“Brilliant that you’ve become friends” - Billy Horschel’s playful response to Rory McIlroy's past desire to 'beat his a**’ earns golf fans’ praise

Rory McIlroy was recently on the GOLF Subpar Podcast with co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. He answered questions about life and golf in a fun rapid fire style round. One question particularly caused a fun scrap between McIlroy and fellow golfer Billy Horschel.

When Rory McIlroy was aksed who he'd rather punch between Patrick Reed and Billy Horschel, the answer was clear- it was Horschel. While Horschel and McIlroy are good friends now, they had a bit of rivalry going on when they were young.

“Billy Horschel, and that’s saying something,” McIlroy said, laughing. “And that is saying something.”

Of course, Horschel heard about the fun comment that Rory McIlroy made, and had a response of his own on Twitter.

"Rory told me about this last week @IrishOpen when we played together. My response… I probably would have punched myself as well."

---

Rory McIlroy and Billy Horschel's Walker Cup rivalry days

The pair went head to head against each other at the Walker Cup back in the day, facing off against each other in three out of the four matches. Recalling the time at the Walker Cup, McIlroy said via Golf Digest:

"Billy in that ’07 — we were all probably obnoxious at the time, but because I was at home as well and he was like pretty rude to the crowd at times too and they are my people. It was like, ‘I’m going to beat his ass.’"

Horschel beat McIlroy on the first day of the matches and on the second day Fowler and Horschel teamed up to beat McIlroy and Jonathan Caldwell. However, McIlroy got his revenge on the third day, edging out Horschel in their second head to head match.

While the rivalry was intense between them back then, they have made up for it since. Now, both of them reminisce over all the good memories, which has made them good friends.

““Ohh, I absolutely despised him. We’ve actually become really close since, which is great. But we actually have forged a really good friendship since. Billy’s a good dude. I like him a lot.”

Their friendship has been a special one, seen on and off the course.