Billy Horschel apologizes for club toss that hit caddie at The Players

Billy Horschel is not one to keep his emotions to himself on the golf course. Friday, with the three-time PGA Tour winner on his way to missing the cut at The Players Championship, was no exception, as TV cameras captured his apparently angry club toss in the direction of his caddie after chipping in for bogey on the par-3 13th hole.

After coming under fire on Twitter for his actions, Horschel took to the social media platform on Saturday to clarify the circumstances and apologize for what he characterized as poor optics. Following a wind-blown tee shot that took an unlucky hard bounce left into the drink on 13, Horschel flew the green with his penalty shot, chipped in for the bogey with a 5-wood, and seemed to cast the stick at looper Josh Cassell and stalk off to the 14th tee with his two partners still to play.

“I was frustrated after the 7-iron went in [the water],” Horschel, a Florida native and resident of nearby Jacksonville Beach who desperately wanted to make the cut for the hometown folks, acknowledged in a video he posted to his account. “I holed it, and I was just sort of chuckling to myself laughing like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ The golf gods taketh and they giveth at the same time.”

Horschel went on to explain, “I tossed my club at my bag. Obviously I didn’t think I tossed it that hard.

“I’ve seen the video, it was harder than I wanted, but it was not at my caddie, Josh. He knows that,” Horschel added. “We’ve had a conversation. He actually reached out to me to talk about it to say hey he was cool with everything.”

Nevertheless, BillyHo admitted, “Yeah, I look bad.”

Horschel went on to make a double bogey-5 at the dangerous par-3 17th and bogey at 18 to finish at 4-over 76 for his second round and 7-over for the two days, well over the 2-over cut line.