First Tyrrell Hatton effed, jeffed and played his way into Open contention. Then he revealed he was off for three pints of Guinness to relax and ready himself for the business end of this championship.<\/p>\n
It sounds like a distinctly old-school approach. But the fact Hatton was smiling as he talked, spoke volumes. He is clearly happy and relaxed. And, just as importantly, now appears far better at flushing out the anger that erupts when he falls short of perfection or gets a bad break. And that makes him a live danger in Portrush.<\/p>\n
Hatton didn\u2019t think he played particularly well on day two. Yet he still finished it with a 69 to leave himself on -5 and a late start on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Asked how he planned to unwind, he then broke into a smile. \u201cNormally a Guinness is a pretty good way to start. Certainly this week anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would he be having a couple on Friday? \u201cIt would be rude not to,\u201d he replied. \u201cI think three is the magic number. Well, two to three, because you\u2019re definitely not close to a hangover and you still feel like you\u2019ve got \u2013 hopefully I\u2019ve got a late tee time tomorrow so I can have a lay-in, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Encouragingly, Hatton hit 28 out of 36 greens in regulation, a success rate that put him only behind Jon Rahm in the tournament late on Friday afternoon. Yet if a body language expert had spent the best part of five hours solely watching him, they might have expected he had suffered a shocker.<\/p>\n
After every miss he angrily talked to himself, or whacked his back with his putter in an act of flagellation. But by the time the next shot came around he was ready to go again.<\/p>\n
Were you trying to cheer yourself up with your angry words between shots, Hatton was asked. \u201cOh, no,\u201d he replied. \u201cIt was pretty negative stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you want to share it with us? \u201cNo, it\u2019ll get me in trouble,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
Sports psychologists like to tell athletes the importance of using the benefits of positive self-talk to enhance motivation and performance. Hatton, though, likes to berate himself instead. This, of course, is nothing new. And as Hatton admitted afterwards it is getting late for him to become a model of calm on the course.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 33. I think that ship has sailed, to be honest,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI\u2019m not going to change. It\u2019s just how I am, how I play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always felt like even though I can be losing my shit, I can get over the next shot and still have a clear mind of what I\u2019m still trying to achieve,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough from the outside it looks like I\u2019m completely gone, in my own mind I still know where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is he now better at finding a balance, he was asked. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d came the reply. \u201cI was still pretty vocal. Maybe I\u2019m just having to do it away from the microphone.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Tyrrell Hatton salutes the crowd as he walks to the 18th green. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n There were certainly some nice moments on Friday morning, including a 60-yard chip to within four feet on the difficult par-4 and a rattled-home 22-footer for birdie on the ninth. However, Hatton clearly wanted more in warm and sedate conditions that were good for scoring.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like a pretty frustrating day,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there was anything that stood out that was amazing. I was generally solid. But I didn\u2019t hit it particularly close on many holes. I missed the green with a lob wedge into 14, which after a perfect tee shot was frustrating, and obviously ended up making bogey. That was a bit of a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet the experience of Oakmont, where in his 40th major he was deep in contention on the Sunday for the first time, has left him believing he will be able to handle the heightened pressures if they come at Portrush.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoyed that experience in Oakmont,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it wasn\u2019t the ending I\u2019d liked, but how I dealt with everything there and even out on the golf course with the most pressure, I still feel like I hit some really good golf shots.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of left feeling proud and happy with how I dealt with everything. I\u2019d love to have another chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n Could he do it at Portrush? \u201cPotentially,\u201d he says. \u201cTime will tell, I guess. But overall I am in a decent position. But it\u2019s been a solid couple of days. I\u2019m happy with a few parts of my game. I\u2019d like to be in the fairway more this weekend and hitting it a bit closer. But I can\u2019t really complain too much.\u201d<\/p>\n And with that he was off to drink Guinness, to unwind \u2013 and, perhaps, to allow himself to dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Tyrrell Hatton effed, jeffed and played his way into Open contention. Then he revealed he was off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-8028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}