Tyrrell Hatton insists he won’t tone down his club-throwing and explosive antics just because he is at the ‘Home of Golf ’. English ace Hatton has gathered a reputation for letting rip when his game frustrates him.
He bent a club in the Open last year and yesterday he chucked his ball in the burn at the first after missing a birdie putt. Then he dropped his club to the ground dramatically on his follow through after missing his approach to the fifth to the left.
But he still ended up shooting an impressive six-under 66 to stand eight-under in total.
World No.27 Hatton, 30, said: “If I get too annoyed, I get in my own way, then, yeah, it's a problem. But if I hit a bad shot and I let it out, then it's not going to harm me. It would be worse for me if I try and act like everything's fine because it's just not my character.
"It's almost I wouldn't even think about some of the stuff I say and it just flies out of the gate. Obviously it's not well-liked, which is fine. But it's just me. I'm not trying to offend anyone. It makes no difference where I'm playing.
"If I hit a bad shot, you're probably going to know about it. It's just how I play golf. Yes, it's extremely special this week and it's always special to be here in St Andrews but it doesn't mean that I should be any different than myself, and that's how I'll continue to be.”
Hatton missed the cut last year at Royal St George’s but has won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship back-to-back before at the Old Course in 2016 and 2017.
But he added: “Although I've won around here in the past, the golf course is very different to how we play in October. “Also the pin positions are a lot tighter. “If I play good golf, then, sure, we'll have a chance. “But it's definitely not a time to get ahead of ourselves.”
