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Rory McIlroy is considered one of the best golfers in the world, and those who compete against him give their all to win. Many opponents were heated against him, and Rory had an interesting answer during one of his guest appearances.
He was asked to choose between punching Billy Horschel in the 2007 Walker Cup or Patrick Reed in the 2016 Ryder Cup during a guest appearance on the SubPar Podcast. “Billy Horschel, and that’s saying something,” -Rory said with a laugh, as quoted by golfmonthly.com!
“And that is saying something”.
Billy Horschel
Horschel now has a good relationship with him, but back in 2007 Rory gave his best to beat him considering the way Horschel treated the crowd. Of course, it should be taken into account that they were much younger in that period, and that there was even greater 'ardor' in them then.
“Ohh, I absolutely despised him. We’ve actually become really close since, which is great. But, Billy in that ’07 - we were all probably obnoxious at the time, but I think because I was at home as well and he was pretty rude to the crowd at times too and they are my people.
It was like, ‘I’m going to beat his ass.’ But we actually have forged a really good friendship since. Billy’s a good dude. I like him a lot”.
What is interesting is Horschel's reaction after Rory McIlroy's statement.
Horschel immediately decided to react via social media and emphasized that he would probably do the same now. It's interesting how many things change with age, but many remember that scene with a smile, and it's great that the two are still great friends 16 years later.
"Rory told me about this last week @IrishOpen when we played together. My response… I probably would have punched myself as well."