Billy Horschel’s reaction when he heard Rory McIlroy wanted to hit him? agreement

Billy Horschel wasn’t mad at Rory McIlroy.

In fact, he agreed.

Horschel said he hit the same person.

First of all: Yes, Horschel and McIlroy are golfers. But golfers sometimes get hot, like Horschel and McIlroy did at the 2007 Walker Cup. There, Horschel’s U.S. team beat McIlroy’s Great Britain and Ireland team 12.5-11.5, and Horschel beat McIlroy twice in three games – Horschel won McIlroy tied 1-1 in afternoon singles on day one; Horschel and Rickie Fowler defeated McIlroy and Jonathan Caldwell 2 and 1 in the morning foursome on day two; and later in the day McIlroy defeated Horschel 4 and 2 in the afternoon singles.

But wins and losses alone aren’t usually enough to make you want to beat someone, right?

During an appearance at GOLF’s in February 2021 Subpar In the podcast, Horschel offered some color, particularly when he almost sank a bunker shot in the four-man match.

“I come down like a damn cheetah, screaming at the top of my lungs and running after the ball: ‘Go in!’ Go in!’” Horschel said. “And it tears the lips out. I guess [McIlroy] was angry about it. I guess he was upset about the day before when we played our singles matches.

“And so the first hole [of Horschel and McIlroy’s day two singles match], [McIlroy] Nuclear weapons per trip,” Horschel continued. “I mean, he hit one so far down there that he literally had an 8-iron into the green. He made it to 15 feet and I had 10 feet for birdie or whatever. And he makes that eagle putt and lets out the loudest scream because he’s letting me know that this isn’t happening anymore. This is my house today. And I was like, ‘Damn, I’m f—–.'”

Jump-Ahead now 16 years. And it’s McIlroy’s turn Subpar. And more color.

This week, McIlroy had this exchange with co-host Colt Knost, who was also a member of the team:

“Of these two guys,” Knost asked, “which of these two did you want to punch in the face more: Singles 2016, Patrick Reed; “Walker Cup 2007, Billy Horschel?”

McIlroy laughed.

“Billy Horschel. And that’s saying something.”

Knost said, “Yeah, you hated Billy Horschel back then.”

McIlroy said: “Oh, I absolutely despised him. We’ve become really close since then, which is great. Billy in that year 2007 – we were probably all obnoxious back then, but because I was also at home and he was pretty rude to the crowd at times too and they’re my people. It was like, ‘I’m going to beat him up.’ But actually we’ve developed a really good friendship since then. Billy is a good guy. I like him very much.”

So McIlroy told him everything that was about to happen.

GOLF’s on Thursday Subpar Account on the website formerly known as Twitter published a video with the Knost-McIlroy back and forth. Knost shared itby writing “Hahaha, sorry @BillyHo_Golf.”

Which drew this answer on Friday morning from Horschel, who is playing the BMW PGA Championship of the DP World Tour in England this week:

“Rory told me @IrishOpen_ last week when we played together.

“My answer… I probably would have hit myself too.”

Editor’s Note: To listen to GOLF’s Subpar podcast with McIlroy, please click below.

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Publisher

Nick Piastowski is a senior editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across golf. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can contact him about any of these topics – his stories, his playing or his beers – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.