Billy Horschel didn’t hold back when asked about the LIV Golf defectors who played in the Scottish Open in July, and the American’s mood hasn’t changed ahead of the BMW PGA Championship.
Horschel, who will defend his title at Wentworth 12 months after becoming only the second American since Arnold Palmer to win the DP World Tour’s flagship event, was vociferous in his feelings towards those he believes have “never supported the DP World Tour” – and he wasn’t shy about naming names.
“I honestly don’t think that the American guys who haven’t supported the PGA Tour should be here,” Horschel explained.
“The Abraham Ancers, the Talor Goochs, the Jason Kokraks – you’ve never played this tournament, you’ve never supported the DP World Tour. Why are you here? You are here for one reason only and that’s to try and get world ranking points because you don’t have it.
“It’s hypocritical because of what some of these guys have said they wanted to play less golf. It’s pretty hypocritical to come over here and play outside LIV when your big thing was to spend more time with family and want to play less golf.”
There will be 15 LIV Golf players in the field this week, including the aforementioned as well as Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Bernd Wiesberger.
Horschel continued: “Even though Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter have been stalwarts for the European Tour, I don’t think those guys really should be here.
“It’s tough because I talked with Poulter and Westwood yesterday, and Bernd Wiesberger – guys that I get along with very well.
“I wouldn’t call Westwood and Poulter hypocrites because they never said they wanted to play less. The guys that have publicly stated they want to play less, those are the hypocrites. I mean, just be clear on that.
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“It’s not every one of them. And there are a few of those hypocrites here this week because they wanted to play less, but they are playing another event that’s not a LIV event.
“As I always said, I don’t fault them for making that decision. But you made a decision that is going to weaken both tours, and that’s a tough way to go about it. Those guys aren’t going to play enough going forward to really help out the PGA Tour, but especially the DP World Tour that needs these guys to play more often.”
Of his disussions with the English pair, Horschel added: “At that point, I didn’t think I was going to say they shouldn’t be here. I was still trying to figure that out.
“I’ve talked to a lot of the other full members that have been here for 10, 15 years, Some of those guys are sort of OK with it, but then you’ve got the hard-line guys that don’t believe they should be here.
“I think some of these agents led these guys down a bad road. And when I say a bad road, they didn’t give them the entire information and they didn’t play devil’s advocate the way they should have.”
Then there was the small matter of Sergio Garcia’s expletive-laden rant at the BMW International Open in June – much of which is yet to become public knowledge.
“Sergio had a kick off in the locker room and he said certain things that actually didn’t make it out into the public,” he said. “Some did but he said some other things.
“Obviously I’m not going to say what he said because I wasn’t in there, so it was second-hand information that I heard, but some of those players in there told me.
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“I was pretty shocked at what Sergio said in that locker room.”
Rahm backs Horschel rant
Jon Rahm also had a few thoughts on the situation, and backed Billy Horschel’s claims about those who don’t support the DP World Tour on a regular basis. “I think it’s wrong,” the Spaniard said.
You can watch his interview with Sky Sports News here:
Gooch responds
After singling him out in his scathing rant, Talor Gooch then took to twitter to respond to Horschel, hitting back at the American for having played in only ‘six pure DP events’…
It’s safe to say we can expect more LIV Golf drama as the week goes on.
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