The career year Willie Mack III has been having continued when he won the Billy Horschel APGA Tour Invitational presented by Cisco on July 31.
“It’s been a great year,” Mack said. “Four PGA TOUR events, two Korn Ferry…the confidence is at a high level right now.”
The 31-year-old’s success this year coincides with the fact that he switched to Todd Anderson as his coach seven months ago.
Anderson works at the PGA Tour’s performance center at TPC Sawgrass and is also tournament host Billy Horschel’s coach, which made the victory in the event even more meaningful for Mack.
“I think Willie should be on the PGA Tour and it’s just a matter of time,” Horschel said. “From the minute I saw him hit balls with Todd Anderson I saw some things, he had the talent level, the ball striking level, everything in the sense of talent and athletic ability to be on the PGA Tour. Sometimes it just takes a coach or someone you meet that’s had the success to tell you that and give you that little extra confidence in yourself.”
Having the opportunity to develop a relationship with Horschel has been special for Mack and he has leaned on him for advice at times, especially heading into the weekend’s event.
“I think just working with Todd Anderson the last seven months and being able to get close to Billy, he’s given me some advice the last couple of weeks,” Mack said. “It’s always good to have somebody like that in your corner.”
However, Horschel’s advice heading into the tournament was pretty simple, but something that Mack found himself thinking about throughout the two days of competition.
“Just go out and have fun,” Mack said. We’ve played together before, so he said I have the game to be out there. Just got to get those opportunities.”
Mack did just that as he pounced on those opportunities when they arose on both days.
He shot 69 to lead Troy Taylor, Kamaiu Johnson and Mahindra Lutchman by two strokes at 3-under.
Mack was the only player to post a round in the 60s and he did so on both days, as he followed up his first-round performance with another 69 in the final round and finished ahead by four shots at 6-under.
A pair of 69s proved too much for the competition to keep pace with, although 21-year-old Troy Taylor II, who is about to begin his senior season at Michigan State, made a run at Mack to finished second with a 2-under tournament.
“Getting to play this golf course from the tips where they play at THE PLAYERS. It was awesome,” Taylor said. “Just to see where I need to work on my game because this is a hard, demanding golf course.”
Mack and Taylor were the lone players to total scores under par.
“I saw Troy play in the pro-am and I said, ‘Wow, this kid’s pretty good, this kid’s really good,’” Horschel said. “He’s got a lot of talent. He’s a big kid, 6-(foot)-2-(inches), and he’s got a lot of clubhead speed. Hits it a mile, swings beautifully…to see how well he played a course like this against professional golfers which he doesn’t play against, in tough conditions today, and to play well until the last hole, it was really cool. The kid’s got a very bright future and I think he’ll be another guy that is going to be on the PGA Tour when he does turn pro.”
Not only did Mack win a tournament by conquering the legendary TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, but by doing so, he also earned $25,000 as part of the largest purse ever handed out at an APGA Tour event.
According to Mack, he hopes to carry the momentum and achieve his goal of becoming a full-time member of the PGA Tour.
“Hopefully I can use these last couple of weeks to prepare for Q-School and the future,” Mack said.
