Tyrrell Hatton and Rory McIlroy have been the talk of the town in Dubai this week, amid a dispute over unpaid fines for LIV star Hatton.
The pair have played together on four successive Ryder Cup teams, but Hatton’s participation in 2027 is in doubt due to an ongoing dispute with the DP World Tour.
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Hatton and fellow Ryder Cup hero Jon Rahm courted controversy when they defected to the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV Golf Series, and they were subsequently fined by the DP World Tour as punishment.
LIV had previously covered such penalties for their players but, as of January 1st, they have removed this support. Reports suggest that both Hatton and Rahm still owe the tour several million pounds in fines.
Crucially, neither man will be eligible to qualify for the European Ryder Cup team in 2027 if those fines are not paid – and neither man is believed to be especially keen to do so.
European Ryder Cup figurehead Rory McIlroy spoke to the media ahead of this weekend’s Dubai Desert Classic on the matter. After he called on the pair to pay up, he initially received a similarly pointed response from Tyrrell Hatton.
However, with the pair having played together in the first round, Hatton had a much more comical – and unexpected – response on Thursday evening.
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Tyrrell Hatton responds after pointed Rory McIlroy comments
Rory McIlroy thinks Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton should pay $6 million in DP World Tour fines to play in the next Ryder Cup.
One of the biggest stories in golf right now is what will happen to Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton’s DP World Tour fines and will they maintain Ryder Cup… pic.twitter.com/ck4KcyA7cs
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) January 21, 2026
Facing the media on Wednesday, Rory McIlroy called on his Ryder Cup teammates Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton to pay the fines they owe the DP World Tour to remove any controversy surrounding Team Europe.
“Yeah, absolutely,” McIlroy said ahead of the first round in Dubai on whether Hatton and Rahm should simply pay up.
Main thing is…look, this is my opinion. We went really hard on the Americans about being paid to play the Ryder Cup [in 2025], and we also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups.
There’s two guys that can prove it.
It was a pointed remark on McIlroy, putting the onus on Hatton and Rahm to sort out the mess they have found themselves in.
Shortly after the Pro-Am in Dubai, McIlroy’s comments were put to Hatton – who brushed them aside, saying he had not put “any more thought” into paying up, and that he had not even heard McIlroy’s remarks.
To be honest I don’t have an update to give. It’s still with legal teams and there’s guys that are still in conversations working it all out.
So I haven’t put any more thought into that. Like I don’t really know what’s happening. So, yeah, I’m just here to play golf as always.
I’ve literally just come off a Pro-Am. So I’m not on my phone in the Pro-Am.
So I don’t really have anything to add towards what he said.
Intriguingly, Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton were drawn to play together in Thursday’s opening round, and the Englishman was in far more jovial mood in his post-round interviews.
Hatton said that he and McIlroy had been in good spirits throughout the round, with the subject of the fines unexpectedly giving way to a discussion of how much Guinness he had consumed over Christmas.
“Not really…we didn’t really talk about it,” Hatton said when asked if he and McIlroy had discussed the hot topic during their Thursday round.
“It was mainly me asking if he’d had any good wine over Christmas.
He was horrified to hear what weight I was on January 1.
I was 204 pounds which, at 5ft 8in, is aggressive. Before theRyder CupI was like 190, so that’s another stone I’d put on. I enjoyed my December.
I did some training but zero cardio and a lot of drinking. I had a Guinness tap in the house which was enjoyable, so now is the time to lose some weight.
Seemingly, the festive spirit has lingered on and allowed Tyrrell Hatton and Rory McIlroy to bury the hatchet on Thursday.
It appears there is no bad blood between the pair, despite the pointed remarks from both on Wednesday.
After round one in Dubai, Hatton sat on -2, five shots off the clubhouse leader Francesco Molinari, and three shots ahead of Rory McIlroy, who struggled on day one.
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