Billy Horschel had already taken one drop on the par-3 15th hole, when he skulled his next shot over the green and into the water.<\/p>\n
The eight-time PGA Tour winner was in no mood to hear it from a heckling fan.<\/p>\n
Horschel fired back Friday at the spectator, who was removed from the grandstand by tournament officials at the Cognizant Classic at PGA National in Palm Springs Gardens, Fla.<\/p>\n
Horschel had made comments earlier in the week about the golf course being \u201coverseeded,\u201d and apparently the majority of the heckling was based around that word.<\/p>\n
As he reached into his bag for a replacement ball, Horschel turned around and was caught snapping at the fan, \u201cWho said that? I mean, I guess you guys wanna make yourselves feel good about yourselves with a comment like that, don\u2019t ya?\u201d<\/p>\n
The spectator also accused the 39-year-old Floridian of bad-mouthing the golf course earlier in the week, Horschel told reporters after finishing his round with a 2-over 73.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, everyone has been saying, \u2018Overseed, overseed,\u2019\u201d Horschel said of the fan.\u00a0\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the first time I heard it today, but obviously in that situation, I hit a bad golf shot and they wanted to say it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a shot at anyone. It was just sort of commenting to someone who was taking a shot at the PGA Tour, and I sort of gave them a little more insight that it\u2019s not always in the PGA Tour\u2019s hands. If they want to try and do something, it\u2019s not always in their hands to set it up the way they want to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horschel spoke Thursday about the venue\u2019s \u201coverseeding\u201d of ryegrass in recent years, a change from its traditional Bermuda grass.<\/p>\n
Billy Horschel during the Cognizant Classic on Feb. 27, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
He tallied a triple-bogey six on 15 after being forced to take another drop and a two-putt following his shot into the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve praised this golf course for many, many years,\u201d Horschel added afterward. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t like this golf course, I wouldn\u2019t come here and play every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed this golf course. When it\u2019s benign, it\u2019s gettable. When it\u2019s the way it is the last two days with the wind blowing, it\u2019s a challenge. I wanted to make sure I informed [the fan] on that. I said, \u2018Maybe you should be more informed of the situation,\u2019 and that was it. I walked back to the drop area, hit a shot and walked off with a \u20186.\u2019 There was no more said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horschel talking to a fan on Friday. @underdoggolf\/X<\/p>\n
Horschel also said that he never requested that the spectator he jawed with to be booted from the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I didn\u2019t ask for him to be kicked out,\u2019\u201d Horschel said. \u201cThey said, \u2018No, I guess he\u2019s been saying some other stuff throughout the day,\u2019 and they proceeded to just escort him out of here.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, everyone has a right to say things. I think there\u2019s just a level of respect, understand we\u2019re trying to do a job out here\u2026I think I can interact with a crowd as much or as little as anybody out here. But I just think it should be respectful. That\u2019s all I ask for. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to their job sniping off to them a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut like I said, it\u2019s fine. I don\u2019t care. At that moment, I hit a bad golf shot, I questioned somebody, and the guy said a few more things, and I just said, \u2018You need to be more informed on what I said.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Billy Horschel during the Cognizant Classic. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Horschel also carded bogeys at 17 and 18, shooting 5-over for the final four holes to barely make the cut at even par overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cA fan affecting me out on the golf course will never happen,\u201d Horschel said. \u201cI affect myself enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Horschel had already taken one drop on the par-3 15th hole, when he skulled his next shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[26797,427,3332,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-496590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-billy-horschel","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-pga-tour","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}