Billy Horschel admits he still holds grudges over LIV Golf. But the American insists he and the game’s elite will get over them to make sure there’s unity in the sport.
Back in 2022 at the Scottish Open in the bitter-initial spell of the split, Horschel dubbed defectors “hypocrites” as they battled to get back on to Tour events and stated firmly “they made their bed”. The BMWPGA champion is now at St Andrews for the Dunhill Links with 14 LIV players in the field. Relations have thawed during the two-year interim, relations are building and discussions to bring PGA and PIF together are long underway.
Horschel hasn’t forgotten, but forgives as he yearns for the game’s greater good. He said: “Time allows things to dissipate. We’ve seen that through the history.
“I’m sure there’s people that still hold grudges and everything. Personally I still hold a few grudges, I’m not going to lie. But I understand that for things to get better and heal, you have to get past that and move beyond that.
“Personally, I’ve moved on beyond that, but I know some guys, some players probably still hold grudges, but I think we do need to move beyond that to really come together.
“I do believe that there’s been both goodwill on both sides to try to make a deal happen over the last 18 months, year, since the agreement. It may not move as quickly as people want. There’s a lot of complicated things to figure out and there’s a lot of things behind the scenes that the public just don’t understand. That they can’t comment on.
“Hopefully, the fans understand by this pairing [Monahan/Al Rumayyan], these groupings that things are moving in the right direction.
“I do believe now looking at the game of golf, which I could never imagine at that point [2022] sitting there and speaking how I spoke, that the divide that we’ve created in the game of golf would create such a disinterest in the fans. And that’s really who has sort of been hurt by all this.
“I do believe the majority of players on the PGA TOUR, the DP World Tour, the players that play on LIV, I think we want to figure out some way that we can all make this work.”
It was put to Horschel that there are individuals on the DP World Tour who would prefer a breakdown in PGA/PIF talks to open a greater opportunity to those operating outside of the United States.
He said: “ I will say this: The DP World Tour I don’t fault the players for their thinking. The DP World Tour probably hasn’t been taken care of over the last couple years as they should. I know the PGA Tour owns a portion of the DP World Tour, but I understand why those guys would maybe want those talks to falter and then maybe come back to PIF and do a deal with PIF.
“So I don’t fault them. Do I think that’s right? No, I do believe in figuring out how we can all work something out is better for the game of golf.
“But, listen, like I said, everyone has their own opinion and their own thoughts. I don’t fault anyone for having them. I just may not agree with the way they see things.
“The way I see things, I think if this all works out the way I hope it works out, I hope that the DP World Tour will be looked after.”
Horschel also doesn’t agree with notions of financial recompense for those who stayed loyal to the Tour and didn’t choose LIV’s mega millions.
He said: “No, I don’t. Listen, we’ve got our equity on the PGA TOUR side, the players. Those guys made a decision to go to LIV. I don’t fault them for the financial decision that they made and I don’t believe that guys on the PGA TOUR that didn’t go should, if PIF comes in, be paid even more money because they didn’t take that opportunity or weren’t offered that opportunity.”