Tyrrell Hatton has never been one for making a soft point when a few expletives will do. For that reason, he has his own way of characterising what happened the last time he contested a tournament in the United States.
‘I was absolutely s****ing myself,’ he says, which requires some explanation and, indeed, a clarification.
Because history records that Europe won the Ryder Cup last autumn at Bethpage Black, with the footage of Shane Lowry’s fist-pumping dance across the 18th green held up as the crowning moment.
But there is a stickler’s point to be made here and one that will become relevant shortly when we turn this conversation towards the Masters — it wasn’t Lowry who won the Ryder Cup. His halved match against Russell Henley ensured the worst Europe could do was draw and that the Cup had been retained.
But the outright victory? That came later.
Tyrrell Hatton returns to American soil for the first time since the Ryder Cup last autumn
Shane Lowry and Hatton celebrate together after Europe’s outright victory was secured
So let’s return to Hatton and the first cut of rough, 107 yards shy of the 18th flag.
His match against Collin Morikawa had seesawed and they were tied, with the American on the green in two. Hatton, facing his second shot, had a wedge in hand and it weighed a tonne — he knew there were only two matches still on the course, including his, and Europe trailed in the other. For Luke Donald’s side to draw after leading by a mile all week would be a disaster; Hatton knew that.
‘Most nervous I’ve ever been on a golf course,’ Hatton says. ‘You’re playing for your team-mates, the backroom staff, family, your continent, all that stuff. Intense.’
It was. Fiercely so. But Hatton killed that tension stone-dead — with a continent on his back, he muscled his wedge to 15 feet, leaving two putts for the half. The first rolled close, the next was tapped in, Europe had won and the man who got it over the line is the same one who tied with Rory McIlroy as the week’s second-highest point scorer.
That he was largely forgotten in the editing is of no great consequence to him, even if it is a minor injustice.
‘My part was a bit of an anti-climax, wasn’t it?’ Hatton says, and he can laugh about it. ‘To see Shane hole his putt was amazing and the golf that he played was incredible. I guess the whole reaction of it makes the story.’
It does. But not the whole story. Because what we saw at Bethpage Black feeds into what we might ask about Hatton on his first return to a big stage in America. It’s Masters week, meaning enormous pressure on the shoulders of those who contest it and the usual questions around Hatton. About his rage and combustions, especially at Augusta National.
Like in 2022. That was when he flicked his middle finger at the first green, swore repeatedly on the fifth and then really lost it at the 13th — he pumped his putter like a shotgun and mimicked blowing the place to pieces.
But we all know Hatton can be a bit of a loon on the course. And we all know he can play exceptional golf. At his best he has been as high as No 5 in the world and last year was fourth at the US Open, his seventh top-10 at a major.
More promising is his progression between the Georgia pines — from his first seven visits, he missed the cut twice and four times finished outside the top 30, but that has shifted lately. He was ninth in 2024 and 14th last year. Like much of his golf since he joined LIV a couple of seasons ago, his game at Augusta has evolved closer to expectation for a guy whose putting and approach play ought to be ideal for the place.
Hatton says he was ‘absolutely s****ing myself’ at the Ryder Cup when the pressure came
For now, the relationship remains complicated.
‘You’re like a kid at Christmas when you get the invite through and this is going to be my 10th year in a row, which seems mad to the kid inside me,’ he says.
‘But you play somewhere enough, you get battle scars and it’s hard not to be negative at times. I’m obviously pretty good at being negative. But I’ll try to be positive about things. To be honest, I just react in the moment — it doesn’t really matter where I am. I’m just going to be me. So if that’s not well liked, then that’s someone else’s problem, I guess.’
That’s been his refrain for the past few seasons and it’s true to say the approach isn’t for everyone. Golf can be stuffy like that. But Hatton is box office, even in a year such as this one, where he has fallen to 31st in the world ranking and his 2026 results across the DP World Tour and LIV have undulated like his mood in the average round — 33rd-47th-3rd-45th-10th-38th.
By his standards, it’s not great. But last year’s US Open and the Ryder Cup proved quite conclusively that the old debate about his temperament being a weak link are outdated.
‘I feel like I’ve proved for myself that I can win big tournaments,’ he says. ‘I can win when courses play extremely difficult, so I know I can do it. Hopefully one time it will be my week.’
The handling of great pressure is unlikely to be his concern.
