‘Angry golfer’ Hatton is Mr Happy as he capitalises on Mcilroy slump to surge clear

On the day he was set to feature in a European Tour social media video about “angry golfers”, how ironic that Tyrrell Hatton was actually Mr Happy in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The Englishman was admittedly helped in that respect by Rory Mcilroy, who, just 24 hours after making the game look ridiculously easy as he opened the $8m Rolex Series event with a 64, showed how fickle the game can be.

Initially, it looked as though Mcilroy was going to keep his foot to the pedal at Abu Dhabi Golf Club as he picked up two birdies in the first three holes to move to 10-under-par.

But, boy, did the narrative take a turn on its head. A first bogey of the week after finding sand from the tee at the par-3 fourth was followed by a double-bogey at the next, where a wild tee shot was the root of the damage.

From that point on, the fourtime major winner found himself fighting his game whereas Hatton, in contrast, again showed the qualities that have earned him a spot in the world’s top ten. After making two eagles in his opening 65, Hatton added a third as he rolled in an impressive 22-footer at the par-5 second. He then reeled off four birdies in a row around the turn.

When the hooter sounded just before 6pm local time, the 29-year-old was sitting five shots clear of the field on 12-under, though he will restart his round this morning from a fairway bunker on the 14th hole.

“I'm obviously in a great position at the moment,” said Hatton, who already has three Rolex Series titles under his belt, including last year’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, where he looked very comfortable indeed as a frontrunner.

“It was certainly tough out there, so I'm really happy to be five-under (for the round). Holed some nice putts, including a couple par putts toward the end to keep a bit of momentum going .”

Mcilroy, who is among four players on seven-under, has four holes of his second round to finish, with Stephen Gallacher (four-under) and Bob Macintyre (two-under) among the others facing an early return today.