Tyrrell Hatton took his frustrations out on a minor marker during the third round in Dubai.
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Tyrrell Hatton’s the famous temper struck again On Saturday during the third round of Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
On the par-3 seventh hole, Hatton drifted his tee shot 48 feet to the right of the pin. The foul shot prompted the 33-year-old Englishman to take out his frustration on a nearby plastic marker. DP World Tour officials met with Hatton after his 4-under round at Emirates Golf Club and informed him that the Tour would fine him for the incident.
After the round, Hatton admitted he let his emotions get the best of him.
“Just a little bit of disappointment,” Hatton said via The Guardian. “Maybe he shouldn’t have done it. Does that make me a bad person? No. It’s just a spur of the moment thing and it happened. I can’t go back and change it, so keep going. I was told about it in the scoring. I have no problem with what was said. I know it’s not the right thing to do, but in the heat of the moment, when you’re frustrated, you just do things you probably wish you didn’t. I won’t let it bother me for the rest of the day.
“If that’s the worst thing I do as a human being, then, I mean, it’s not that bad.”
Blast aside, Hatton had a good Saturday at Emirates Golf Club. His 4-under-par 68 leaves him just one shot off the lead Daniel Hillier.
As is usually the case with Hatton, the Englishman played excellent golf after losing his composure. He two-putted to save in the seventh, but was bogged down by double bogeys in the eighth and ninth. However, Hatton turned a switch on the back nine, carding four birdies to put the pressure on Hillier going into the final round.
Hatton understands the need to limit his outbursts, but he doesn’t want to completely take the emotion out of his game.
“Hopefully I can be a little more patient out there when I need to be and keep that fire because if I lose that, then I’m going to be boring like everybody else,” Hatton said.
Hatton will have a shot at his eighth career victory on the DP World Tour on Sunday. But even if he is victorious, his winner’s check will likely be a little light because of the tee marker he messed up on Saturday.
