Tyrrell: I’m just glad it’s all over
Hothead Hatton can’t hide Augusta anger
If conventional wisdom would have it that bright flowers and a good walk are food for the soul, then spend a few hours watching and listening to Tyrrell Hatton at Augusta. It’s a scenario fit for the busting of myths.
Even by his standards for rage, which are considerably higher than most, he cut a desperately frustrated figure for most of the 80 blows he needed to wrap up his tournament.
To think he was still in something of a hump when he walked off and described the most revered strip of land in his sport as ‘unfair’. His only objective through that torturous final loop, he said, was ‘getting off the course as fast as possible’.
Give it to Hatton, he is never dull. Among other actions he took yesterday, his words will no doubt agitate the more curmudgeonly followers of golf, and quite possibly a few of the more mild mannered as well. This truly was not one of the days when he kept a lid on it.
By the time he was done swinging, he sat 17 over par and last among the weekend field of 52, with flashpoints of anger on the course outnumbering his birdies by five to one. Then came his words for the media.
‘I’m glad it’s over,’ he said. ‘I think that’s a pretty good way to sum it up. I just never do well here.
‘This course doesn’t really suit my eye. It’s just one of those weeks that I feel like if I come back in the future, it’s just a case of trying to get through the best that I can.
‘You can hit good shots here and not get any reward. It’s unfair at times — I don’t agree with that.’
While there is little doubting that Hatton has the talent to contend at majors, and certainly has the iron play and putting to do well at the Masters, it seems equally obvious that a time is approaching when he needs to get out of his own way.
Hatton, ranked 16 in the world remember, is sufficiently aware of those shortcomings that he even parodied it in a brilliant anger management sketch for the European Tour last year. But there is still a noted difference between recognising the flaw and fixing it, which was glaringly apparent. Going in some kind of order, he appeared to flick a middle finger at the green on the first, which he bogeyed, he swore after his putt veered right of the cup on three — another bogey — and then had moment on the fifth. His tee shot had the good fortune to land between the two fairway bunkers down the left, but his second caught a slope at the back of the green and ran a long way to trouble. Standing in a fury, he could be heard saying to his caddie: ‘I hate this place.’ Sacrilege to some; eminently relatable to others. Another bogey at nine took Hatton to the turn in 38 — he had picked up his sole birdie at the second — before a minor hell played out on the entry and exits of Amen Corner. He had doubled the modified 11th after overruling the instruction of his caddie Mick Donaghy to go with a five iron for his second shot, instead sending a six into the water. And he then fired a seven at 13, after a lost ball off the tee.
His driving had been woeful to that point, so his frustration was demonstrated by slamming his club into the tee box — they take a dim view of all that at Augusta National. After another bogey at 15 he tossed his ball away, before signing off with a final dropped shot at the last and a face like thunder.
There is the question of when Hatton, now 30, will fire again in more meaningful ways at a major.
Danny Willett, the 2016 winner who has had fewer bright days than Hatton in recent years, had an uplifting experience at the Masters, finishing finished one over par.
Matt fitzpatrick finished at two over after a good 70 yesterday and Tommy fleetwood’s 73 saw him match that mark.
Lee Westwood also finished two over after a round of 71, his best of the tournament, while Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre ended with a 69 for a three-overpar finish.