Tyrrell Hatton admitted his latest foul-mouthed outburst was “not my finest moment” after he squandered a promising start to round two of the 107th US PGA Championship.
Hatton was within a shot of the lead after covering his first eight holes at Quail Hollow in two under par, only to then run up a damaging triple bogey on the 18th.
After pulling his tee shot on the difficult par four into the creek which runs the length of the hole, Hatton could be clearly heard shouting “piece of s***” at the face of his driver, followed by another word – seemingly beginning with the letter C – which was not 100 per cent clear.
Following a penalty drop, Hatton hit this third shot into the rough short of the green and failed to find the putting surface with his fourth, before seeing his fifth shot trickle back off the green.
The Englishman almost holed his next shot and tapped in for a seven before covering the front nine in 36 to complete a 73 which left him one under par, seven shots off the clubhouse lead held by Jhonattan Vegas.
“A great birdie on 17 but a poor tee shot really on 18 and then made some bad decisions,” Hatton said.
“It’s a really tough pin if you miss the green anywhere. It’s an awkward chip and I had such a bad lie for my fourth shot to be honest.
“I was trying to hit it 30 feet right, but I didn’t want to hit it that hard and obviously it came out horrendous and you kind of look stupid. But I didn’t think I played the next chip shot that badly and it came off the green.
“Making seven there was tough and I just unfortunately wasn’t able to make other shots coming back on the back nine and it ends up being a frustrating day.”
Asked to clarify what he had said on the 18th tee, Hatton said: “You tell me, you’ve seen it.”
Told the first three words were clear but the fourth was not, Hatton replied: “Okay. Well either way it wasn’t my finest moment on the course but I mean yeah, running hot in the moment I’m pretty good at sometimes saying the wrong thing.
“So yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”
It is far from the first time Hatton’s explosive temper has been seen on the course, with the world number 20 labelled a “terrible influence” after snapping a club and complaining about course conditions in round three of the DP World Tour Championship in November.
Hatton reacted angrily to missing a short birdie putt on the 11th hole at Jumeirah Golf Estates, exclaiming clearly “F*** you, f****** s*** greens” and banging his putter down on the green.
The LIV Golf player then broke one of his wedges after missing the green with his approach to the par-five 14th.
Responding to that incident, which was another in a long line of displays of petulance from Hatton, veteran Sky Sports commentator Ewen Murray said: “Oh no, no. It’s time for change I’m afraid.
“What a terrible influence on the next generation. I’m sorry to say it, I’m his biggest supporter as a golfer. But just have a look at this. Why? Why would you do that? We’ve all had our moments but he’s having too many of them.”
Vegas, who enjoyed a slice of luck when his tee shot on the 17th hit a rake and kicked onto the green, looked set to enjoy a sizeable lead before taking four to get down from a greenside bunker to make a double bogey on the 18th.
The resulting 70 left him two shots clear of France’s Matthieu Pavon, with Max Homa another stroke back adding a 64 to his opening 73.
“I feel like finishing so late yesterday, not getting a great sleep, and having to come back early kind of put me not in the best mood all day,” Vegas, who completed an opening 64 at 8pm on Thursday, said.
“Every chance you get to lead a major and play with the lead is never easy, so I feel proud of a solid round today. Even though it’s never easy to give two shots away right at the end, [there’s] a lot of golf left, so got to keep remembering the good stuff.”
