T

he 26-year-old American Billy Horschel's journey to success on the PGA Tour would not exactly be described as a straight line. A wrist injury early in 2010 sidelined him after only four events on the PGA Tour.

He then gained his Tour card for the second time through Qualifying School in December 2010. After 11 starts in 2011 he finally managed to make his first cut on a PGA Tour event and finished 13th in the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Back-to-back lackluster seasons resulted in a 140th finish on the Money List in 2011 and a 148th finish in 2012. However, Horschel never gave up and knew better days were ahead.

In fact much better days were certainly very near. His game sprang to life in 2013 as he made every single cut in his first eight events.

He then ran off three straight top-ten finishes including a second and third finish at the Shell Houston Open followed by the Valero Texas Open a few weeks ago.

After his finish at the Valero he said: 'There is a lot of good that came from this week, and there is a lot of stuff that I can go and learn from. I just kept doing what I could, and I tried my best.  I did.  I didn't give up.'

Horschel was recently asked about his journey on the PGA Tour so far about which he commented: 'I thought right when I got my card, right after I got out of college, I thought it was going to be smooth sailing.  Not smooth sailing, but I thought it's going to take off.  Unfortunately, I had a wrist injury that I had to deal with.'

Everything changed last week for Horschel when he arrived in New Orleans for the Zurich Classic. He'd flirted with victory in the weeks before but never closed the deal.

After the event he commented on how he felt going into the Zurich Classic: 'This whole week I felt like I'm going to get my victory here.' After three rounds at the Zurich, Horschel was once again knocking on the door in second place at 12 under par just two strokes shy of leader American Lucas Glover.

Horschel took the lead during the final round as Glover faltered. At 19 under par, Horschel had a one-stroke lead over American D.A. Points when a second rain delay was called as he was playing the 18th and final hole. The rain delay lasted 52 minutes.

When play resumed Horschel made a spectacular putt on the 18th green to capture victory at 20 under par to beat Points who finished at 19 under. Horschel had shot a sensational eight under par 64 on Sunday to seal his victory. As the putt sank into the hole a jubilant Horschel clenched his fist and let out a scream.

Earlier in the week before the start of the event he had gone as far as telling Martin Senn, chief executive of the title sponsor Zurich Insurance, that he would win and collect the trophy from him on Sunday on the 18th green.

Horschel now joins the growing list of first-time winners on the PGA Tour in 2013 which has recorded six so far this season. He was asked half seriously if he would wear the color red on Sunday going forward, the color he wore for his win and the color that Tiger Woods wears. Horschel diplomatically responded: 'No, I don't have a regular outfit.  I just wear whatever I decide to wear for the week, and it just happened to be this color.'