THE 150TH OPEN

July 15, 2022

Tyrrell Hatton

Mixed Zone

TYRRELL HATTON: I think the fact that I'm here for the weekend is a nice thing. My two previous Opens here, we were obviously going home early. So it's nice to walk up 18 and not have to worry about that. But, yeah, see a decent round of golf. Nice birdie on 6 got my momentum going. And we had a good stretch there, making a few birdies. So pretty happy with that and hoping I can have a good weekend now.

Q. You must have confidence. You intend to win this. It's still early on in the tournament.

TYRRELL HATTON: There's still a lot of golf left to play. Although I've won around here in the past, the golf course is very different to how we play in October. So also the pin positions are a lot tighter.

But we'll see. If I play good golf, then, sure, we'll have a chance. But it's definitely not a time to get ahead of ourselves.

Q. Any happy memories manifest themselves at any point during the round that help?

TYRRELL HATTON: No, it's a new day. So it's completely different. Even where we're hitting in from is very different to where I'm used to hitting into the greens during the Dunhill. So just have to see how it plays out.

Q. How much harder is it shot-wise, between now and October, would you say?

TYRRELL HATTON: It's quite different. If you missed the fairway, which is kind of easy to do, with how firm it is, you just don't have any control.

And how we play it in October, even if you miss the fairway, you still can kind of stop it.

Q. How many shots difference would you say between...

TYRRELL HATTON: It's hard. Pin positions are all out there. Have you saw some of those pins? During the Dunhill week, during the Amateurs, it would be like nine-hour rounds. It would be brutal. There's some interesting ones out there. But, yes, it sort of makes it part of the challenge.

Q. Favourite pin positions?

TYRRELL HATTON: I thought 12 was pretty juicy today. 16 is an interesting one as well. It's kind of cut on top of a bowl. Even Joaquin, where he was putting from, had a tiny bit of pace but suddenly it's got left of the pin and he's got a 20-foot for par. So that's perhaps a little bit dicy.

Q. You're probably not -- when you get annoyed, does it help you? Are you that kind of player?

TYRRELL HATTON: Depends how annoyed I get.

Q. You get annoyed, you were just going to get it --

TYRRELL HATTON: I think it depends. If I get too annoyed, I get in my own way, then, yeah, it's a problem. But if I hit a bad shot and I let it out, then it's not going to harm me.

It would be worse for me if I try and act like everything's fine because it's just not my character. It's almost, for me, I wouldn't even think about some of the stuff I say and it just flies out of the gate. Obviously it's not well-liked, which is fine. But it's just me. I'm not trying to offend anyone. But yeah.

Q. (Indiscernible). Does that give you a benefit?

TYRRELL HATTON: It annoyed me. It was obviously a really good chance. It would be nice to start with a birdie and feel like you have a bit of momentum. But that kind of set things going early on where I just struggled with the pace. I didn't adjust to the pace of the greens particularly well for the first five holes. I left a lot of putts short.

But then fortunately I managed to hit it close enough on 6 and 7 where I couldn't leave it short. It was nice to hole them and get a bit of momentum. And then obviously the really good two-putt on 9 and I guess that got us going.

Q. Did you toss the ball on one --

TYRRELL HATTON: I threw it in the water, yeah. It was scared of the dark.

Q. How much different was the course this morning than yesterday afternoon?

TYRRELL HATTON: It was very different only because yesterday we had bright sunshine and it was rock hard. And then obviously this morning it was still firm but it was cloudy and raining. So I guess closer to how it is in October at times -- Scottish summer. But obviously it's beautiful out there now.

Q. Looks like Tiger is going to miss the cut. I know you're in your own bubble as a player, but can you reflect the meaning of him saying goodbye to St Andrews perhaps at the end of this run?

TYRRELL HATTON: Wow, even from a player's point of view, I think we all hope that it won't be. What score is on at the moment.

Q. Seven?

TYRRELL HATTON: Potentially going too far back even for him to make the weekend now. But hopefully he'll be able to come here and play again. He's had some pretty special moments around here. And I think we've all enjoyed watching that.

Q. If this is goodbye, how bittersweet is that?

TYRRELL HATTON: If it is, it would be a pretty sad day. It will be a sad day for golf when that time comes in general. But like I said, hopefully not.

Q. You've been in this position before, top of the leaderboard starting the weekend, do you start thinking about Sunday?

TYRRELL HATTON: No. I mean, there's still guys around a similar score that they haven't started their round yet. So I imagine scoring's going to be pretty good this afternoon. I don't think I'm going to be in the position we currently are by the end of play today, which is fine. I'm happy with my day's work, and we'll go out there tomorrow and try our best again and see what happens.

Q. A good caddie is always an asset but on this golf course how much benefit are you getting from Mick's experience?

TYRRELL HATTON: I mean, it's nice to have Mick back obviously. He missed a few months when he had knee surgery. So although these still limping around the golf course.

Q. (Indiscernible)?

TYRRELL HATTON: Always. But no, obviously, we've done well in the past.

Q. On this golf course, it's a real benefit?

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, he has a lot of experience here, too. I mean, thankfully I know where I'm going by now. It's nice to be walking the fairways with him again.

Q. The golf course is obviously (indiscernible) the colour of it. There must be some synergy between that, and what parts of your game can you benefit from playing Dunhill (indiscernible)?

TYRRELL HATTON: I mean, for me, obviously when you win, you putt really well. So although the pin positions are very different, I feel like I read the greens pretty good around here. For some reason it kind of visually suits my eye compared to other courses. But everyone kind of will experience that.

So I think that's the big thing for me, if I can hole putts this weekend. If my pace is a little bit better than it was today on sort of the mid-range putts, then, sure, then we can do well.

Q. You don't have a lot of elements here as far as wind. What do you feel this course brings as a championship test? Is it a good enough championship test, if it doesn't happen to have the wind?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, I think so. I mean, even without that much wind, there's a few pins that you literally can't get within 15 feet of. You need a bit of wind with some of them to get close. There's obviously a lot of talk about the scoring being ridiculously low at the start of the week. But the greens are pretty mental. They can put the pins in some crazy spots, and that slows down scoring in itself. Although you've got shorter shots, it's still really hard to hit it close.

Q. (No microphone.)

TYRRELL HATTON: It makes no difference where I'm playing. If I hit a bad shot, you're probably going to know about it. It's just how I play golf. Yes, it's extremely special this week and it's always special to be here in St Andrews, but it doesn't mean that I should be any different than myself, and that's how I'll continue to be.