AUGUSTA, Ga. — For four hours, Tyrrell Hatton had about as good of a time as he’s ever had at Augusta National. The British start found himself in red figures on a difficult day, while playing alongside Tiger Woods. But then those four hours were quickly overtaken by four putts.
Hatton’s four-putt double bogey to finish his second round dropped him to a one-over 73. And, once again, had him stewing at Augusta National—a place he’s made clear is not one of his favorites.
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“Obviously I hit it a little bit firm. It looks horrific on TV, but if you’re putting on—if it’s a flat putt, it’s going a foot past, two foot past, not six foot, eight foot past,” Hatton explained. “As I said, I don’t know what I have to do around this place to get some good fortune and actually shoot under par and get a score that I deserve.”
Hatton was well aware of his record here, noting that he’s only shot under par four times in what’s now 28 career rounds. But this one particularly hurt because of how he felt he played.
“I’m devastated, to be honest,” Hatton said. “Yeah, it’s brutal for me at the moment to be honest.”
Then when asked to further clarify his level of frustration, Hatton seemed to hold back about the storied course that has given him such fits through the years—including him going as far as to mimic shooting at the 13th hole in 2022.
“Yeah, I feel like I’m putting on a brave face for what I want to talk about or say,” Hatton said.
It should be noted that Hatton was far from the only player complaining about playing conditions. On Friday, defending Masters champ Jon Rahm even said he didn’t know “why we were out there” with winds making the course play extra firm and fast.
But despite all the frustration, Hatton did find a couple of silver linings in playing with Tiger and making it to the Masters every year.
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“When you get the invite around sort of Christmas, early in the new year, and it’s a very, very nice letter to be opening,” said Hatton, who at three over through 54 holes, trails leader Scottie Scheffler by 10 shots. “You start the week, it’s always nice to be back. This is my eighth one, so I stay generally in the same house 5 out of the 8 years. So it feels familiar when you come back, so it’s nice to have that.”
Then he added one more line to finish his media session:
“I just wish I could score better around this golf course.”
At least, he’ll have another opportunity to try to improve in that area on Sunday.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
