McIlroy hails fiery Hatton: "He does not give a flying fig what anyone thinks of him"
Tyrrell Hatton of England plays a stroke from the No. 2 tee during Round 1 of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, April 8, 2021.
Rory McIlroy hailed LIV Golf’s Tyrrell Hatton as “a massive asset” to Europe’s Ryder Cup team and urged him to never change his fiery temper after the English star’s one-shot win in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic sent him to the top of the qualifying charts.
McIlroy was bidding for his fifth win at Emirates Golf Club and his third in a row and while he left himself too much to do before closing with a six-under 66 to tie for fourth, three shots behind Hatton, he was pleased to see his Ryder Cup team mate claim his fifth Rolex Series title by a shot from Kiwi Daniel Hillier on 15-under-par.
“He does not give a flying fig what anyone thinks of him, he has balls and is a massive asset for our Ryder Cup team,” McIlroy said of Hatton, who was told by officials after Saturday’s third round that he would be fined for smashing a tee marker.
“Not caring about other people’s opinions of you is a really good attribute to have in the game."
Hatton welcomed McIlroy’s words and clearly has no plans to change.
“Well, he obviously knows me well enough by now to know what I'm like and the type of person I am, and yeah, I mean, a lot of people don't like how I'll be on the golf course,” Hatton said. “Some people might enjoy watching it. But that's up to those people to decide, the people that know me as a person and what I kind of stand for. I think I'm a pretty honest person. Yeah, that's for other people to have their opinions. But I'm just being me. Yeah, I guess I agree with Rory that I don't need to change.”
McIlroy and Tom McKibbin mounted final round challenges but they couldn’t do enough to stop Hatton, who came from a shot behind Hillier, carding a 69 to the New Zealander’s 71 to win for the third time in his last 13 starts and jump to eighth in the world and into the top three in the race for six automatic Ryder Cup qualifying spots.
He had to make a tricky six footer for par on the final green to get over the line in what was his final DP World Tour event until the Amgen Irish Open at The K Club, when Ryder Cup qualifying will be over.
He will have only the four majors to win one of six automatic spots on the European team that will be bidding to become the first to win an away Ryder Cup since 2012.
He has joined his Legion XIII teammate Jon Rahm in appealing against fines imposed by the DP World for playing LIV events without a release.
But while there’s a chance he could lose the appeal and then continue to refuse to pay, ruling him out of Ryder Cup, it is highly possible that his appeal may not be heard until after the matches.
“I’m not sure what is going to happen with the (LIV fines) appeal, but I hope my commitment to this tour is clear,” Hatton said. “I’ve made no secret how much the Ryder Cup means and this gives me a chance to qualify automatically again.”
He added: “I've still got the four majors to continue earning points for the Ryder Cup. It's no secret that I really want to be on that team. I've automatically qualified for the previous three Ryder Cups, and I'd love to be able to keep that streak going.”
Hatton has bucked the trend by improving his world ranking since jumping to LIV 12 months ago but it remains to be seen what the future holds for McKibbin.
Bar a late change of heart, he appears destined to join Rahm and Hatton for LIV’s February 6 re-start but left Dubai feeling good about his game after impressing Ryder Cup watchers by following an opening 70 with three 69s to tie for sixth.
“Pretty good, pretty pleased with that result,” said McKibbin, who will be targeting more Ryder Cup points at this week’s Ras Al Khaimah Championship, having added 20 yards to his drives thanks to a new ball-driver combination.
“It was a very good week, first stroke play event of the year on a very difficult golf course, and to play it this way, I'm very happy.
“I drove the ball really good this week, hitting it a lot further, and I was very good out of the rough. I’ve struggled here in the past, out of this sort of long rough, and I've gotten a lot better out of it.”
Like McKibbin, who birdied two of his first three holes, McIlroy briefly got to within two shots of Hatton with a birdie at the 16th but he was pleased in the end with his 12th successive top-10 in the event.
“I probably just left myself a bit too much to do after three days,” he said after finishing three behind. “I had chances, and I was burning the edges.
“Felt like I putted pretty well without anything going in and then today, I didn't really feel like I played that differently to the way I played the last few days; I just holed a couple of putts and made a couple of good up-and-downs when I had to.
“I feel like I got progressively better as the week went on, which bodes well for obviously the next few weeks.”
As for what needs work, McIlroy said: “Probably just a little bit of game management. I think when you take a few weeks off and you come back to play like a really good tournament setup like this, I look at some flags on greens and like, whoa, that's quite a bit further to the right than I thought it would be or that's quite a bit further to the left…
“ I think playing a week like this, it sort of gives me a good appreciation for what I need to do the next few weeks.”
Clark, Murphy and Higgins going well at Legends Tour Q-School
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s Cameron Clark, Kilkenny’s Gary Murphy and Waterville’s David Higgins made the 54-hole cut at the Legends Tour Qualifying School in Turkey to secure Category 10 membership for 2025.
Clark shot 70 at Gloria Resort to share third place on 11 under, six shots behind runaway leader Matthew Cort heading into the final round battle for just five cards.
Murphy shot 70 to share 16th on four-under, six shots outside the top five with Higgins a shot further back after a 73.
