One part of Tyrrell Hatton’s Dubai win showed Rory McIlroy he’ll be Ryder Cup asset

Rory McIlroy knows Tyrrell Hatton better than most. The two are close friends, have played on multiple Ryder Cups together and Hatton was part of McIlroy’s TGL team before the Englishman jumped to LIV Golf last year.

All this is to say that Rory McIlroy knows that Tyrrell Hatton is a world-class player who is comfortable in his own skin.

That bore itself out Sunday in Dubai when Hatton fired a 3-under 69 to nip Daniel Hillier by one shot to win the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Hatton’s win comes a day after he found himself in hot water for destroying a tee marker during an outburst on the par-3 seventh hole. Hatton shrugged off the incident and promised not to lose the “fire” that makes him Tyrrell Hatton.

The win at the Majis Course vaults Hatton back into the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings and at the top of the European Ryder Cup points standings with McIlroy. With limited chances to earn Ryder Cup points due to his LIV Golf schedule, Hatton’s victory in Dubai will go a long way to helping the Englishman punch a ticket to Bethpage Black in September.

It also showed McIlroy more of what he already knew: Hatton will be vital to Team Europe’s chances on enemy soil this fall.

“He does things his own way,” McIlroy told reporters about Hatton after his final round Sunday, via Bunkered. “He hits the ball very straight. He doesn’t try to shape it really one way or another. Hits it really straight and it looks like he has his sort of systems and the way he practices.

“He does a really good job at that. He also doesn’t give a flying fig what anyone else thinks which is a really good attribute to have in the game.”

The European team will need a lot of that if they are going to best the Americans in front of what is expected to be a raucous New York crowd.

“He’ll be amazing in New York,” McIlroy said of Hatton. “He’s proved that over the last three Ryder Cups. He’s a massive asset for the European team.”

Hatton has been open about how much each DP World Tour start means to him in terms of accruing points for the Ryder Cup. The Englishman won the Dunhill Links in the fall and finished sixth in the DP World Tour Championship. Hatton wants to qualify on points and that crossed his mind Sunday as he came down the stretch in Dubai.

“I can’t remember, it was on one of the last few holes. It randomly popped into my head thinking about, it would be nice to get over the line because I need the points,” Hatton said after his win. “That was just like a random thought as I looked at the leaderboard. I think it was on the 17th green, actually.

“This week was massive for me. The last few events last year on the DP World Tour were huge for me as well in terms of trying to earn the points that I need. Hopefully I can continue to do that.”

Like Jon Rahm, Hatton is appealing the DP World Tour sanctions for going to LIV. Should the third-party arbiter hear the appeal before September, there’s a chance that both Hatton and Rahm will be ineligible for the Ryder Cup due to outstanding fines not paid and a suspension not served.

Rahm said earlier in the week he is hopeful that the appeal won’t be heard until after the European Team heads to Bethpage.

 “I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m hoping they don’t try to settle the appeal before The Ryder Cup. I don’t think that would be good for anybody,” Rahm said earlier in the week before missing the cut in Dubai. “But my plan is to be at Bethpage.”

So is Hatton’s and the European Team’s “major asset” buoyed his chances of making it to New York with quintessential Tyrrell Hatton week.