Augusta National has proven time and time again that it isn’t for the faint of heart, but many of the world’s best players still revere the home course of the Masters.
That wasn’t entirely the case for Tyrrell Hatton following a difficult end to the 2022 tournament.
After posting an 8-over in the final round just a day after shooting only a stroke better, Hatton expressed his frustrations with the layout of the course, calling it “unfair at times.” The 30-year-old Englishman lamented that Augusta National doesn’t “fit his eye” and said “I never do well here” after finishing at 17-over and in 52nd place, last among players who made the cut.
“If you hit a good shot, you should end up near the hole, not then short-sided into a bunker because of the slopes that they’ve created and stuff,” Hatton argued, per Dan Rapaport of Golf Digest. “I think it’s how the course is set up in general. You don’t really have to miss a shot, and your next one, you’re really struggling to make par. With how it runs off the greens here and the slopes that you are then chipping into and how obviously it’s cut, it just makes it really hard to even get chip shots close. I think everything is exaggerated here.”
Hatton, the 17th ranked player in the Official World Golf rankings, has had a difficult time at the Masters in six career appearances. His highest finish came when he tied for 18th in 2021, and he has missed the cut twice.
“It’s just one of those weeks that I feel like if I come back in the future, it’s just a case of trying to get through the best that I can,” Hatton said, according to Brentley Romine of the Golf Channel.
He added that he had to carry his golf bag a few times this weekend because his caddie, Mick Donaghy, is battling an injured knee, before implying that he might fare better as a caddie at Augusta.
“I can say it wasn’t a fun walk,” Hatton said, “but maybe I’ll be better off if I come back being a caddie here rather than trying to hit golf shots.”
