A resident of Jacksonville, Horschel spoke of the importance of doing well in his hometown event and how frustration had boiled over after his tee shot on the par-3 13th took a bad bounce and went into the water.

After hitting over the green from the drop zone, Horschel holed a 5-wood chip for bogey and then tossed his club in the direction of his caddie before walking away from the green.

Billy Horschel, once a gator always a gator pic.twitter.com/vwhx5fCh4U

— Brad Reynolds (@Brad_Reynoldss) May 12, 2017

Unfortunately for Horschel, his actions were captured on TV and, as a result, the American started to take some serious heat on Twitter – prompting a video response to admit that it ‘looked bad’ but that his caddie or playing partners Vijay Singh and 2018 Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk didn’t feel disrespected.

“Obviously, I was frustrated,” he said. “I holed it and I was just chuckling to myself afterwards, you know the golf gods they taketh and they giveth at the same time.

Clearing the air. Take it or leave it. #truthpic.twitter.com/ulLJHAo6qX

— Billy Horschel (@BillyHo_Golf) May 13, 2017

“I tossed my club at my bag. I didn’t think I’d toss it that hard but I’ve seen the video, it was harder than I wanted. But it was not at my caddie Josh – he knows that. We had a conversation and he reached out to me to talk about it to say he was cool with everything.

“It looked bad. But I was laughing saying, ‘Are you kidding me?’ type of deal. You guys can give me all the flak you want, that’s fine I take it all the time, but thanks to all the true supporters out there.”

Horschel hasn’t won on tour since his incredible two-week spell at the end of 2014 that saw him win the BMW Championship, Tour Championship and FedEx Cup.