His iron, angrily, amazingly, majestically, magnificently, went 20 yards.
Hatton hit his drive 290 yards down the left side of the fairway during Saturday’s third round of the CJ Cup. He had 131 yards to the hole. He hit his approach just over the right greenside bunker. About 25 feet short of the hole.
Bad shot.
Hatton, who won last week’s BMW Championship on the European Tour, held his follow through for a second. Then, with both hands, he flung the iron forward from behind his back. It was in the air for two seconds. It tumbled to the ground.
Good throw.
“Ehhh,” the announcer on the Golf Channel broadcast went, muffling his laugh.
Hatton’s third shot wasn’t much better.
He chipped on, but left himself about 11 feet for par. He took a slow swipe at the grass. He had gone from the fairway to needing to make a longer putt to avoid a bogey.
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.