Billy Horschel would miss the birth of his daughter for a shot at $10 million

ATLANTA – It’s not often that you get a chance to witness the birth of your first child. It’s also not often that you have a legit chance at a $ 10 million payday. Which one would you choose?

Coming into Friday, Billy Horschel was tied for the lead at the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, the final event in the PGA Tour’s season. Should he win this tournament, he would also win the season-long FedEx Cup, which means a tidy $ 10 million check.

But his wife is due with their first child, a little girl, two weeks from Saturday. It’s not inconceivable that Little Miss Horschel could be early for her tee time. What would daddy do then?

“We have decided that if she goes into labor while I’m playing, I will just keep playing, because $ 10 million is a lot of money and I’m not going to pass that by,” Horschel said. “Right now the plan is not notify me while I’m on the golf course … I would love to know, but [it does] sort of deviate from focus a little bit. So I’ll obviously get the information as I walk off 18 green if it does happen that way.”

Yes, we’d imagine that the impending birth of your child would deviate from your focus a bit. There is precedent for this; as recently as last year, Hunter Mahan walked away from a tournament while in the lead when his wife went into labor. In 2009, Ross Fisher pledged to leave the British Open while close to the lead if his wife went into labor. (She didn’t.) And in 1999, Phil Mickelson played one of the finest U.S. Opens in history knowing that his wife was about to give birth to their first child; he would lose to Payne Stewart, who memorably pulled Mickelson close and congratulated him on impending fatherhood.

Still, Horschel’s in unprecedented territory here, financially speaking. He’s got career earnings of $ 8 million; a $ 10 million payday would buy an awful lot of diapers. Plus, it’s not like the kid’s going to remember if you were there or not anyway.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Facebook or on Twitter.

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