the Earth Course will mark his eighth of the 2024 DP World Tour season.

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Horschel played in three of the four majors (he missed out on competing in The Masters) and he added the Genesis Scottish Open, BMW PGA, Dunhill Links, Open de France and DP World Tour Championship to his packed schedule.

He has more than just made up the numbers too as he took down Rory McIlroy - much to the disappointment of the majority of fans at Wentworth - to win a second BMW PGA title since 2021 on the famed West Course.

The World No.15 also nearly took out his first major title with a T2 at The 152nd Open.

That marked Horschel's best major result to date in 43 career appearances.

Meanwhile, runaway World No.1 Scheffler played in just two events outside of his homeland this season - The Open (Scotland) and Olympics (France).

Scheffler went on to win his first Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer, something that reduced him to tears on the podium.

That marked one of eight victories for a dominant Scheffler this season, who was deservedly crowned FedEx Cup champion. 

Elsewhere, World No.2 Schauffele, World No.4 Collin Morikawa and World No.6 Wyndham Clark all played just three events in Europe - Scottish Open, The Open, Olympics. 

Schauffele of course went on to win The Open at Royal Troon, marking the second major of his career and the 2024 season. 

Morikawa and Schauffele also both played outside of the U.S. at the ZOZO Championship in Japan last month - albeit that is not a DP World Tour event - since it's a tournament close to their hearts as a result of family ties. 

World No.11 Patrick Cantlay, on the other hand, played in just The Open outside of the U.S. since he did not qualify for the Olympics. 

The list is seemingly endless - and has been for some time now - when it comes to high-profile American golfers all preferring to fill their schedules with home events, especially given the heavily-inflated prize purses they all play for on the PGA Tour these days.

But Horschel very much bucks the trend, and he hopes more of his peers will follow suit. 

When pressed by a reporter as to whether he is surprised more of his peers don't follow his path and example, Horschel replied: 

"Yes and no. I've talked about this quite a bit. Listen, I have a different view of the game of golf and the world of golf. I grew up watching The European Tour. I grew up envisioning coming over here and playing these events, and even as I turned pro early in my career I still watched a ton of it and envisioned coming over and playing.

"So you know, like I said, my college coach said if you want to be a world-class player, global player, you've got to travel around the world ask play well and you've got to win events to consider yourself a world-class player. I don't fault the guys in America. That's the decision they made but listen, when the Tour started doing financially a lot better than the DP World, or European Tour at the time, 20 years ago, it changed the ways that guys don't have to travel and guys are very much American centric.

"Like I said, I don't fault them for it but I think they would have have -- I think when you think about the game of golf, giving back and travelLing around the world where people can watch and you see you take pictures with you, sign autographs, that's one way to sort of give back to the game of golf.

"And I think they would grow as people, too, by travelling more around the world and experiencing more culture and experiencing different languages and everything.

"Listen, I always encourage guys to travel and always encourage guys to come over and play even if it's a couple events out of the year. At the end of the day, it's their decision and they do what's best for them and that's their choice. You can't fault them for the decision they make."

Horschel also considers playing in more events outside of the United States, and especially on links courses in the United Kingdom, has made him "by far a better golfer" in 2024.

It's also made him a better person, he believes. 

Horschel continued: 

"I mean, I think I've improved my game in conditions like playing in The Open Championship and going and playing Dunhill and doing that more often. I've become a lot better of a person, I guarantee you that, by having to understand different cultures. Try to communicate with people that may not speak English as well or I may not speak their language as well, so you try to communicate that way.

"Listen, it's made me a better person all around, as well as in my golf game. That's why I said I think it's better for people to travel because you go grow as a person and it does help your golf game but I think the biggest thing is you do grow as a person."

Horschel lies fourth in the DP World Tour Rankings heading into the final event.

He cannot win the Race to Dubai though since Rory McIlroy is too far ahead in the standings.

Only Thriston Lawrence can catch McIlroy.

Lawrence will need to win the DP World Tour Championship and then rely on McIlroy finishing outside the top 10.

This week's $10m tournament has a field of just 50 players. 

The winner of the Race to Dubai gets $2m. 

See the full prize purse here. 

McIlroy is seeking a third straight Race to Dubai title and sixth overall that would match the feat of late great Seve Ballesteros.

Colin Montgomerie holds the record for eight Harry Vardon trophies. 

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