Ian Poulter Caught Arguing With Billy Horschel After Negative LIV Golf Comments

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The story of this week's BMW PGA Championship in England hasn't been about the strong field or the impeccable Wentworth Golf Club. It's been about LIV Golf's ongoing battle with the rest of the golfing world. PGA Tour player Billy Horschel has been the most vocal about LIV Golf. His main point of contention - why its players shouldn't be teeing it up this week.

And LIV's Ian Poulter appears to have taken issue with that.

More than a dozen LIV golfers are in the field in what is arguably the DP World Tour's premiere event. Horschel, the most outspoken Tour player against LIV Golf not named Rory McIlroy, called the LIV players in the field "hypocrites" earlier this week.

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Poulter, who doesn't shy away from confrontation, was caught having what looked to be a heated conversation with Horschel on the putting green.

Not Exchanging Pleasantries

While you can't make out the audio in the video, it's clear that Horschel was animated and Poulter was likely telling him to calm down a bit.

Speaking His Mind

Horschel, who is the defending champ this week, called out LIV golfers playing in this week’s event, even mentioning some players by name.

“The guys that have publicly stated they want to play less, those are the hypocrites,” Horschel said in part.

He continued: “I honestly don’t think that the American guys who haven’t supported the PGA Tour should be here – Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, Jason Kokrak. You’ve never played this tournament, you’ve never supported the DP World Tour. Why are you here? You are here for one reason only and that’s to try to get World Ranking points because you don’t have it.”

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Horschel's argument that LIV players are only playing this week to accumulate World Ranking points is a valid one. LIV Golf has not been awarded Official World Golf Ranking points. In turn, this is an opportunity for LIV players to earn points. And they'll need those points. Since joining the Saudi-backed circuit, every golfer has fallen in the world rankings.

The flip side of that is the LIV players participating in this week's BMW PGA Championship have qualified to do so. And because of that, they have the right to be there.

Let the points accumulation commence!

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.