HATTON KEEPS POST-MAJOR FORM GOING:\u00a0Tyrrell Hatton will enter Sunday\u2019s final round in solo second, continuing a remarkable trend of strong performances\u00a0immediately\u00a0following major championships.<\/p>\n
Hatton has recorded four top-5 finishes on LIV Golf in the start immediately after a major: a win in Nashville following the 2024 U.S. Open; a runner-up in the UK after The Open; a T5 in Mexico following the 2025 Masters; and a T5 in Dallas after the 2025 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
Last week at the Masters, he finished T3, his best result in his 43 career major starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know. I don’t try any harder or I have no explanation as to why that might be the case,\u201d Hatton said. \u201cBut yeah, I’ll try and put a good round of golf together tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
BALLESTER DIALED WITH THE DRIVER:\u00a0Josele\u00a0Ballester has been\u00a0the best driver of the golf ball this week, leading the field through three rounds in Strokes Gained Off the Tee (+6.02).<\/p>\n
Ballester has leaned on a simple, aggressive approach that has paid off in the high-altitude conditions at Club de Golf Chapultepec.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been pretty much the same over the last six months, I would say. Just swing hard and left,\u201d Ballester said. \u201cI feel like in this altitude, the ball doesn’t curve as much, so that feeling of actually swinging left produces a little fade that is pretty consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballester added that improved confidence with the driver has allowed him to shape shots when needed. \u201cI’ve been hitting my driver better overall,\u201d he said, \u201cand that also gives me the confidence when I have to hit a draw to believe I can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
PUIG READY TO ATTACK: David Puig enters the final round four shots off the lead after producing a remarkable 9-under 62, and plans to stay aggressive in his pursuit of Jon Rahm on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Puig believes the soft greens at Club de Golf Chapultepec reward players who take on pins, provided they can first position themselves properly off the tee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably, yeah,\u201d Puig said when asked if he\u2019ll play aggressively. \u201cI think this course with how soft the greens are, it kind of gives you a little more room to be more aggressive because if you kind of hit the yardage you’re supposed to hit, they usually don’t really move that much.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Puig emphasized that success will still start with accuracy off the tee. \u201cIt’s still a pretty demanding course off the tee, so I’ll try and focus on that \u2026 and if I’m able to do that, I’m sure I’ll fire at as many pins as I can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
THE MASTER AND THE PUPILS: Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia has watched his younger teammates put themselves firmly in contention this week and is embracing a supportive role as they chase a title on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With David Puig and Josele Ballester surging up the leaderboard as part of the five-way tie for 5th while Luis Masaveu is in solo 10th, Garcia has taken pride in their performances as the team’s elder statesman and mentor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re good enough to do what they do,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThe only thing that we try to tell each other is we just cheer each other on, wish each other good luck, and we know that we’re all cheering for each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Garcia added: \u201cThey’ve been playing great, and it’s nice to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
GRACE STILL ON SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH: Branden Grace produced his first podium finish since midway through the 2023 season with a T3 last month in front of his home fans at LIV Golf South Africa. His Southern Guards team were in position to win the team title until chased down by Crushers GC on the final nine holes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although disappointed to not deliver their raucous fans a trophy, Grace said the positives of being supported by more than 100,000 fans in Johannesburg will remain a cherished memory. Grace has been the Southern Guards\u2019 top player this season with three top-10 finishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had such a fantastic week at LIV South Africa. I think I’m still running on that momentum,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I’ve played really well the whole season. I’ve gave myself some good chances. I’ve been in there. I feel obviously now I’ve given myself a good chance again \u2026 maybe a good one tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HATTON KEEPS POST-MAJOR FORM GOING:\u00a0Tyrrell Hatton will enter Sunday\u2019s final round in solo second, continuing a remarkable trend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-616527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}