Billy Horschel returned to competition under six months after hip surgery despite a projected one-to-two-year recovery timeline, prompting questions about whether doctors had misjudged his recovery.

The surgery came in May 2025 after Billy Horschel withdrew from the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a hip issue. Doctors repaired a labrum tear, shaved bone to open the hip capsule, and treated two microfractures. 

With microfractures often requiring one to two years to heal, Horschel’s medical team told him the recovery could take one to two years before the hip fully settled. The timeline for recovery remained long even as Horschel worked his way back to competition.

But when asked directly at the Arnold Palmer Invitational press conference on Thursday if the doctors had been wrong about the recovery timeline, Horschel dismissed that idea.

“No… there’s a reason they’re doctors, and there’s a reason I’m not,” he said, adding that while athletes often believe they can beat recovery timelines, the body still needs time to heal.

To explain why he believes recovery timelines can extend beyond a player's return to competition, Billy Horschel pointed to a wrist surgery from earlier in his career and drew a comparison with his current hip recovery.

“I had wrist surgery in 2010. I know that it took a full year to get back. I mean, I played four months after surgery, and I was fine, but it was a year of not having to ice it after rounds every day, not to be tight, maybe not swell up. So the hip's a very similar situation. I just can't see it swell up. I can feel it. I can feel it get a little tight, feel a little puffy. Sometimes I think I can beat the year process that they always seem to say.”

Eight-time PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel returned in September at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour, marking his first start after surgery. He finished with a total score of 143 (-1) and did not make the cut.

As the 2026 season began, Horschel’s focus shifted to rebuilding results and moving back into the world’s top 50 in time for major championship qualification.

Billy Horschel’s comeback now turns to the 2026 season and the path back to major championships

Amid Billy Horschel’s return to competition after hip surgery in 2025, he has begun the 2026 season on the PGA Tour while working to rebuild his position in the rankings. 

His injury-shortened 2025 campaign left him without automatic entry into major championships or the tour’s signature events. Because of that, the early part of the season has taken on added importance. 

Horschel currently sits at 84th in the Official World Golf Ranking and does not yet hold a place in the field for The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.

The thirty nine-year-old most recently teed off at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he opened with a bogey-free 69 in the first round while continuing his effort to move back up the standings.

For now, his path to Augusta runs through the next stretch of events. A victory on the PGA Tour or a move into the top 50 in the world rankings by the end of the Texas Children's Houston Open would secure his place in the Masters field.

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Written by

Aditi Singh

Edited by

Oajaswini Prabhu