Hatton rocked by rule error
TYRRELL HATTON was eliminated from the WGC–Dell Match Play Championship in Austin, Texas, yesterday after being handed a two-shot penalty.
The Englishman was on the first green in a three-man play-off to decide who in his group went through to the quarter-finals on the Austin Country Club course.
Hatton had landed his second shot 10-feet from the flag but in addressing his ball it ‘rocked’ forward.
Hatton’s sin was in not replacing the ball. He walked off with what he thought was a par four to remain tied with Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello and American Charles Howell, but which soon became a double bogey six. He was approached by a rules official who asked Hatton if he’d replaced his ball after it had rocked forward. “At the time I said to the ref I didn’t, and that I just knocked the ball in,” said Hatton. “He said if you’d replaced the ball it wouldn’t have been classed as a stroke. Obviously I hadn’t replaced it, so it was a five, and then a six with the penalty, so I’m going home. I didn’t know the rule and wasn’t really thinking at that stage.”
It was Hatton’s first WGC appearance. ALASTAIR COOK’S first match since quitting as England captain will see him take on record Test wicket-taker Jimmy Anderson next month.
Cook has been made available by the ECB for Essex’s three opening County Championship games of the season, starting against Lancashire on April 7.
But Cook’s successor Joe Root, his Yorkshire team-mate Jonny Bairstow, Worcestershire’s Moeen Ali and Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball will be rested. MAVERICK VINALES left his Movistar Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi with work to do ahead of final qualifying for tomorrow’s opening round under the Losail floodlights in Qatar.
The Spaniard, making his debut with the team, posted a time of 1min 54.316secs in the first session and despite taking a tumble is half a second clear of the field.
Rossi, however, just made the cut into the top 10 riders, 1.098secs adrift of Vinales.