'Absolute Joke' - Pro Rips Junior Competition Course Setup

Billy Horschel took to Instagram to express his sympathy for the high school girls forced to take on near-impossible pin positions

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Billy Horschel has sympathised with the high school girls forced to play an almost impossible course set-up and called for bans for the officials responsible
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Billy Horschel has waded into the argument over the pin locations in a high school girls’ golf competition brandishing the set-up an “absolute joke” and calling for the officials behind it to be banned from setting up courses in the future. The six-time winner on the PGA Tour took to social media to join in criticism of the pin positions in the Girls 3A State Golf Tournament on Friday in Adel, Iowa, which saw a quadruple bogey as the average score on the 18th hole.

“Feel bad for these girls!” Horschel said on his Instagram stories. “Absolute joke by these officials to embarrass these young ladies. These officials should be banned from setting up a course in the future. This isn’t a accident … they knew what they were doing when they set up that hole location. I bet these young ladies handled it better than I would!” 

Billy Horschel praised the attitude of the high school golfers faced with an almost impossible course set-up

(Image credit: Billy Horschel Instagram (@billyho_golf))

The two-day tournament at River Valley Golf Course boasted numerous questionable pin positions, with the most controversial on the 280-yard par-4 18th. The pin was set towards the front third of a severely sloped back to front green, causing multiple players to putt from on the green back off it, while others got within a foot of the pin before seeing the ball roll back past them and off the putting surface. There were only four pars recorded all day, with 51 players carding triple bogeys or worse.

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The video, posted by journalist @jakebrend32, has been viewed almost 2million times. For some it brought back memories of the 2004 US Open at Shinnecock Hills, where not one golfer broke par in the final round, with more than a third failing to break 80.

Jeff Kimber
Jeff Kimber
Freelance Staff Writer

Jeff graduated from Leeds University in Business Studies and Media in 1996 and did a post grad in journalism at Sheffield College in 1997. His first jobs were on Slam Dunk (basketball) and Football Monthly magazines, and he's worked for the Sunday Times, Press Association and ESPN. He has faced golfing greats Sam Torrance and Sergio Garcia, but on the poker felt rather than the golf course. Jeff's favourite course played is Sandy Lane in Barbados, which went far better than when he played Matfen Hall in Northumberland, where he crashed the buggy on the way to the 1st tee!