“Love at first sight”, is how Billy Horschel describes his affection towards his wife Brittany Nelson. The duo used to play golf together at the University of Florida during their junior year. They met for the first time at the AJGA event in 2004. They even played four tournaments together in Ringgold, Georgia.

While the 37 Y.O. had already decided that she was the love of his life, it took Brittany a while to come around! Billy Horschel continued pursuing his love for golf, but a few years down the line, Brittany had to give up her dreams of playing on the LPGA Tour! What made her give up on the sport that she was so fond of?

Brittany Horschel’s wrist injury made her quit golf

Brittany was a college-level golfer. She had once even stated, “I ultimately felt like golf was the most important part of me, the part that made me interesting.” However, during her initial days playing the sport, she had to undergo three surgeries on her wrist. Despite being the ‘incredibly talented player’ that her husband called her, she had to give up on golf. This was because her wrist injuries were recurring as swinging the club requires a lot of hand pressure.

She started depending on alcohol because she could not play. While a lot of people believe that she quit golf because of alcoholism, it was the other way around. Being a parent for the first time was all the more terrifying. She spent the time she used to be on course drinking alone or at social gatherings. She had reached a state where she would beg her husband to take her to the tournaments with him. But when she got bored, she went back to school to study psychology, but she dropped out. She had started feeling like a ‘lost bird’. This was also another reason she could not play golf.

However, the couple got married in 2010. Three years later, Brittany had a miscarriage, and she dealt with it in her way – drowning herself in alcohol. A year later, she was pregnant with baby Skylark, who was born in 2014, two days after Horschel won at the Tour Championship in September. Although she did not consume alcohol during her pregnancy, taking care of the baby made her feel lonely, and she resorted to it. “I felt like that was my job to take care of my daughter. I felt like that’s what I’m supposed to be doing because I’m not doing anything else,” said Brittany.

Now fully recovered after going through several days of rehabilitation, Brittany Horschel has not given up her love for golfing. While she still cannot play the sport professionally, she takes a swing once in a while. Knowing the sport she also helps her husband out at the tournaments.

Brittany Horschel caddies for her husband

Brittany Horschel occasionally becomes Billy Horschel’s caddie. Last year, when the 37 Y.O. PGA Tour Pro was to compete in Scotland, his regular caddie could not make it due to some green card issue. She stepped in and caddied for him at the last moment. She is Billy Horschel’s star both on and off the course.

While Horschel is holding through his life, traveling places to play, it is his wife that keeps their family together. Calling her his best friend, he even said that he would not have been where he is, had it not been for her support. “I often say ‘Love my Life’ and I mean it. I’m so lucky to have a career I love and a wife and three happy kids that complete me,” he said.