Billy Horschel reacts to vandals attacking an Essex golf course, calls for 'punishment to the fullest'

Billy Horschel has come down heavily on the vandalization of the Thorndon Park Golf Club in Essex, UK. The incident happened on the night of January 20 when perpetrators ruined the 18-hole Harry Colt design using a personal motocross track.

Horschel tweeted:

“This is awful and very sad to see. Played this course with my buddies several times. A great course in Essex. Hopefully, these vandals are found and punished to the fullest.”

Greenkeepers at the Thorndon Park Golf Club, famous for hosting the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship in 1967, gave a clear picture of the incident through a post on X explaining:

“Well, Well, this is very much out there now so let’s talk facts. Two quad bikes got onto the course Sunday afternoon and decided to do their best to destroy 6 of our greens and a number of tees. Devastated doesn’t even cover it. Like all things, this can be repaired, and we will have it back asap.

Thank you to all our colleagues in the wider turf community who have reached out to offer help and support. It’s greatly appreciated. Thank you also to our members who supported the team with the clean-up Monday morning. We won’t be beaten and we will recover.”

London & UK Street News shared a video of the night vandalism at the Thorndon Park Golf Club.

The general manager of the golf course Iain Evans shared Billy Horschel's sentiments and said:

"The initial thoughts were a little bit of anger and then just astonishment that someone can cause that much damage. Just mindless damage to what is effectively a natural environment is just awful. Maintaining the surface and caring for fine turf is an art.

We employ greenkeepers and now they've got the unenviable task of trying to recover those areas, trying to make them fit for play. There has been vandalism on the golf course before with motorbikes but certainly not to this extent."

Essex Police has started an investigation to catch the criminals.

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Billy Horschel showed similar emotions after the vandalism act at St. Andrews

GOLF: MAR 18 PGA - Billy Horschel at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard - Second Round - Source: Getty

On November 8, 2024, at St. Andrews Golf Course, the bronze statue built in honor of Time Morris, the legendary golfer, was broken within a month of its inauguration just before the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. At that time also Billy Horschel shared a post and wrote a heartfelt message regarding the matter. At that time too, he had asked for a punishment by the law for the perpetrators.

Vandalism at golf courses is not a new phenomenon. During the shutdown of 2020 many golf courses were vandalized by bikers. Walton Health Golf Club in the UK faced similar incidents in 2020. That time motorcross bikers skidded their bikes over greens and that caused huge damage to the course.