It was 11:30 at night on a tournament week, and Grant Horvat was thinking about just one thing: getting his bags inside and going to bed. Instead, within moments of pulling into the driveway of his Airbnb, the golf YouTube star found himself in what felt like a military operation.

The incident took place last year, when Horvat was assigned a Navy SEAL to his security detail given the crowds he attracts. And let’s just say the security personnel took the job a little too literally. When they reached the rental, the Navy SEAL asked a simple question. “Do you want me to clear the house for you?” But Horvat had barely any time to react.

“I don’t even remember if I responded,” he recalled during a conversation on Dan on Golf. “And I think he goes before we even respond, he’s already busted the door open, somehow got in the house, and he had no idea.” Well the idea the security personnel didn’t have is the fact that someone was already in the house. A detail that Horvat forgot to provide.

Turns out that Horvat already had his tournament partner that week, Andrew Kozan, staying in the property along with his wife and baby! They were fast asleep when the Navy SEAL, along with his gun and flashlight rushed into the place to clear it. And what happened next is straight out of an action movie.

“And you hear him yelling down to us. It was the most absurd thing,” Horvat said, laughing at the memory. “And I remember talking to Andrew and his wife after that. They had a flashlight. They woke up out of a deep sleep to a flashlight pointed at them. And he’s yelling at them because he has no idea who they are. But it was a wild story. We still talk about it to this day.”

Thankfully, the mix-up ended without causing any real damage beyond maybe some elevated heart rates. Nevertheless, since then, this has become one of those stories that only gets funnier every time it is told. The friendship between Horvat and Kozan thankfully survived the night!

They share a friendly relationship based on their common interest in golf. The duo has played together on various occasions, and one of them came during the BMW Charity Pro-Am 2025. A year later, they again played a shot-shaping challenge together ahead of the BMW Charity Pro-Am 2026. With a score of 3-2, Kozan emerged victorious, and they decided to have dinner at Hibachi.

Now, as entertaining as the story sounds, it also shows the unusual reality of Horvat’s rise in the golf world. With over 1.7 million subscribers, his videos getting millions of views, he is easily one of the most recognizable personalities in the sport. Sure, that has opened plenty of doors for the American golf influencer. Like collabs with elite professionals, including Justin Rose, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, and others. But it has also brought security concerns.

In many ways, though, golf’s biggest names have dealt with this before.

In 2025, for instance, Patrick Reed was assigned a LIV Golf bodyguard for the event in Mexico. Similarly, when Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997, the PGA Tour hired 6 former FBI agents to patrol its events. Then, at the 2010 Masters, 90 bodyguards were present for him, including former FBI and Secret Service agents.

For Horvat, one thing is for sure: nobody involved is going to forget that night anytime soon, not even the Navy SEAL!