Tyrrell Hatton is the big news in the list of golfers participating in the British Masters, a tournament of the DP World Tour that is held this week at the Brabazon course of The Belfry. The English player, enrolled in the Legion XIII team of LIV Golf, will play his first regular tournament of the European circuit since he signed for the Saudi league with a big paycheck.
Although there has been no official statement from the DP World Tour or from Hatton’s environment, the British player’s presence in the tournament indicates that he would have reached an agreement with the European circuit regarding fines and suspensions for his participation, without authorization, in the LIV Golf tournaments that coincide in weeks with others from the DP World Tour.
One of Hatton’s main goals is to play the Ryder Cup next year in Bethpage, New York. To do so, the essential condition is to remain as a member of the European circuit and one of the requirements to continue being so is to play a minimum of four tournaments of the DP World Tour. To date, he has only played one in 2024, the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, so the British Masters will be the second.
Interestingly, Luke Donald, the European captain of the Ryder, is also in the tournament. It remains to be seen whether they play together in the first two rounds. The tee times will be announced this Tuesday at noon. It should be remembered that the British Masters is the tournament that inaugurates the qualification period in Europe for the Bethpage Ryder. It awards 1,500 points in this concept.
In addition, the usual ones from the PGA Tour are present: Harry Hall, winner of the ISCO Championship, Vincent Norrman, Henrik Norlander, MJ Daffue, Matthias Schwab, Kyle Westmoreland and Sung Kang. The British Masters is the first appointment of the Back Nine, the final series of tournaments of the DP World Tour, before the Abu Dhabi play off and the grand final in Dubai, which have more points of the Race to Dubai to distribute, a total of 5,000.
Hatton’s presence is, without a doubt, one of the most relevant news of the tournament that starts next Thursday. In addition, we have thirteen Spanish players there: Pablo Larrazábal, Jorge Campillo, Adrián Otaegui, Adri Arnaus, Santi Tarrio, Alex del Rey, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Ángel Hidalgo, Gonzalo Fernández Castaño, who has entered by virtue of being a former winner, Manu Elvira, Iván Cantero, Sebas García Rodríguez and Alfredo García Heredia.
