ORLANDO, FLORIDA (AP) – Tyrrell Hatton’s quest for a second cardigan sweater came up short, but the Englishman certainly entertained himself during his week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The 2020 champion at Bay Hill started off strong, shooting rounds of 69-68 to go into second place, but a third-round 78 left him plummeting down the leaderboard and out of contention.
Hatton came back into contention on a brutally taxing day with three birdies through his first four holes on the second nine for a closing 69 that was 6 12 strokes better than the final-round average after an exciting opening nine on Sunday (three birdies, three bogeys).
“I was at nine more shots yesterday,” he explained, “so I’d say that’s more draining.” “You know you’re getting closer to the lead when cameras start arriving, so you know you’re doing something right when you’re coming down the stretch.”
Based on his “shocking” warmup, he didn’t expect much to go right at Bay Hill on Sunday.
“I think I missed the ninth fairway left from the driving range with the second driver I hit [on the range],” he joked. “I didn’t shout fore out of sheer embarrassment; no one should ever have to shout fore on a driving range.” That just goes to indicate how horrible it was.”
Hatton claimed that a simple notion helped him turn around his swing fortunes: “Making sure the weight was in the center of my foot on the backswing,” he remarked.
