After taking a break of several months due to a hip injury, which required a preventive surgery, Billy Horschel is finally making a return to competitive golf. Taking to Instagram, the eight-time PGA Tour winner announced that he will be next seen at Wentworth, participating in the 2025 BMW PGA Championship. The American is already a two-time winner, and his excitement was clear in the video.

“I think I’ve talked about for many years how special this place is. Growing up watching it on TV and then to finally play it six, seven plus years ago for the first time, and then to call myself now a two-time champion is surreal.” Horschel claimed the Championship twice, in 2021 and 2024, with the latter being particularly dramatic. He secured his victory in a playoff against Rory McIlroy and Thriston Lawrence, becoming the first American golfer to win the event twice. He emphasized the energy and excitement fans bring to the event, noting that playing in front of them has always been a highlight of his career. However, this good news was accompanied by a significant change in his tour status.

Due to the hip injury, Billy Horschel was not able to fulfill the DP World Tour’s minimum event requirement for 2025. This has prompted him to resign his membership for the season. “After consulting with the D.P. World Tour and their member regulations, the best course of action is for me to resign my membership for 2025,” he explained in the video.

So, if he is stepping down from his membership, then how come he is allowed to compete at the BMW PGA Championship, which is a marquee event of the DP Tour? Well, here’s the thing: as Horschel is the defending champion at Wentworth, he benefits from an exemption that allows past winners of the BMW PGA Championship to play in future events, even if they are not full members. Several other players, like Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed, have been given exemptions in the past for the DP World Tour Championship, when they were not able to achieve the minimum requirement due to COVID-19.

But even if Horschel participates in the event, he will not be accumulating those points in his profile for the Race to Dubai, as he is no longer part of the tour. The American will be gracing the iconic English course and competing against the world’s best. just for the sheer sense of competition. “I am committed to being a full D.P. World Tour member in 2026 again. I’ve enjoyed being a D.P. World Tour member over the last handful of years.”

Having said all that, it is important to notice Horschel’s eagerness to be a part of the DP World Tour, even though he is associated with the PGA Tour too. What’s the reason behind it? Let’s have a look.

Why the DP World Tour became Billy Horschel’s second home?

“I met my college coach, Buddy Alexander, who said, if you want to consider yourself a world-class player, you have to play around the world, and you have to play well, and you have to win. And that’s something I’ve taken to heart over the last five years.” It was 2019 when Billy Horschel decided to be a part of the DP World Tour. He made a debut at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship, and since then has built a steady resume that rivals some of the Tour’s most consistent international players. His breakthrough came in 2021, when he won the same event with a closing 65. That season, he went on to finish runner-up in the Race to Dubai standings, making the DP World Tour a central place in his schedule. By 2024, he cemented his place in Wentworth history, winning the BMW PGA Championship twice.

But these weren’t one-off performances —Horschel has been competitive globally by finishing runner-up at the 2023 DP World Tour Championship. He contended again in 2024, before ranking fourth in the season-long standings. His success spilled into majors too, with a T8 at the PGA Championship and a T2 at The Open both in 2024, signaling his swift adaptability that he gained across two major tours. To Horschel, the grind of competing in different climates, grasses, and course setups across the world sharpened his skillset in ways the PGA Tour alone couldn’t replicate. “Guys didn’t see the benefits of travel, not only in how it can help your golf game and how it can make you a better player, but as a person as well. When you visit these countries that you’ve never been to and are out of your element, you grow as a person,” he told bunkered in 2023 on why other players from the PGA Tour follow a similar path.

This mindset, combined with childhood spent watching the European Tour, pushed him toward the DP World Tour when many of his American peers stayed at home. For him, golf’s true stage is the entire globe.