On 10, after sliding his par putt to the right of the hole and three-putting from 31 feet, he had words.
On 11, he was left off the tee.
On 12, from the fairway, he hit his second shot well left of the green and long, then pitched short and bogeyed.
On 13, he dropped his tee shot into the left greenside bunker and bogeyed.
On 14, he missed an 8-foot birdie putt to the left of the hole. “It’ll make you go mad this game, won’t it?” a commentator said on Golf Channel “Some more than others.”
On Saturday at Jumeirah Golf Estates, during the DP World Tour Championship’s third round, Tyrrell Hatton’s fuse was getting shorter and shorter in real time. Granted, the Englishman is self-admittedly combustible — about two years ago, he was part of a spoof called “Angry Goflers” — but this was notably more of a slow burn to the fireworks. But when they came, they came.
On 15, from the fairway and just 58 yards to a flag that was about 8 feet from the left-side fringe, Hatton hit into the left-greenside bunker. You may have already surmised why we included the pin location here.
“How f*****g close is that pin?” Hatton said.
“Not a happy camper,” an announcer said on the Golf Channel broadcast.
On 16, Hatton missed a 12-foot birdie putt to the right, then slammed his putter into what appeared to be spike marks on the green four times.
On the 204-yard, par-3 17th, with a pin was toward the back of the longer green and about 15 feet from the left fringe, Hatton hit his tee shot into the right greenside bunker. He hit out, and you may have a guess why we included the location of the pin here, too.
“Worst pin position,” he said. “Ever. So bad.”
“He’s running out of excuses, isn’t he?” an announcer said on Golf Channel. “He’s tried most of them.”
Notably, he parred.
On 18, Hatton birdied — though he did swear after leaving his eagle putt short — and his round was over. He started Saturday tied for the lead, saw his advantage grow to two, then dropped three behind heading into Sunday after a four-bogey back nine.
It’s here where we’ll note where we appreciate the personality. Is it fiery? Yes. Is it passionate? That, too. There’s flavor.
And his commentary after the first round — when he shot a 65 and was in a share of the lead — was more of that.
“Tyrrell, despite the bogey at the last, it’s your lowest first round score here by four shots. How do you feel about that 65?”
“I’m surprised to hear it’s my lowest round to start with,” Hatton said. “Obviously it was a good day. Hit a lot of good shots. Putter was great. Kind of happy with that start.
