TUNNEL VISION

Tyrrell Hatton has won three times in ten months after a three-year drought. He tells David Facey about his return to the winners’ circle and determination to make the Ryder Cup team

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Golf's Mr Angry is mighty relieved that no-one seems to be too upset with him these days. There is still the odd chorus of disapproval when Tyrrell Hatton's apparent knack for self-loathing boils over into screams of frustration, punctuated by the odd F-bomb. And there are still plenty of people who cannot stomach the fact that he continues to be so successful, despite being no-one's idea of the perfect role model.

But the hostility and resentment he feared might result from his decision to join LIV in the wake of a triumphant Ryder Cup outing in Italy mostly failed to materialise.

Hatton, 33, admits this was his main concern when he decided to join Ryder Cup partner Jon Rahm and take the plunge into the LIV ranks just over a year ago.

“I think I was lucky that by the time I ‘went over to the other side’, the animosity and bad feeling over LIV had sort of tailed off,” he says. “The guys who were in the original batch of LIV golfers - the likes of Mickelson, DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, even Ian Poulter, Westwood and Sergio Garcia - copped far more of a backlash.

“They were being called money-grabbers and even traitors. But even though I came in for a bit of flak for supposedly selling my soul to the highest [bidder] - I swear that’s how one troll put it - it wasn’t too bad. I've had worse stuff to deal with. A lot worse.

“And in the year or so that has passed since I joined LIV, I think there is far more of an acceptance that it isn’t the mortal enemy it was originally seen as. The desire for us to get along, and to mix, has grown massively.

“I can honestly say that I didn’t feel any resentment towards the original LIV guys. For me, it was more a case of being curious about whether they knew what they were getting themselves into. Taking a step into the unknown is always a bit scary, no matter how much money you're getting paid for doing it.”