Billy Horschel, who has never been shy about speaking his mind, on Tuesday lashed out at PGA Tour players who have joined the LIV Golf League, calling them out for statements in which they claim the Tour’s commissioner Jay Monahan and his management team have turned a deaf ear to their concerns about timing and earnings.
“There are a lot of guys who are hypocrites, who don’t tell the truth, who lie about certain things,” the Ponte Vedra Beach resident and former University of Florida All-American said at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick. , Scotland, the site of this week’s Genesis Scottish Open. “I can’t stand to sit here and be diplomatic about this any longer, as I have been in the past.”
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Horschel’s bone of contention is that Monahan and the Tour listened and perhaps the players who rushed for the LIV League received answers they didn’t want to hear.
“They say Jay isn’t listening, the Tour isn’t listening to us,” Horschel said. “Jay Monahan and everyone at headquarters is the PGA Tour. They work tirelessly to ensure that we reap the financial rewards we have and have all the opportunities available to us. At the same time, I am one of more than 200 members. I am the PGA Tour. When you shoot the PGA Tour and you shoot Jay Monahan, you shoot us. And to say they’re not listening is a joke, it really is. If they listened to everything that over 200 PGA Tour players were saying, it would be a complete mess. We couldn’t tour.
Frenette gene: PGA, LIV Golf should make peace
Horschel also said LIV Golf players saying they skipped so they could play less golf seemed dishonest since the Tour requires members to play only 15 events a year to be eligible to vote and LIV’s schedule Golf is planning 14 events next season.
“It’s ridiculous to hear some of these comments: ‘It allows me to play fewer tournaments’,” Horschel said. “Nobody forced you to play so many events. Play 15. It’s good. We have the possibility to make our own schedule.
Horschel pointed out that after the Open Championship next week, he will have been away from his wife and three children for five weeks.
“That’s what we decided when we made the schedule…it worked out like that,” he said of the decision between him and his wife Brittany made before the start of the season. “I made the decision not to see my wife and children for five weeks. Am I crying for this?
Horschel also had a request for Tour players who moved to the LIV League but continue to take pot shots on the Tour.
“Go play your LIV Tour and forget the PGA Tour,” he said.
A chance for players
Now that Jacksonville native David Duval is playing on the PGA Tour Champions, he has the opportunity to return to the First Coast in addition to his scheduled appearance at Furyk & Friends October 7-9 at Timuquana Country Club, the course where he learned to play golf.
He is playing his first Bridgestone Senior Players Championship this week at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, with the same luck as the other 79 players on the court: if Duval wins, he earns a spot in the 2023 Players Championship. , the site of one of his 13 PGA Tour titles when he won the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course in 1999.
Since 2007, the PGA Tour has given the winner of The Senior Players a place in The Players. Duval is one of eight former Players champions this week, along with Stephen Ames, KJ Choi, Fred Couples, Fred Funk, Lee Janzen, Justin Leonard and Davis Love III.
Duval has a history at Firestone. He won the World Series of Golf in 1998, one of four titles that year en route to silver and Tour scoring titles. He played in three of the World Golf Championships held at Firestone, in 1999, 2001 and 2002, with two finishes of 27th and one 28th.
Suri gets a spot
Bartram Trail High graduate Julian Suri will get his first PGA Tour start since the 2019 PGA when he plays in the Barbasol Championship at Keene Trace in Nicholasville, Ky.
Suri, a member of the DP World Tour, parlayed his status in Europe and when he climbed to No. 60 in the World Golf Rankings to get 13 starts on the PGA Tour between 2017-2019, which included two appearances in the PGA and two in the Open Championship. Suri’s best finish was a tie for eighth at the 2018 Houston Open, a year in which he made nine of 10 cuts in Tour events.
Suri qualified for the European Challenge Tour, won one event, then moved on to the DP World Tour and won once, in Denmark. He has struggled with injuries in recent years and made a cut on the DP Tour this season, finishing tied for 54th in the Scandavian Mixed. His current world golf ranking is No. 1,295.
How to watch professional golf this week
PGA TOUR
Event: Genesis Scottish Open, Thursday to Sunday, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland.
Stakes: $8 million prize ($1,440,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending Champion: Min Woo Lee.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 8.30am-1.30pm; Saturday-Sunday, 10am-12pm); CBS (Saturday-Sunday, 12 p.m.-3 p.m.).
Registered zone players: Harris English, Brian Harman, Billy Horschel, Russell Knox, Keith Mitchell, Cameron Smith.
Notable: The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. … Lee birdied the first playoff hole to beat Matthew Fitzpatrick and Thomas Detry. … Leading the pack are Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Will Zalatoris, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns and Xander Schauffele. … Rory McIlroy is the only player in the top 14 of the World Golf Rankings to skip the tournament. … The Open Championship is next week in St. Andrews.
Event: Barbasol Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Keene Trace Golf Club, Nicholasville, Ky.
Stakes: $3.7 million scholarship ($667,000 and 300 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending Champion: Seamus Power.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Saturday, 4-7pm; Sunday, 3-6pm).
Registered zone players: Jonas Blixt, Jonathan Byrd, Matt Every, Patton Kizzire, David Lingmerth, Trey Mullinax, Doc Redman, Sam Ryder, Greyson Sigg, Julian Suri, Jared Wolfe.
Notable: Power won with a par on the sixth playoff hole to beat JT Poston. Power shot 67 on the final lap to catch Poston. … The winner will get a place in The Players Championship but facing the Scottish Open, he will not receive an invitation to the Masters. … Leading the pack are former FedEx Cup champions Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas and former Keene Trace winners Aaron Baddeley, Grayson Murray and Jim Herman.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
Event: Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio.
Stakes: $3 million scholarship ($450,000 to the winner).
Defending Champion: Steve Stricker.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 1:30 p.m.-4 p.m.; Saturday, 12 p.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m.-3 p.m.
Registered zone players: David Duval, Fred Funk, Jim Furyk, Frank Lickliter II, Davis Love III, Vijay Singh.
Notable: Stricker dominated the tournament, opening with a 63 and beating Jerry Kelly by six strokes. … The winner gets a spot in the 2023 Players Championship. … Also playing are World Golf Hall of Fame members Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Bernard Langer and Colin Montgomerie.
Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com
