Tyrrell

Hatton

The Englishman played 50 counting rounds toward the challenge with an average score to par of -0.885 on the selected challenge holes. He peppered 82 percent of the par fives in regulation, posting an 81 percent birdie rate along the way. Hatton narrowly edged out Stephan Jaeger on the season-long standings with Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, and Scottie Scheffler rounding out the top five. Hatton will be rewarded the Aon trophy and a $1 million prize for his season-long performance. “This competition rewards strategic thinking and the ability to execute on a consistent basis. It’s an honor to be named this season’s best decision maker. "

The Englishman torched the course on Friday and Sunday with rounds of 64 but settled for 72s on the other days. He ranked just T63 in fairways hit for the week (29-of-60) but still managed 52 GIR (T9). More importantly, he rolled his rock, ranking 3rd for the week in strokes gained putting. “I holed a lot of putts today. Gave myself a lot of chances. So, yeah, pretty, I’m proud of the fight that I put up and, yeah, there’s still some birdie holes left, so we’ll see how it plays out.” Hatton now has six straight top 20s ahead of next week’s U.S. Open.

The Englishman racked up 19 birdies and an eagle this week but it wasn’t easy. “I felt so uncomfortable over the ball this weekend, I literally, I didn’t feel like I could hit a good shot. I stood over tee shots today feeling like I was going to snap hook. For me naturally, I fade the ball, so it’s not a nice feeling. So to get round in the score that I did today considering how uncomfortable I felt, I’ll take that.” This will go in the books as hisfourth top-6 finish of 2023, in eight stroke-play events that he’s entered. He’s now 27th in the FedExCup race and will look to maintain momentum next week in Dallas.

Hatton is the pre-tournament betting favorite but did arrive with some question marks about his health. Speaking on the issue that happened Wednesday last week ahead of his first match at WGC-Match Play, “It was just a really weird thing that happened warming up on Wednesday. I just hit a 6-iron like 75 percent just for rhythm purposes and yeah, at impact I got a really sharp pain in my hand” He would go on to give the all-clear, “I was fine on Thursday, fine on Friday and haven’t had that pain since.” He’s twirled top 15s in eight of his last 11 worldwide stroke-play events.

The Englishman was a popular selection for bettors and fantasy gamers. He was shown on the driving range with an obvious hand or wrist injury this morning but played through the injury. Hatton won just one hole today and never led at any point of the match. With the Masters just two weeks away, you might expect him to play things cautiously but Hatton has also loudly voiced how Augusta National doesn’t fit his eye in the past, so he may not be toobothered if he’s forced to miss the big event.

The English started well off the pace but gained 4.7 strokes on approach today while also warming up the putter. His round was nearly seven shots better than the field average today, the only golfer to post better than 4-under in the final round. The highlight was a five-hole birdie train to end his week. He finished outside the top 40 in his first four tries at TPC Sawgrass (T13 last year) but spoke fondly of it today, “It’s funny, sounds horrible to say something positive, I guess, but it’s one of my favorite golf courses. Although I haven’t generally, apart from this week and last year, I guess, I haven’t really done that well here in the past.”

The Englishman won the 2020 API and also posted a runner-up finish last year (T4 in 2017 API debut). It was a strong course resume and only got stronger this week. He ended the week ranked 7th in strokes gained off-the-tee and 11th on approach. “I’ve played well enough tee to green to win the tournament today. So that’s pretty disappointing. Normally putting is obviously quite a strength. So for me to have the long game as good as it was to then not take advantage of that really is disappointing. Yeah, I’m pretty gutted. It was nice to be up there and have a chance to win again. It’s been awhile.” He’ll take his talents to TPC Sawgrass next week which is a course that hasn’t yielded as much success, although he did manage a T13 last year.

The Englishman got straight to work with 28'5" worth of putts converted on his first three holes to open with three straight birdies. He slowed his pace but still managed two more birdies without dropping a single shot all day. He was 6-for-6 scrambling today. Hatton has now gained strokes over the field in seven of his last nine rounds played and appears to be rounding into form just in time for the start of the FEC Playoffs. He started this week at 49th in the FedExCup standings. He’s made it to East Lake once in his career (2020, finished 7th in the FEC standings).

The Englishman has made nine prior Open appearances, missing seven cuts, including here in 2010 as an amateur in his PGA TOUR debut (78-77), and again in 2015 (70-76). His other two visits resulted in top 10s, most recently a T6 at Royal Portrush in 2019 two tries ago, as well as a T5 in 2016 (Royal Troon). After today’s error-free, six-birdie effort (link below): “I think the fact that I’m here for the weekend is a nice thing. My two previous Opens here, we were obviously going home early. So, it’s nice to walk up 18 and not have to worry about that.” Overall, this is the 30-year-old’s 30th major with five previous top 10s, and his best is the aforementioned T5 at the 145th Open in his sixth major start and fifth Open. After kicking off with a four-birdie, two-bogey 70, he circled holes 6, 7, 9, 10, 14 and 18 today, posting a sterling +5.09 SG: Total at last check.

The Englishman stormed the castle with three birdies and one bogey on the outward nine. He cooled his pace from there with eight straight pars and a closing double that dropped him outside of the top 5. Hatton gained roughly 3.5 strokes over the field on his opening nine holes today but lost nearly a stroke on the homeward half. It was basically flipped in round one so if he can pair those two rounds together, he could be off and running this weekend in Scotland. He entered the week at 61st in the FedExCup standings.