Tyrell Hatton was left furious at Augusta National on Thursday after a brutal bounce on the seventh hole turned a birdie chance into a bogey in the opening round of the Masters. His approach hit the flagstick and kicked into the bunker, and Hatton came close to showing his middle finger at the pin.
The reaction fit the moment. Hatton was one over through 13 holes and tied for 30th place after a round that also included bogeys at the third and ninth holes, with birdies at the sixth and 10th. He has long been one of golf's sharper iron players, ranking in the 84th percentile from 150 to 200 yards, the range that matters so much at Augusta, where nearly 40 percent of approach shots last year came from that distance.
That is why the seventh hole stung. Augusta has a way of punishing shots that look good long before they are bad, and Hatton has said before that players can hit good shots there and still not get rewarded. Thursday was a fresh reminder of that, because the ball struck the flagstick cleanly and still left him scrambling from the bunker instead of walking away with birdie.
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The frustration also landed in the middle of a career that has plenty of pedigree and a matching amount of edge. Hatton has eight DP World Tour wins, won the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour, and has made four Ryder Cup appearances for three winning teams. He joined LIV Golf in 2024 as part of Jon Rahm's Legion XIII squad and picked up his first win there in Nashville last year, while his form has remained steady since 2023 with 11 cuts made in 12 starts and six top-20 finishes.
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The concern for Hatton is not whether he can play Augusta. It is whether the course will keep turning solid shots into lost shots, because on a track this exacting the margin between a birdie look and a bogey can be nothing more than a few inches of bad fortune.
