The 18th hole at Yas Links will offer the potential for fireworks on Sunday as the penultimate event of the DP World Tour season draws to a close. We can only hope those fireworks include Tyrrell Hatton.
Not for his psyche, of course, because Hatton hates that hole. But mostly because seeing players overcome — or succumb to — emotions like hating a hole happens so rarely in the sport. Partly because players rarely share their distaste for golf course design out loud during a tournament.
But that’s what Hatton did on Saturday after his third round – a brilliant 64 that predictably ended in a bogey on the par-5 final. Hatton had bogeyed that hole to end his second round, fueling the fire.
“Then, yeah, my least favorite hole in the Middle East,” Hatton said of the 18th. “Which has a close rival with next week’s finishing hole (at Jumeirah Golf Estates). It wasn’t the best shot, the second shot. It was a perfect shot.
;)
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There is more than one part to that complaint. First, Hatton doesn’t seem to be a fan of the bunker sand at Yas Links, as his second shot on the 18th appeared to go into the bunker despite coming with a lower-spinning 7-wood. But back to the beginning…
Hatton hates the 18th enough to call it his least favorite hole in the Middle East – a region where he plays a lot of golf each year, between about four DPWT tournaments and at least one LIV event. The hole has a bunker cut into the center of the fairway about 280 yards. Beyond that, the fairway climbs around the 360-yard mark.
With a meandering water hazard on the left side of the hole and a not-so-wide fairway to the green, there isn’t much for a comfortable layup position, which causes players to pull their driver and, as Hatton found on Friday, occasionally end up in the centerline bunker. That will upset anyone, as Hatton did just three years ago.
“That has to be one of the worst par-5s I’ve ever seen in my life,” Hatton said. at the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship in 2022. (He had just bogeyed a quadruple 9.)
When pushed to explain himself, he uncorked:
“What’s wrong with it? Where do you start? It shouldn’t have a bunker in the middle of the fairway, and it shouldn’t be more than 600 yards from a front tee. If you hit a good drive as a pro, you should have at least a chance to go for the green in two, otherwise the hole becomes a par 3, and that’ll be good there even if you play it a little bit.”
