{"id":450375,"date":"2026-02-28T14:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/450375\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:01:11","slug":"furious-billy-horschel-confronts-heckler-at-pga-tour-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/450375\/","title":{"rendered":"Furious Billy Horschel confronts heckler at PGA Tour event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Horschel was left unimpressed by a spectator who heckled the American during the second round of the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches.<\/p>\n

Horschel was having a mixed day on Friday at PGA National in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He arrived at the start of the notoriously difficult Bear Trap, the par-three 15th, on three-under overall after making five birdies and two bogeys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he left the hole facing a small sweat to make the cut after carding an ugly triple-bogey six and exchanging words with a lippy spectator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem for Horschel began with his tee shot which ended up long and left of the green, right up against the grandstand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Horschel elected to play a high-spinning shot towards the pin with his second but got it badly wrong and appeared to catch it a bit thin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After his golf ball found a watery grave, Horschel turned around and confronted a group of spectators who apparently heckled him.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately apparently if a comment was made during his downswing or after the shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Standing with his hands on his hips, hot mics picked up Horschel asking: “Who said that?”<\/p>\n

He added: “I mean, I guess you guys [inaudible] feel good about yourself with a comment like that, don’t ya?”<\/p>\n

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Commentator Smylie Kaufman said: “Well there appears to have been a disturbance after that shot, maybe a remark to Billy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s not something you expect from the fans out here.”<\/p>\n

Kaufman was alluding to the fact that Horschel was born and raised in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Horschel took a drop but could only limit the damage to a triple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Horschel added a par at the 16th to steady the ship and closed with a bogey to card a second-round 73, two above the projected cut.<\/p>\n

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Watch the moment here: Show X Embedded Content<\/p>\n

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Horschel told reporters after he completed his round that the spectator insinuated that he had previously “bad-mouthed” PGA National.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After round one, Horschel explained<\/a> that it was the owners of PGA National and not PGA Tour who overseeded the course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It had led some to suggest the course was too easy when, in the past, it had been known as one of the more challenging layouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Listen, everyone has been saying overseed, overseed,” Horschel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t the first time I heard it today, but obviously in that situation, I hit a bad golf shot and they wanted to say it, and I just said… I don’t know what I said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“I think I said, who said that, or whatever. A guy sort of said a couple more things and said I was bad-mouthing the golf course, and that couldn’t be the furthest from the truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve praised this golf course for many, many years. If I didn’t like this golf course, I wouldn’t come here and play every year.<\/p>\n

“He had a few words to say. He wanted to share what his thoughts were, and I just said to him, I said, ‘Read the entire quotes from the last couple years. I’ve enjoyed this golf course.’<\/p>\n

“When it’s benign, it’s gettable. When it’s the way it is the last two days with the wind blowing, it’s a challenge.”<\/p>\n

\"Billy <\/p>\n

Billy Horschel said he didn’t ask for the spectator to be thrown out<\/p>\n

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Horschel added: “I wanted to make sure I informed him on that. I said, maybe you should be more informed of the situation, and that was it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I walked back to the drop area, I hit a shot and walked off with a six. There was no more, nothing said.”<\/p>\n

Horschel said he was informed the spectator had been kicked out, which he disagreed with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apparently, it wasn’t his first offence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I didn’t ask for him to be kicked out,” Horschel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“Listen, everyone has a right to say things. I think there’s just a level of respect that – when somebody is trying to do their job – understand, we’re trying to do a job out here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Listen, we are really good golfers, and we can make the game look very easy, but at the end of the day, it is a job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“A lot of us are playing for victories. A lot of us are playing for our cards. A lot of us are playing for many different things.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, it’s a job, and as I’ve always said, I think I can interact with a crowd as much or as little as anybody out here. But I just think it should be respectful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s all I ask for. It’s not like I’m going to their job sniping off to them a little bit.<\/p>\n

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“But like I said, it’s fine. I don’t care. At that moment I hit a bad golf shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I questioned somebody, and the guy said a few more things, and I just said, ‘You need to be more informed on what I said.'”<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Horschel was left unimpressed by a spectator who heckled the American during the second round of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[64597,5904,8693,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-450375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-billy-horschel","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}