PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 18, 2022

Tyrrell Hatton

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the 2022 PGA Championship here at Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are pleased to be joined by Tyrrell Hatton. Welcome to what is your eighth PGA Championship, if you can believe it.

I don't think you've spent much time here at Southern Hills. What is it about this golf course now that you've been around it once or twice maybe surprised you a little bit that you hadn't heard about or kind of caught your eye.

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, it's all new for me this week having not been here, and to be honest, I hardly remember any of it from watching it on TV when it was back here in '07.

I guess I was a little bit surprised to see the length of the rough, but with the type of grass it is, you don't really need long rough because if you're in it you've got no control really of the golf ball. You're going to struggle to stop it on the greens, even though the greens seem fairly soft at the moment.

So I guess that makes a nice change from what you'd, I guess, normally expect from majors where if you miss the fairway, it's like, well, enjoy hitting it out 100 yards.

At least you have a little bit more of a chance this week, but your short game is going to have to be really good because you're going to miss greens.

JOHN DEVER: What part of your game would you like to be on this week that you think matches up really well with this golf course, that's going to give you the best chance come Sunday?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, typically -- obviously I haven't performed particularly well in majors over my short career so far, but in the few that I have actually registered some top 10s, I've generally putted quite nicely, which is typically a strength for me.

So it would be nice to obviously have a good week on the greens. Even if you're playing bad, you're still going to give yourself opportunities for birdies. If you can roll a few of them in, it feels like you get a bit of momentum going even if your swing doesn't feel particularly great.

Yeah, me holing putts is a massive part of the week, as it is for other guys, too, but I think that helps me be a little bit calmer on the golf course if I can actually holing putts.

JOHN DEVER: What attribute or characteristic of this golf course is most dangerous that can get a player in trouble? Is it the length of the golf course in general? Is it the sloping greens? Is it the run-offs? What part do you want to be extra careful with?

TYRRELL HATTON: Probably -- well, I think depending on where they put some of the pins and where you miss it chipping, I guess you could probably look pretty stupid fairly quickly.

Over the back of 18, for example, the rough is a little bit longer there than some other areas around other holes, and you're just chipping straight downhill. It's not too big of a shelf there at the back there anyway. You could have a 40-yard pitch shot for your next if you're not too careful.

I think short game is going to be really important this week. As I said, you're going to miss greens. If you are going to miss them, hopefully you kind of get lucky with where your miss ends up and you've got half a chance to save par. Like I said, you could probably run up a decent number fairly quickly.

Q. Talking about majors, there's a common denominator for the Open Championship, the type of courses, the feel, all that. Do you think there's a common denominator for PGA Championships and there's a way you have to prepare for them?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, I think the PGA and USGA seem to be in a bit of a fight about who's got the longest golf course and who's got the longest par-3. It would be nice if they were a bit more creative with course setup rather than just trying to make it hard through length all the time. PGA seems to just be getting longer each time we come back and play.

Q. Do you think this week is a matter of length, or is it other things?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, it gets to the point of the further you hit it, the kind of better it is. Like I said, this week is maybe slightly different with if you are missing fairways you're not just gouging it out like 80 yards, and everyone is missing fairways, so if you get it down there, the easier it is to save par.

This week is going to be won or lost sort of around the greens really. Yeah.

Q. We had conversations about the Ryder Cup this morning. The two captains came by, and there's starting to be a vision about what's going to happen in Rome. We have 500 days, but can you talk a little bit on what you learned in the last Ryder Cup and the memories of that, and what is your vision for Rome? What's going to happen there?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, obviously it will be another really special week for the 24 guys that are playing. I've been pretty fortunate to play the last two. Whistling Straits was a really disappointing week in terms of the result, and hopefully whoever is in the team for Europe in Rome can win the trophy back. So yeah, we'll see.

Q. Could you give me your impressions on a unique corner of the golf course where you have the second green, the third tee, the fifth green, the sixth tee, the sixth green and the seventh tee all within a pitching wedge of each other?

TYRRELL HATTON: I mean, they're going to have to be fairly careful with how they set the golf course up because of where some of the tee boxes are.

You might not be able to tee off while the group that are waiting on the tee are having to wait for the guys to tee off on the next hole to then get out of the way before they can hit their shots in.

So if they don't set the course up in a way that -- the rounds could be just stupidly slow, which at the end of the day no one wants. You want to get around in a reasonable time. Hopefully they're fairly smart with how they do that.

Q. Every player I've talked to so far has said there are going to be backups. How do you handle backups when you're playing?

TYRRELL HATTON: Backups?

Q. When there's like two groups on a tee waiting to hit.

TYRRELL HATTON: Okay, so I was just thinking about backups. What was the first part of the question?

Q. How do you deal with those when you're playing?

TYRRELL HATTON: Chat with your caddie, maybe have a chat with your playing partners. There's really not much else you can do. It's not like we're allowed to go on our phone and scroll through Twitter and Instagram and keep yourselves -- all of a sudden you've lost half an hour and then you're ready to hit again like you can do if you're just playing with your friends and it's pretty slow.

JOHN DEVER: Tyrrell, thank you so much for spending time with us, and have a terrific week here in Tulsa.