'Mad' Hatton had little to bark about at Masters
Low round of the tournament puts colorful Englishman in the chase well behind McIlroy
Tyrrell Hatton talks to his hat after three-putting the 18th on Friday (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy (12-under) ran away from an all-star chasing pack — Patrick Reed (6-under), Sam Burns (6-under), Tommy Fleetwood (5-under), Justin Rose (5-under) and Shane Lowry (5-under) — late Friday in his quest to go wire-to-wire and become the fourth player to repeat as Masters champion.
McIlroy opened a record six-stroke lead after 36 holes. He birdied six of the last seven — including the final four consecutive — in a second-round 65 on Friday that left him at 12-under par for the tournament. He’s in position to not only join Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02) as the only repeat champions but challenge a couple of huge Masters records in the process — Tiger’s 12-stroke margin in 1997 and Dustin Johnson’s 20-under scoring total in 2020.
“Look, I’ve built up a nice cushion at this point,” McIlroy said. “I guess my mindset is just trying to keep playing well and keeping my foot on the gas.”
While McIlroy rolls, let’s take a moment at the midpoint of the Augusta National invitation tournament to appreciate one of golf’s true characters ensconced among the crowd tied for seventh at 4-under par who had the round of the tournament Friday until Rory came roaring home.
Tyrrell Glen Hatton.
The English Hatton kept his cool on Friday, which on his best days is typically a dicey proposition. The man known for his bemusingly ammusing volcanic eruptions, self-deprecating immolations and genuine disgust for his various executions while playing an impossible game was quite nearly stoic during an oh-so-close to flawless second-round at Augusta National.
There wasn’t much reason to get upset on Friday, where Hatton hit all 18 greens in regulation and shot a 6-under-par 66 to move into contention through two rounds at the Masters. Only two other players in the last 30 years have hit every green in the Masters (Jim Furyk in 2009 and Kevin Na in 2020).
But even that came with a fitting bit of Hatton angst after a three-putt bogey at the last hole. Already peaved that his approach stayed atop the upper tier and left him an impossibly bending downhill 30-footer, when his comebacker for par spun out of the hole it left him in a relatively mild (by his standards) state of annoyance as he pointed and barked at the various slopes and breaks that contributed to his finishing injustice.
“Today was a great day,” said Hatton, who finished 36 holes at 140, 4-under par, after shooting an opening-round 74. “Actually walking up 18 I was pretty confident that I couldn’t mess it up enough that I wouldn’t shoot my best score here.
“I mean, naturally I tried with a three-putt, so that was disappointing, to say the least. But, yeah, I mean, I certainly would have taken 6-under before I went out.”
Hatton’s previous best was a 68 during the final round in 2021 at a place that has generally frustrated him. He tied for ninth in 2024 and tied for 14th last year but he has called the course “unfair at times” and said that good shots often are not rewarded.
This came a day after Hatton’s equanimity was challenged when his approach shot to the seventh green hit the flagstick and came back off the green.
“I was absolutely headless on seven yesterday, because I had gone from essentially having a very good birdie opportunity to not only has it gone back in the bunker at speed, it’s gone onto the flat, and then it’s semi-buried itself,” Hatton said. “I was, like, sick, I’ve got no chance. Not good.
“I still had, what, 11 holes to go, so you move onto the next hole. As headless as I would be, I still go and try my best. That’s all you can ever do. And ended up being a not too bad day. I didn’t think 2-over was that bad yesterday afternoon.”
The 34-year-old Hatton — who plays on Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII on LIV Golf and tied for third in the Adelaide event earlier this year — was invited to the Masters based on a top-four finish last year at the U.S. Open. He is also among the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, coming in at No. 31 this week.
Last year, he won the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, where he also plays. And he went 3-0-1 in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory last September at Bethpage Black.
But Hatton’s reputation has largely been built around his demonstrably combustible nature and his utter disdain for bad shots and poor results. Sometimes it can come across poorly, and he’s been criticized for it at times.
“I don’t know if I’m popular or not,” he said. “I think there’s many other players that are far more popular than me, and that’s fine. People, I guess, will either like how I am on the golf course or they won’t. I won’t lose sleep over it.
“But maybe they see themselves in me and how they play golf at the weekend and how they react, but that’s for them to judge, I guess where.”
Very few, if any, can play the way Hatton played Friday at the Masters on a firm and fiery golf course. He shot the round of the tournament so far on a course that seems to be getting more difficult by the minute.
He acknowledged that the greens might have been a tad slower when he played early in the day, something that helped him.
“I gave myself lots of opportunities,” he said. “I would have liked to have seen more putts go in. I don’t feel like I actually holed that many putts certainly outside sort of seven, eight feet.
“Hopefully I can do a bit better on that front over the weekend, but overall it was a good day.”
As for the weekend … well, that is where Hatton acknowledges his patience might become severly tested. The conditions are not expected to get any easier, especially as he will be in one of the later groups, when the course dries out even more and the greens become firmer.
“I think the greens are just going to get firmer and faster, which is quite a scary prospect, because I feel like the 15th green can’t really get much firmer than what it is,” he said. “So it’s going to be tough. There’s always going to be someone that deals with it very well, and they’ll be putting on a green jacket on Sunday.
“I’ll just try and do the best I can and see if I get a bit of luck for a change.”
Hatton has had trouble getting out of his own way in all of the major championships, to be fair. It tests the patience of a man who has little. And he needs it.
As he so eloquently put it about his seven-birdie, one-bogey round: “For me it felt like a bit of a surprise I actually got it to 7 under around this golf course with how I’ve previously struggled.
“I mean, I was obviously enjoying it. It was nice to be at that score and not hacking it round and over par like I generally do around here. I guess it was nice for a change.”