Tyrrell Hatton flips bird, snaps club during Open Championship meltdown

Tyrrell Hatton snapped. Then he snapped.

The Englishman, after missing a 20-footer for bogey on the par-3 11th at Royal St. George’s, pointed to someone behind the green with his right index finger, then raised the finger immediately to the right of it. After he tapped in for double bogey during Friday’s second round of the Open Championship, Hatton, never afraid to show his emotions, pointed again and said: “Absolute f—ing bullocks.”

His heat was just warming up.

Seven holes later, while battling to make the weekend, Hatton hit his approach shot 15 yards right of the green on the par-4 18th, and it bounced into the light rough. From there, he’d need to get up and down to shoot even-par 70 and finish two rounds at two over. 

“Oh, no, no, no, no,” announcer Terry Gannon said on the Golf Channel broadcast.  

“That’s not going to help his cause,” analyst Justin Leonard said. 

Since his club didn’t help it, either, Hatton relieved it of its duties. After watching his ball for a second, Hatton thought briefly about slamming his iron into the ground, but instead snapped it. He lowered it to the ground, stomped once, missed, stomped again and landed the fatal blow, Hatton then took a few steps and completed both the break with his hands, the move making a loud clanging sound.  

“Enough of the golf club,” Gannon said on the broadcast. “I’ve had enough.” 

“One’s not going to make it home,” Leonard said. 

From right of the green, Hatton would pitch on to about five feet, where he’d made the par putt. Here, after picking his ball out of the hole, he’d just lightly lift his entire hand to salute the cheers.

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

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.

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