Tag: 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Photos: Tyrrell Hatton through the years

View photos of the fiery Tyrrell Hatton throughout his career.

Tyrrell Hatton is not short on passion. His fire and drive for perfection can be seen nearly every time he makes contact with his golf ball.

The Englishman has 10 professional wins under his belt with the highlight of his career being a win at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational, the last tournament before COVID-19 shut the world down. Hatton has since become a mainstay on the first page of PGA Tour leaderboards.

Hatton has represented his country at the Ryder Cup on multiple occasions, helping bring the Cup back to Europe in 2018.

He was also a member of the European team in the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome. Hatton was one of the stars. posting a 3–0–1 record including a win in Sunday singles against Brian Harman.

In January of 2024, while ranked ninth in the world, numerous reports surfaced that Hatton was being wooed by the upstart LIV Golf circuit.

Here is a look at the fiery competitor through the years.

Can he make it around Augusta? Tiger Woods confident in his golf game at Masters

We must be in a movie. That’s the only way to explain this.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Less than 14 months ago, Tiger Woods spent three straight months in bed after a horrific car crash, fearing he might lose his right leg. On Tuesday, he said he felt like he’s going to play in this week’s Masters, and thinks he actually can win the golf tournament.

We must be in a movie. That’s the only way to explain this. Tiger and all of us have stumbled onto a Hollywood set, and we’re all extras in one of the most amazing sports stories ever told. That’s what this has to be. How else do we explain this craziness, this magic, this drama?

Those first 25 years of breathtaking victories and high-profile injuries and massive personal scandals and amazing comebacks? Winning the U.S. Open on a broken leg in 2008? Winning the Masters at 43 after a laundry list of injuries and surgeries in 2019?

All just a prelude to one of the more remarkable sports dramas ever, playing out in real time this week in front of us all on the lush emerald hills and valleys of Augusta National Golf Club.

Masters: Thursday tee times | Best bets

Unless he has a setback between now and 10:34 a.m. ET Thursday, when he is scheduled to tee off in the first round, Woods will be on his way in the 2022 Masters. No one, not even Tiger himself, thought that was possible when he wrecked his SUV on February 23, 2021, in Southern California, shattering his right leg.

“At that time I was still in a hospital bed, and I was out for the next three months. I never left that hospital bed. So that was a tough road. To finally get out of that where I wasn’t in a wheelchair or crutches and walking and still had more surgeries ahead of me, to say that I was going to be here playing and talking to you guys again, it would have been very unlikely.”

2022 Masters Tournament
Justin Thomas (from left), Tiger Woods, and Fred Couples walk off the no. 8 tee box during a practice round of The Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)

Who didn’t feel that way? The hope was that he would be able to walk again, someday. Golf? Come on. That sounded ridiculous then.

“I think after the accident, based on the information I’d heard, I would have just been happy to hear that he could walk with Charlie during (his son’s) rounds at any point in time,” Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion, said Tuesday. “I never even really thought about him playing golf again after everything he’s been through, injuries over the years and such.”

Speaking for almost everyone, Spieth said, “He already had his comeback in 2019, but I mean, how many comebacks has he had? When I first heard he was — I don’t remember when it was — late last year into the new year maybe, that he could swing a club, you know, whenever he posted, I was very surprised and amazed at the ability to do that.”

So now here we are in April, and Woods is most definitely back. Although he hasn’t played a competitive round of golf since the November 2020 Masters, he said, so confidently and Tiger-esque, that he is not worried about the golf per se.

“I can hit it just fine,” he said in his standing-room-only press conference at Augusta National. “I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint.”

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It’s the walking that is the problem. Can he get up and down the vaunted hills of Augusta over 36 holes, much less the full 72?

“Walking is the hard part,” he said. “This is normally not an easy walk to begin with. Now given the conditions that my leg is in, it gets even more difficult. You know, 72 holes is a long road, and it’s going to be a tough challenge, and a challenge that I’m up for.”

We shall see. Logic tells us that if he in fact plays on Thursday, victory would be in simply making the cut, not in actually winning the tournament. Of course Tiger said he thinks he can win. He says that before every tournament. It’s how he thinks. It’s who he is, especially at Augusta National, where he has won five times.

But if we’ve learned anything over the years about Tiger Woods, it’s that you never doubt him, never count him out. If we have truly stumbled into some kind of fantastic sports dream, who knows where he, and all of us, are headed.

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Florida swing off to ‘brutal’ start for Every man, PGA Tour stars

Tight fairways, firm greens and wind prove challenging for Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and many others.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Brooks Koepka shot a career-high 81 at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Patrick Reed also posted a snowman. Matt Every went from the first-round lead to slamming a car trunk after posting a score 18 shots higher in the second. There was one score in the 60s on the weekend, and 13 in the 80s.

The week before Every went from 74 to 85 in the Honda Classic at PGA National. Tyrrell Hatton won at Bay Hill with a 4-under 284, the highest winning score in tournament history. Sungjae Im won at PGA National at 6-under 274, matching the second-highest score for a winner since the tournament moved there in 2007.

What in the name of triple bogeys is going on – just a few weeks after the USGA and R&A issued an alarming report on how the distances the best players are hitting the golf ball are leading to “seriously reducing the challenge of the game.”

“The Florida Swing is just brutal,” said Keegan Bradley, who shot 14 over in six rounds in those two events.

“Rough, tight fairways, firm greens, the wind was very difficult … pulling clubs was hard,” said Phil Mickelson about conditions last week at Bay Hill, where he shot 77-72 and missed the cut. “It was a hard test, but I enjoyed those conditions because you don’t get to see it much out here on Tour.”

It’s a good thing … therapists cost money, even for PGA Tour players.

When Hatton shot 74 in the final round on Sunday to win at Bay Hill, it was the highest final-round score by a winner since Brooks Koepka won the 2019 PGA with the same score. But with his 73-74 weekend rounds, Hatton became the first winner to shoot over par in both the third and fourth rounds since Geoff Ogilvy (72-72) in the 2006 U.S. Open.

“Every shot was stressful,” said Denny McCarthy of Bay Hill. “You couldn’t take a single shot off.”

Hatton and Im’s Florida Swing victories marked the 11th time in the history of PGA Tour golf in Florida, in March, in which there were two winners at single-digits under par.

There has never been three, but the Players, with the intricacies and quirks of the Stadium Course, and the Valspar Championship next week, at the difficult Innisbrook Resort Copperhead Course, could change that.

“Believe it or not, this might be the easiest course on the Florida Swing because of the way the last two played, and how [the Copperhead] is historically tough,” McCarthy said. “The weather looks good this week so this one might not have the teeth of the others. But you still have to hit quality shots.”

TPC Sawgrass director of agronomy Jeff Plotts said he and his staff felt a bit of envy when watching players struggle at PGA National and Bay Hill.

“We were laughing last week … ‘why can we have that kind of wind this week,’ ” Plotts said. “The best defense for a golf course against these guys is wind. They’re so good that if the wind doesn’t blow, they’re going to shoot good scores. We thought we were firming up but then we got the rain [Monday morning] and the firmness of the course can erode with just the rain we got.”

Brendan Steele was another one who wasn’t buying the possibility that the Stadium Course might be a bit tamer this week.

“Anywhere in Florida is really difficult,” said Steele, who played the Honda and API. “This is going to be hard this week. Valspar will be hard. Double-digits under par on the Florida Swing may not be attainable this year.”

Brendan Grace said he’s not assuming anything about the Stadium Course, where he shot 67 in the third round, then skyrocketed to a 77 in the final round in 2013.

“This course stays tough any time of year,” he said. “The rough is up and the greens are very small targets. With the wind we get in March, it plays a little trickier.”

Regardless of how difficult or how easy the Stadium might play, Mickelson said he’s positive of one thing.

“I have not seen this course in this good a shape,” said the 2007 Players champion. “There are no divots in the fairways, the greens are pristine … it’s the best I’ve ever seen this course, condition-wise.”

The reason for the high scores at PGA National (71.971, nearly a stroke higher than last year) and Bay Hill (74.106, nearly two strokes higher) was for the reason no one can control: weather conditions.

Fronts sped through the state at mid-week, clearing out to leave chilly, windy conditions on the weekend.

And there wasn’t enough rain to soften the greens.

“Honda was the fastest I’ve ever seen those greens,” said Steele, who played both tournaments. “A good shot was 30 to 40 feet away. But hitting it 30 to 40 feet didn’t mean you were going to make an easy par. The rough was down but you got more flier lies, hard to control.”

The weather stayed the same in Orlando for the API, but Steele said Bay Hill presented a different challenge.

“The rough was long … I had never seen it that long there,” he said. “And the greens were still really firm and fast.”

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Tyrrell Hatton loses his mind, but holds on to win Arnold Palmer Invitational

Tyrrell Hatton lost his mind before regaining his cool and survived the torture chamber that was Bay Hill for his maiden PGA Tour victory.

ORLANDO – During an interview at a golf tournament, Tyrrell Hatton was once asked what his stage name would be if he were to become a D.J.

“Head case Hatton,” he said without hesitation as he broke into laughter.

It would be a fitting nickname given that the 28-year-old Englishman has developed a reputation of being one swing away from self-combustion. Indeed, there were some testy moments for Hatton in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, including slamming his club, flipping the bird, and pointing his putter like a rifle and firing a pretend shot back in the general direction of a pond on the 11th hole where his ball found a watery grave. He wasn’t the only one whose patience was tested as Bay Hill Club & Lodge turned into a windy U.S. Open-like struggle. Only four golfers managed to break par for 72 holes.

Yet leave it to Hatton to keep his cool down the stretch as others faltered to hang on to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational by one stroke over Australian Marc Leishman. Juicy rough, greens as hard as cement and howling wind brought the field to its knees with Hatton the ultimate survivor, and winning his maiden PGA Tour title despite a 2-over 74 and a 72-hole total of 4-under 284.

“To hold on and win here at such an iconic venue,” Hatton said, “I’m over the moon.”

API: Updates | Leaderboard | Photos

How tough did Bay Hill play this year? Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka shot 81 on Saturday, the highest score of his career, on a day when the average score was 75.9. On Sunday, World No.1 Rory McIlroy, who started the day tied for second and two strokes back, came unglued on the front nine. Tied for the lead in the early going, he hit a bunker shot into a penalty area at No. 6 and hooked his tee shot out of bounds at nine en route to two double bogeys and stumbled to a front-nine 40. He finished T-5 after a 76.

“I stood up here yesterday saying that the key tomorrow was to keep the big numbers off your card and I made two of those today,” McIlroy said, “and that’s what cost me.”

“I can’t think of anywhere else that played as hard as this, really,” said Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick, who finished T-9 after posting a 69 on Sunday, the only score of the weekend in the 60s.

Joel Dahmen summarized the feelings of everyone else when he said, “I’m so happy I’m done.”

Hatton, a four-time winner on the European Tour and the 54-hole leader, regained sole possession of the lead after two early bogeys when he stiffed his tee shot at the par-3 seventh hole to 2 feet and canned a 10-foot birdie at No. 8. He led by three strokes when he tugged his tee shot at 11 into the water, made double-bogey and had his melt down. But he closed with seven gritty pars when it mattered most.

“Of all the courses on the PGA Tour, this is the last one you’d pick if you had a two-shot lead your three to go,” said Leishman, who signed for 1-over 73. “So Tyrell never gave up. He did what he needed to do there at the end.”

“He’s good under the gun,” Graeme McDowell said. “He’s not scared.”

Honda Classic champion Sungjae Im, who was bidding to win for the second week in a row, shared the lead momentarily until he hit into the water at 13 and made double bogey. He shot 73 and finished at 2-under 286. Bryson DeChambeau made four birdies over the final seven holes and was the top American finisher in fourth at 1-under 287.

New Zealand’s Danny Lee (75) and Americans Keith Mitchell (71) and Dahmen (71), shared fifth place and earned spots in the British Open in July as the top three players in the top 10 and ties who weren’t already exempt for the season’s final major.

Hatton was making just his second start since having surgery on his right wrist, which he originally injured at the 2017 Masters when he slipped on the pine straw during the par-3 contest. He was sidelined for three months beginning in late November. When asked how he spent his downtime, he said, “I drank a lot of red wine and played Xbox. That was it.”

It should be quite the celebration now that Hatton is a winner on the PGA Tour.

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Tyrrell Hatton blows up, flips off water on Bay Hill’s No. 11 after double-bogey

Tyrrell Hatton hit it in the water on Bay Hill’s 11th on the way to a double-bogey. Then he had some choice thoughts for the pond.

Emotions run high on the final holes of a PGA Tour event, particularly for the players at the top of the leaderboard. Even as Bay Hill has chewed up and spit out some of the world’s best at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational (see: Brooks Koepka’s third-round 81), Tyrrell Hatton managed to stay above the fray through the first three rounds.

At the 11th hole on Sunday, Hatton felt the heat. The 28-year-old Englishman started the day with a two-shot lead and appeared to be in good shape after turning in even par. At the par-4 11th, however, Hatton hit his drive into water on the left side of the hole.

After taking a drop, Hatton hit it over the green on his approach and ended up walking away with a double-bogey. He left no doubts about his level of frustration in a colorful display of gestures not often seen on the PGA Tour.

API: Updates | Leaderboard | Photos

Using his putter as a rifle, Hatton turned and fired a pretend shot back toward the pond that swallowed his drive. After that, he extended a middle finger behind him in the pond’s direction, too. There was one final, similarly obscene gesture as he walked off the green and toward the 12th tee.

Hatton, a four-time European Tour winner looking for his first PGA Tour title, was 2 over on the day through 11 holes. He briefly shared the lead with Sungjae Im after Im birdied No. 12. Im, winner of last week’s Honda Classic, dropped back with a double-bogey of his own on the par-4 13th.

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Lynch: Brooks Koepka improves 10 shots, still searching for more

Koepka is struggling to rediscover his form after a long layoff following knee surgery, but he’s committed to play through it.

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ORLANDO — There was plenty for Brooks Koepka to feel good about on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, beyond the obvious 10-stroke improvement on his scorecard from a career-high round of 81 a day earlier. His Strokes Gained Tee to Green stats showed a gain of almost seven shots over the third round, his Strokes Gained Around the Green was nearly three strokes to the good, and his putter hit its target more often than in any other round at Bay Hill this week.

But ask the world No. 3 how he played in his final round 71 — marred by a double-bogey at the last — and his reply was characteristically direct and unvarnished: “Still sh**,” he said. “Still sh**. Putting better.”

When it was pointed out to Kopeka that scatalogical statements from the podium might be frowned upon by the PGA Tour, he shrugged.
“Well, fine me.”

In just his 10th competitive round since October — a left knee injury cost him almost four months — Koepka made five birdies, compared to six total in his previous 54 holes this week. But his day was bookended by double bogeys and left the four-time major winner feeling frustrated about his game as he heads to next week’s Players Championship. That will be the third of five straight weeks he will play in an effort to rediscover some form.

“I would never play more than three weeks in a row. But obviously sometimes things happen and the only way I see getting through this is playing,” he admitted. “That’s my way of trying to grind and work it out and figure it out.”

“You find that one feeling and sometimes that’s why I think it’s important to play or to get out there. You can stand on the range all day and do it, but when you get out there and start playing is when — I don’t want to say it was messing around today, but it was more of just trying to feel shots and feel different things, is this working, is this not.”

After three days of mediocre putting, Koepka says he found something with the flatstick that gives him cause for optimism. “The touch is back. I feel very confident with that,” he said. “But still close on the swing, sometimes it’s there and then sometimes it’s not … I’m pleased the way I’m putting it, short game’s good. I just need to figure out the long game.”

Koepka won the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February of 2015, but the five years since have delivered barren first quarters of the calendar. A T-2 at last year’s Honda Classic was a rare highlight in a welter of middling finishes and missed cuts. “I don’t know what it is about these first three months of the year but I struggle quite a bit,” he said.

His growing sense of frustration is increasingly evident and even left him searching literally in the dark alongside his caddie Ricky Elliott. “After I’ve played here I’ve gone to Lake Nona and beat balls until it was dark. We were hitting, Ricky had the camera phone out and was shining it about two feet above the ground,” Koepka said. “Every day we’re grinding, practicing, trying to figure it out and eventually all the hard work’s going to pay off. It’s just a matter of how quick it’s going to turn.”

Time is not his ally. The Players Championship is four days from now. The Masters is 32 days away. And in 67 days Koepka will go to the PGA Championship in San Francisco trying to become the first man to win the same major three straight times in more than 60 years.

After finishing at 9-over-par, Koepka headed to the car park 90 minutes before the man he dismissed as a rival, Rory McIlroy, teed off in the penultimate group. A few weeks ago, McIlroy dislodged him from atop the world rankings, and Koepka confessed that getting the No. 1 slot back is a goal. “Yeah, it’s important,” he said, before adding with a sardonic smile, “but if you play like this, you got a long way to go.”

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Blown away: Wind the winner Saturday at Arnold Palmer Invitational; Hatton leads by two

England’s Tyrrell Hatton birdied 18 to grab a two-stroke lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on a day when only one golfer broke par.

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ORLANDO – During the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, winds huffed and puffed out of the south sending scores ballooning at Bay Hill Lodge & Club.

Eight golfers failed to break 80, including four-time major champion Brooks Koepka, who shot the highest score of his career. Only Max Homa, who shot 2-under 70, managed to break par of the 69 players that made the cut. Need more proof that it was a day of carnage? For the first time in six years, not a single golfer shot in the 60s. The average score of 75.9 is the highest here since the second round in 1983.

“It’s just hard. There’s really no other way of explaining it,” said Rickie Fowler, who posted 77. “I think a lot of people are sitting at home saying what they would do out here, but I wouldn’t wish it on any average or normal player to go try and play what we did out there.”

England’s Tyrrell Hatton overcame a double-bogey at the ninth, which dropped him two strokes behind, to card three birdies and two bogeys on the incoming nine and shoot 1-over 73 to take a two-stroke lead over Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Australia’s Marc Leishman, who are both former champions of this event.

Arnold Palmer Invitational: Best photos | Leaderboard | Updates

Hatton delivered an exclamation mark to his round by holing a 31-foot birdie putt at 18 and pumping his fist straight to the heavens.

“I don’t normally fist pump on a Saturday,” said Hatton, who signed for a 54-hole aggregate of 6-under 210. “I think it was more shock that the ball actually went in the hole and very relieved.”

Shell shock is more like what most of the field felt on a cool day when gusting winds dried out the greens and gave them a glassy shine.

“It was like putting on cement in your garage,” said Davis Love III, who has played in this event since 1986 and called it the toughest conditions he’s ever faced here.

“I’ve never seen it this windy three consecutive days,” said Harris English, who shot 74, and enters the final round among a quartet of players at 3-under 213. “Never seen the rough this high before.”

“It felt like a U.S. Open out there,” McIlroy said. “I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can and as I said, just hanging around.”

Rory McIlroy walks off of the ninth green after lipping out his birdie putt during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. (Photo: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports)

At one point in the round, the top 12 players on the leaderboard had played the 11th hole in 13 over. When the scoreboard at the ninth hole flashed the day’s “hot rounds,” Homa, who made double at 18 to shoot 70, was the only round under par and he remained alone. Leishman, who won here in 2017, added up his score after the round and said he did a double take.

“It felt like I shot a 65, not a 72,” Leishman said.

How brutal was it? Through seven holes, Graeme McDowell and fellow competitor Hideki Matsuyama had each made a double bogey and four bogeys.

“People are paying to watch this, you know?” said McDowell’s caddie Ken Comboy, and McDowell, who rallied for 76, wasn’t ruling 85 out after his start.

“That’s really unsettling in itself,” he said. “It’s scary when you’re trying to shoot 60 and it’s scary when 90 is in the equation as well. Each is equally terrifying.”

Among the big numbers: triples at Nos. 11 and 18 for Sung Kang, who led by two at the turn and finished trailing by five; an 8 at 13 for Sam Burns, who is part of a logjam at even; and a quintuple-bogey double-bogey finish for Ryan Moore, who shot 82, and is ahead of only Rob Oppenheim, who signed for the highest score of the day, an 83.

“It’s such a difficult day to avoid the old skidmark on the scorecard,” NBC’s David Feherty said.

Hatton was among the lone survivors. He said it felt like a summer day in Scotland and he was pleased that he packed his jumper. The 28-year-old counts four European Tour wins on his resume, but is still seeking his first triumph on the PGA Tour. He knows there is much work still to be done before he can enjoy hoisting a trophy and slipping into the winner’s red cardigan.

“There’s doubles and triples just around the corner, so that two-shot lead can go extremely quickly,” he said. “Just got to see what happens. It’s, 18 holes is a lot of golf, and I’m sure it will be interesting to watch tomorrow.”

It sure was interesting on Saturday, that is if you’re the type of fan that tunes into the Indy 500 for the crashes.

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