Tyrrell Hatton Catches Fire With a Record Sunday Back Nine at TPC Sawgrass
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tyrrell Hatton seemingly had little going Sunday, and it would have been understandable if he simply just played out the final holes at the Players Championship.
Coming off a bogey at the par-5 9th hole, the Englishman was even par for his round and nine shots back of leader Scottie Scheffler.
But then things got interesting.
Hatton, ranked 24th in the world (25th SIWGR), birdied seven of the nine holes on the back at TPC Sawgrass to match a tournament-record 29—and become the first to fire that during the final round.
His stretch included five straight birdies to end the round, no small feat over some difficult closing holes. The 7-under-par 65 gave him the clubhouse lead at 276, 12 under par, while the leaders were still on the course. When he finished he was two strokes behind Scheffler and alone in second place.
"A pretty mad two-and-a-half hours in the end, I guess, from standing on the 10th tee," Hatton said. "So really happy with how it’s played out. Yeah, good day’s work."
Hatton admitted he was none too pleased walking off the 9th green with a bogey, nothing happening. He used the lengthy walk to the 10th tee to calm down, then rolled in a 20-footer for birdie.
He failed to birdie the par-5 11th but rolled in a tricky short putt at the 12th, then birdied the last five holes.
Included was a stuffed iron shot to 4 feet at the par-3 17th and then an impressive cut out of the pine straw on the right side of the fairway at the 18th that rolled up to 10 feet.
"It was a risky shot but it never crossed my mind to just try and chip out," he said. "The wind was sort of in off the left so it was kind of helping me with the shot. I was just trying to cut it and over-cutting it is going to be a better miss than coming out dead straight.
"What made it more good was the lie, the fact that I couldn’t get the club properly behind the ball and had to hover it quite far back. But for it to come out as well as it did, obviously, I was delighted with. And then very happy to hole the putt at the end of it."
Hatton was coming off a tie for fourth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and he tied for sixth at the WM Phoenix Open. He admitted that he felt behind in the FedEx Cup points race, and with the top 50 earning automatic spots in all the designated events next year, he felt some urgency.
But it was hard to envision what he put together.
"I’m playing catch-up to a lot of guys who have played quite a bit of golf already," Hatton said. "Obviously some of the European lads are in the same boat where we try to play DP World stuff at the back end of the calendar year and we miss some events in the States. So I’m just out here trying to earn as many points as I can and try to set myself up nicely for next year."
Hatton, known for showing his emotions and often seeming negative, admitted liking the TPC Sawgrass course helped him shoot rounds of 68-65 on the weekend.
"It's funny, sounds horrible to say something positive, I guess, but it's one of my favorite golf courses," Hatton said. “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.
"It's such a pretty golf course, visually on the eye, I mean aside from (No.) 8. We don't need 235-yard par-3s; that kind of ruins it a bit. I got to say something negative, obviously. But, yeah, I do like the golf course."