‘Does it make me a bad person?’ Tyrrell Hatton destroys tee marker in Dubai outburst

Tyrrell Hatton’s famous temper struck again Saturday during the third round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

On the par-3 seventh hole, Hatton leaked his tee shot 48 yards right of the pin. The wayward shot caused the 33-year-old Englishman to take his frustration out on a nearby plastic tee marker. DP World Tour officials met with Hatton after his 4-under-par round at Emirates Golf Club and informed him that the Tour would fine him for the incident.

After the round, Hatton admitted that he let his emotions get the best of him.

“Just a bit of frustration,” Hatton said via The Guardian. “Probably shouldn’t have done it. Does it make me a bad person? No. It’s just a spur-of-the-moment thing, and it happened. I can’t go back and change it, so move on. I was told about it in scoring. I don’t have an issue with what was being said. I’m aware that it’s not the right thing to do, but in the heat of the moment, when you’re frustrated, you just do things that you probably wish you didn’t do. I’m not going to let it bother me for the rest of the day.

“If that’s the worst thing I do as a human, then, I mean, it’s not that bad.”

Blowup aside, Hatton had a fine Saturday at Emirates Golf Club. His 4-under-par 68 has him just a shot off Daniel Hillier’s lead.

As is normally the case with Hatton, the Englishman played great golf after losing his cool. He two-putted to save par at the seventh but stumbled with back-to-back bogeys at eight and nine. However, Hatton flipped a switch on the back nine, carding four birdies to put pressure on Hillier entering the final round.

Hatton understands the need to limit his outbursts, but he doesn’t want to take the emotion out of his game completely.

“Hopefully I can be a little bit more patient out there when I need to be and still maintain that fire, because if I lose that, then I’ll just be boring like everyone else,” Hatton said. 

Hatton will have a chance for his eighth career win on the DP World Tour on Sunday. But even if he’s victorious, his winner’s check will likely be a little light due to the tee marker he mangled on Saturday.