Direct observation of his body already gave some clue about the matter. Then, Tyrrell Hatton had no problem confirming it. He has overdone it at the parties. “Let’s say I haven’t taken care of myself in December,” he admitted yesterday after handing in a card of eleven under par, his lowest score as a professional. His figure gives him away.
With this background, his round of 62 strokes at the Plantation course in Kapalua to place second in the The Sentry is even more inexplicable. “I’m stiff. My body is not moving well. You just have to see some lines of my shots to check it. I’ve been lucky that the ones I’ve missed haven’t penalised me too much, I’ve managed, and then the putt has been crazy. I’ve put in everything you can put in and more (including the 30-metre eagle on the 18th),” he explains.
It could be said that Hatton has not been the best possible example of the preseason a professional golfer should have. Since the Final in Dubai he has only played one round of 18 holes before travelling to Hawaii and his preparation has been restricted to half an hour of balls on a practice range run by his father a week and a half before The Sentry. If we add to this a hellish trip from London to Kapalua, 25 hours door to door, including a stopover at Los Angeles airport that got out of hand due to a plane breakdown, it doesn’t seem like the most appropriate ingredients for a good round. “This eleven under par shows how stupid this game is. Right now I’m a wooden plank and what’s left… (next week he plays again in Hawaii, then to the Desert Classic in Dubai and back to the United States…)”, he points out.
Surely many amateurs reading this story can identify with what Hatton is saying. How many have had that experience of arriving on a golf day with horrible feelings and getting a great result and vice versa. “And now that I’m telling it, I’m sure I’ll jinx it and tomorrow things won’t go well,” Hatton finished. Another pearl that all fans of this sport can surely tell. That’s why there’s nothing better than taking things as they come, even though Hatton is the least capable in the world of doing that. “Look, expectations weren’t good, but even so, I still get very angry when the shot isn’t good,” he says.
In the same vein, Collin Morikawa spoke, fifth place with -14, two strokes behind Scheffler. He hasn’t felt good on the ball and yet he’s managed to pull off a notable six under par round. “The best thing is that I’m only two strokes behind. Today I didn’t feel good at all. Now I have to do a big mental exercise. Other times this has happened to me, I’ve thought: well, if we’ve saved the bad day well, surely things will go much better tomorrow… And it hasn’t been like that. I have to focus again and go for it,” he explained.
On the opposite side of this mysterious golf equation is South Korean Tom Kim. He is the player who has hit the most greens in regulation in the tournament (34 out of 36) and yet he is in 39th place with a total of eight under par. The explanation is in the greens. He has made nine birdie or eagle putts and five of them have been from less than a metre and a half. Without holing, there is no paradise. And much less in Kapalua.
Don’t try to understand it, just accept it.
