Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Englishman Tyrrell Hatton stormed up the leaderboard with an incredible 11-under round in Maui at The Sentry.
Tyrrell Hatton admitted to feeling stiff after playing 36 holes at The Sentry.
Traveling from England to Maui will do that, especially for someone who admitted to “not looking after his body” throughout the month of December.
Translation: Hatton celebrated the holidays rather cheekily. But he has plenty to celebrate on Friday as well.
Hatton carded an incredible 11-under 62—the lowest round of his career to par.
“Maybe a surprise to do it in the second round back to start the year, after how long I’ve had off,” Hatton said.
“I guess it shows how much of a stupid game it is. Obviously, I putted [beautifully] today. That’s the big thing for how my score ended up as low as it was. Yeah, with how bad my body felt, I’m surprised that, going out this morning, that score was not even entering my mind. It’s more probably like over, over par.”
His 62 ties the lowest round he has ever carded on the PGA Tour. The previous time came during the second round of the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open.
Hatton finished his round Friday with three straight birdies and an eagle on the par-5 18th.
The Englishman knocked in his eagle on 18 from 96 feet—he may as well have been in a different zip code.
“The one on 18, it was about 90 feet or something. That’s just a bonus,” Hatton said of his final stroke of the day.
“Just hoping to roll it up somewhere close and, thankfully, the flag got in the way, and the ball fell in the hole.”
When Hatton walked off the course on Friday, not only did he hold the lead, but he also led the field in overall strokes gained.
He gained 3.364 strokes on the greens, good for third during the second round.
Nevertheless, in true Hatton fashion, his frustrations got the best of him at the par-4 14th, where he made his only bogey of the day.
Facing a difficult third shot from just short of the green, Hatton chilly-dipped his chip and left it woefully short.
His emotions then took over:
“Still equally frustrated at bad shots,” Hatton said when asked if he had low expectations.
And he was clearly agitated on the 14th.
But how high should those expectations be? What is impressive about his astonishing play thus far is that he has played only one round of golf since the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in mid-November.
He has not practiced much, either.
In the week leading up to The Sentry, Hatton admitted to hitting balls in his father’s studio for a half-hour per day.
Then he flew halfway across the world and is now contending at the first Signature Event of the 2024 season. Hatton currently has the co-lead with Sungjae Im and Brendon Todd at 15-under as of this writing.
Talk about a ‘stupid’ game.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
