Hatton ‘devastated’ after playing with Tiger, 4-putting 18, fighting Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tyrrell Hatton isn’t known for his restraint.

But on Saturday, for nearly his entire round, he was proud of exactly that.

Hatton’s third round at this year’s Masters came under unusual circumstances. He was paired with Tiger Woods. They were battling a fiery Augusta National. And, because Hatton has joined LIV Golf, he was playing with next year’s Masters already on his mind.

Hatton began the day at 2 over par and a share of 24th place. With a massive, Woods-sized gallery in tow, Hatton birdied No. 1 and birdied No. 3 and figured he might be off to the races. He bogeyed 4 and 7 but birdied 8 and 9. Ultimately he came to the 18th at 1 under for the day, well inside the top 20. He found the middle of the green with his second shot, setting up a 30-footer for birdie. He hit that four feet past the hole. But then he hit that four-footer six feet past. Four putts meant double bogey and it meant that Hatton was understandably hot as he came off the course.

“Yeah, it’s tough to take,” he said. “I don’t know how I have to play golf around here to shoot under par. Like, it’s now my 23rd tournament round. I’ve got four rounds under par.”

He was miffed and mystified by the four-putt.

“The greens are getting quicker, but I’m putting up the hill,” he said. “I actually felt like I’d left the putt a foot short. My pace has been good all day. It’s gone like, three foot past, and the cup’s sitting like that,” he said, demonstrating a tilted cup.

“You can’t see it on TV or whatever, but it’s an interesting slope that it’s on. It’s hard. With even that short putt I can feel the wind on my back as well. So that doesn’t make the right-to-left putt any easier. Obviously I hit it a little bit firm. It looks horrific on TV, but if it’s a flat putt, it’s going a foot past, two foot past, not six foot, eight foot past.

“As I said, I don’t know what I have to do around this place to get some good fortune and actually shoot under par and get a score that I deserve.”

Hatton is arguably the most demonstrative pro in golf and rarely holds back in post-round remarks, either — on Friday he’d made it clear what he’d thought of the slow play of the group in front of him. But that wasn’t the guy who showed up on Saturday.

“The kid inside of me, playing with Tiger at the Masters, like, that’s really cool. That’s certainly not lost on me,” Hatton said. “But at the same time, I’m going out there competing, trying to put together the best round I can and trying to move up the leaderboard, which for 17 and a half holes I feel like I did a really good job of.

“Yeah, I’m devastated, to be honest.”

Hatton was holding back, he added.

“It’s brutal for me at the moment to be honest,” he said. “I feel like I’m putting on a brave face for what I want to talk about or say.”

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Playing with Woods remains cool. Hatton remembers playing with him at Riviera in 2022 and at WGC-Mexico a few years before that. On Saturday Woods struggled with his swing and his body and shot 82; Hatton said it was easy to see how things would have gotten away from anybody.

“You guys, you don’t realize, even a 2 1/2 foot putt is just brutal. They’ve got so much turn. You start it a centimeter outside of your start line and it’s going to miss. Then depending on the pace you’ve hit it at, who knows how far away it’s going to finish up?”

But Hatton was devastated for another reason, too. Because he joined LIV Golf for the 2024 season, he has limited access to OWGR points. Unlike fellow top LIV pros, he doesn’t have a major championship title and thus has no long-term exemptions to future majors. And while he’s at No. 19 in the world right now, that number will likely continue to slide.

“Is it top 12 get in?” Hatton asked assembled reporters. He had that right; the 12 top finishers guarantee themselves invitations back for the 2025 Masters.

“See, we were right there coming up the last. I’ve got 18 holes tomorrow to try to claw those shots back, but it’s just a brutal way to finish the round.”

Given the toll a Masters round takes on Hatton, one reporter wondered whether he’s able to appreciate being here. Hatton took things big picture.

“When you get the invite around sort of Christmas, early in the new year, it’s a very nice letter to be opening,” he said. “You start the week, it’s always nice to be back. This is my eighth one, so I stay generally in the same house 5 out of the 8 years. So it feels familiar when you come back, so it’s nice to have that.

“I just wish I could score better around this golf course.”

It’s safe to say Hatton has a love-hate relationship with Augusta National. And it’s safe to say he desperately wants to return.