Tyrrell Hatton has been caught a little off guard. We are in the process of reviewing his season, with all the upheavals, anxieties and successes it brought, but a video playing on Mail Sport's phone is unfamiliar.
“I'm not sure I've seen it before,” he says, and there's a reason for that: He deleted his social media accounts months ago. That's why he missed the discussion about footage that spoke to the quality of his game and the heat of his temperament.
The place was Nashville, the month was June and the occasion was his ninth tournament on the LIV circuit. That week he would win his first title in three years and it was a demolition job: he took six shots off second place.
But the video captured something that happened along the way. Hatton was preparing to putt when commentator David Feherty commented on how calm he had been. Anyone who follows golf knows why such an observation was worth making and also the risks involved in doing so.
Because when the putt fell short, a microphone on the green provided the ingredients for a clip that went viral: “Disgusting, disgusting,” we heard the quiet man say. 'Fuck you, wind. Damn disaster. Two in a row, absolutely screw me.”
Hatton smiles a little sheepishly. We're sitting under the desert sun in Dubai, and calm has returned for the 33-year-old, if only for a while.
Tyrrell Hatton won his first title in three years with a demolition job in Nashville in June.
2024 was a year of great changes and good results for Hatton, although his relationship with the “calm” remained complicated
“Yes,” he says, studying the video. I could have gotten lost there. Sometimes in the course I can get a little, uh, um, yeah. I wish I could say it won't happen again…'
He can laugh at these things and so can we. Two days after our chat, he broke a club in the DP World Tour Championship and was described, somewhat excessively, by a Sky commentator as a “terrible influence on the next generation”. Another opinion is that he is among golf's most compelling figures, not to mention one of its best players.
It's a narrative you already know well. But if 2024 was a year in which his relationship with 'calm' remained complicated, it was also one of great changes and solid results. Moving to LIV last January in a deal worth around £40m, he could have fallen off the map. With no world ranking points available outside the major leagues, he faced the possibility of failing to qualify for the four major tournaments in 2025, along with the Ryder Cup.
But it has not been like that. Of the 23 tournaments Hatton played around the world, spanning LIV, DP World Tour and Asian Tour, he earned nine top-five finishes, including wins in Nashville and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October. Far from falling in the rankings, he has done something different to the vast majority of those who joined LIV: his ranking from 16th actually rose to 15th. In the Data Golf ranking, which includes performances in the breakaway league, he ranks now ranked number 5 in the world.
“It's been a good year,” Hatton says. “It's been very different from what I've known and it also brought uncertainties, because if I didn't play well, I knew there was a possibility of not being in the majors in 2025. It was a scary thought.”
Hatton's mind goes back to last Christmas when he was presented with the opportunity to leave the PGA Tour. He initially turned it down, before eventually joining Ryder Cup partner Jon Rahm to make the switch. Together, their Legion XIII team finished second in the LIV Golf standings.
“It was a great decision,” Hatton says. “At first I said no in December and then during the Dubai Desert Classic (in January) everything changed. My head was a little all over the place and it was a strange moment.
“Like I said, it was a little scary thinking about what you're risking, but honestly, looking back a year later, it's been fantastic how it's played out.”
Hatton initially rejected the possibility of leaving the PGA Tour before joining Jon Rahm.
Hatton's move to LIV Golf was inevitably protected to some extent by Rahm's defection.
Naturally, there has been criticism, as there has been for all those who have switched sides, although Hatton's call was inevitably shielded to some extent by Rahm's high-profile defection. Protected, but not exempt.
“There was negativity on social media and I actually deleted it from my phone,” he says. “I was a little fed up with it anyway and that was the turning point.
'I didn't feel like I needed the negativity from people I've never met, but who think they have the right to send messages that aren't very nice. We're all human and I don't need that from people who shouldn't have any influence on how I feel.'
Out of that turbulence emerged one of the best seasons of Hatton's career. Questions remain over when he will translate his best form to the biggest stages (he has yet to finish higher than fifth in a major) and also whether his Ryder Cup future will be affected by joining LIV.
The complications around the latter concern an appeal Hatton has filed against hefty fines issued by the DP World Tour for playing in conflicting LIV events in 2024. If he loses that case and still refuses to pay, he could be out of the league. compete together with Rahm, who is in the same boat. With the DP World Tour in no obvious rush to process appeals, legal matters are not expected to be resolved until after the 2025 match in New York, meaning Hatton will likely make a fourth appearance in September.
“I've appealed the fines, but as far as the process goes, it's not something I've given much thought to,” Hatton says. 'All I can do is focus on how I play, but obviously I want to be in the Ryder Cup. I really want to be.'
As for the broader state of a fractured sport, Hatton is among those who have become exasperated by the protracted nature of the inter-tour merger talks, which have dragged on for 18 months.
“Something has to happen pretty quickly,” he says. “Golf fans in general are pretty fed up with how it's developed and how it's dragged on.”
Hatton's main goal for 2025 is quite simple and complex: play in the Ryder Cup.
For his part, he has no regrets about the big move. He is also blunt about suggestions that Rahm, the former world number one and his LIV teammate, has experienced some degree of regret since leaving the PGA Tour.
“Forgive me for saying this, but it's media nonsense,” Hatton says. “People showed me some of the things that were written, but being around Jon, that's never been a thought process that has crossed my mind.
“He's really enjoyed it and has certainly played some pretty good golf (Rahm won the LIV singles title in his debut season).”
So has Hatton, whose main goal for 2025 is both quite simple and quite complex: “Play in the Ryder Cup.”
Time will tell on that. Between now and then, there's a lot to untangle and a lot of fights to win, whether between lawyers, between your ears, or with the winds in the sky.
But for now, for once, he's pretty calm about all this.