Hatton’s rich pickings
Englishman wins in the desert
Here at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Wednesday evening, Emily Braisher informed her fiance that victory would move him above Rory Mcilroy in the world rankings to be the top United Kingdom golfer. “What Emily told me seemed too bizarre even to contemplate,” Tyrrell Hatton said. Last night, the Englishman was still struggling to come to terms with his achievement.
“I am pinching myself over and over,” Hatton, 29, said, after turning a one-shot deficit on Mcilroy into a five-shot advantage. Hatton’s bogeyless 66 – the joint lowest round of the day – in tough conditions for an 18-under total was an emphatic statement of his arrival into the world’s top five.
This was his fourth title in his past 20 starts. All of them have been $1million-plus first prizes, with this latest £975,000 windfall for winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship taking his earnings in the past 14 months above £5million. Not bad for that young lad from Buckinghamshire who was ignored as an amateur for the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team and who, in his own words, “started at the very bottom of the heap on the mini tours”.
“It’s crazy, surreal,” Hatton said, clutching the huge Falcon Trophy. “I dreamt of simply playing on the European Tour as a kid… and here I am now. Rory’s the best player in the world on his day, no doubt in my mind. He will go into the Hall of Fame. I admire him and his game so much that to get over the line against him is a great feeling.”
Mcilroy will forever think of Hatton as a dangerous animal. Mcilroy, 31, looked all over the winner when he strolled two clear of his playing partner with a birdie from 20 feet on the third. But the turnaround from there was nothing short of stunning. Hatton played the next 10 holes in four under, compared to Mcilroy’s two over. Head-to-head, over. After Conor Mcgregor’s own humble experience in Abu Dhabi at the weekend, this was another headlining Irishman hitting the canvas.
Granted, Hatton did have fortune on his side. On the par-three seventh, he skirted the water before coming to rest within eight feet of the flag.
“When that ball was in the air I was regretting wearing white trousers”, he quipped. Then, on the 10th, his birdie putt from 30 feet would have run at least eight feet past had it not hit the flag and disappeared. But only the most one-eyed Mcilroy fan would have denied Hatton as the superior golfer in a week in which he made only four bogeys. Mcilroy had the same number of bogeys in the last round and, in the event, with a level-par 72 for a 13-under total, conceded runner-up honours to Jason Scrivener, the fast-finishing Australian who came back in 29 for his own 66 and a 14-under total.
So Mcilroy must wait for his first Abu Dhabi title – this made it four seconds and four thirds in his past 10 tournaments here – as well as for his first title of any description in 14 months. It is remarkable to think that Hatton has won four times since Mcilroy last prevailed in China in November 2019, although there were positives to take in his first top-three display since the resumption from the first lockdown seven months ago.
“I thought for the most part of the week, my short game and my putting was good,” Mcilroy said. “But, overall, I don’t feel like I played great. I felt I was managing my game a bit. Still, it’s nice to get a competitive week under my belt and see where my game is before Torrey Pines.”
There were similar sentiments from Tommy Fleetwood, who started the day just two back and who threatened to upstage the final pairing when chipping in on the fifth to close within one. However, the two-time Abu Dhabi champion could not grasp the momentum and suffered a dispiriting finale to finish seventh. But the 30-year-old showed enough before that to inspire confidence he will be a factor at the Desert Classic in Dubai this week, although he will beware of Hatton – the new world force who does not realise how mighty he happens to be.
After the prize-giving, Hatton stood by the clubhouse, asking how far he had moved in the Ryder Cup standings. “I loved my debut in 2018 and want to secure my place on Padraig Harrington’s team for Whistling Straits,” he said. He should not fret. Harrington probably yearns for him to be in Wisconsin even more than
Hatton does.