SUTTON COLDFIELD, England — There are some around the Belfry this week who think Tyrrell Hatton is playing in the Betfred British Masters only because of a conveniently engineered loophole in the DP World Tour's conflicting tournament rules known as the “appeal option.” Others take a different view, welcoming the increased presence of the 32-year-old Englishman, the most visible player in an overall lackluster field that features just four players in the top 100 of the Official World Golf Rankings. And the rest of us are fine with it either way.
All of this seemed to be affecting Hatton as well. In an 11-minute conversation with the assembled journalists, the world number 36 was at pains to avoid any political overtones to his presence, preferring to focus on his motivation to perform well in his first DP World Tour regular-season event since January's Dubai Desert Classic.
Hatton hopes to not only play this week, but also in back-to-back weeks in late September and early October at the Spanish Open and the Dunhill Links Championship. If he does well in those tournaments, his next goal is to finish high in the DP World Tour Race to Dubai and qualify for two playoff events in November, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the DP World Tour Championship. If he does well in those tournaments, Hatton could finish in the top 30 in the Race to Dubai and qualify for the 2025 British Open. (Hatton has already played in the Masters and should be in the top 100 next year to play in the PGA Championship.) That would leave the U.S. Open on his to-do list.
So while there's a lot of pressure on Hatton to perform close to his best, there's also motivation and drive. “I'm excited about it,” he said. “At the end of the day, I just want to play good golf.”
The three-time European Ryder Cup player also found time to reveal a previously unknown side to the still ongoing and never-ending negotiation process.
“I decided to join LIV in the hopes that things would change,” Hatton said. “I know there have been discussions about potentially giving (Ryder Cup) points to LIV. It may be a surprise that they (were discussed), but I'm not surprised that it didn't go through. I don't know the details of how far it actually went, but it was talked about. I'm glad it was even considered. It's fine. You can tell from my attitude that I have no negativity towards it.”
That last part will surely come as a surprise to anyone who has witnessed the familiar spectacle of Hatton “heading off” up close. His lack of self-control after a poor shot is either amusing or horrifying, depending on how you look at it. And yet, none of the above was a consideration before the tournament began, and Hatton's mood was as sunny as the weather in central England.
“It feels good and of course it's nice that it's a home event,” he said. “I'm looking forward to playing in front of my home crowd again. It's really nice to see some faces I haven't seen in a while and catch up with certain players. I've always wanted to come back and play as many events as I can, and of course this event fell into a gap in the LIV schedule. The Tour knows what events I'm going to be playing. We've been pretty honest with them from the beginning. Even the week I signed with LIV, they knew where I stand and how I feel about the Tour. I've always wanted to play when I can.”
What is the appeals process? How does that work?
“It's a bit complicated on that front,” he said with a smile. “Hopefully there's something we can work out to make it a bit easier because I want to play in DP World Tour events. This week is a really important week because the Ryder Cup points start too. I'm a DP World Tour member and I want to play for a team so I need to play really well to get the points.”
Hatton's closing comments were consistent with this optimism: Publicly, at least, he is optimistic about what may or may not happen following the conclusion of the current high-level talks between the PGA Tour, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (LIV's funding source) and the DP World Tour that will determine the future of elite professional golf.
“I didn't sign a contract to play LIV events for the next five years,” he said. “I was hoping that something would come together where we'd all be playing certain events and be able to get back and play DP World Tour events. I think we can all agree that if it's the same in five years' time as it is now, golf is clearly in decline as a sport. The fans are the same in terms of what they want to see. We're all the same in that we want unity. It feels like we're starting to get a little closer to that in the last month or so.”
