MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 12, 2024

Tyrrell Hatton

Quick Quotes

Q. The other day you said if you can just make the cut at Augusta National, that would be your personal green jacket. Looks like you're going to do that.

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, well, obviously I want to do better than just making the weekend. Conditions are very challenging out there. It's so hard with the gusts that you get.

I feel like I've been a little bit unlucky these first two days. Certainly feel like I've played better golf than what my score currently suggests or shows. But at least we're here for the weekend. I've got two more rounds to see if I can add to my tally of finally shooting in the 60s again.

Q. Coming off of yesterday, how did you feel about how you played? Obviously it was pretty good.

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, it was probably one of the best rounds that I'd actually played here up to that point. I feel like with how I was hitting the ball yesterday, if I was then going to go and finish the round, I feel like I probably would have shot like -- I'd have had more of a chance of shooting 4-over than shooting level.

Yeah, that was really frustrating to come out first thing this morning. I said before I hit my second shot into 15, I don't want to leave myself 80 yards because I generally get quite a lot of spin with my wedges, and around the 80 yards, it was like awkward because I -- it's such a hard shot to that pin. I ended up just trying to -- obviously hitting it low, and I was trying to just pitch it on the green, and you don't quite hit it hard enough, and all of a sudden you make double and you're straight away on the back foot. So that was a horrible way to start this morning.

Unfortunately I didn't really -- I don't feel like I had too many good breaks, as I said. The score is as bad as it could be, I think.

Q. You said a couple years ago you felt the course -- you've always had a little bit of a love-hate relationship with Augusta. Do you feel it's playing fairer, truer --

TYRRELL HATTON: It's hard. I think the last two days, you can hit a great shot and you get a gust of wind, and all of a sudden it ends up where it probably wouldn't have done.

Yeah, these two days, it's not really -- it doesn't give you a fair showing of how you've played. As I said, you hit good shots -- even putts. Like putting is so hard. Even a three-foot putt, there's no gimmes out here, and there's some pretty tough pins. It's just brutal. You can never just take it for granted. Even a foot putt you can miss. You just get a gust at the wrong time with some of the slopes. It's pretty intense.

Q. You threw a couple of balls away in frustration. Did you feel like you managed to hold your frustrations generally in check?

TYRRELL HATTON: I'm always frustrated, but with how I played 15, to walk off with 6 this afternoon was -- that was a bit of a low blow. I just missed a short one on 14. Kind of stood over the putt on 15. Okay, I didn't really hit a great pitch in. Yeah, the lay-up went a little bit further than I wanted it to. But you've got a 15-foot birdie putt and you walk off with 6, it's pretty tough.

I didn't know where the cut was at at that point, either. It was only when I got to 17th green that I saw it's projected at 4-over. Not that that's anything to get excited about, but yeah, with where my head was at and -- yeah, it is what it is.

Q. 14 you had a long, long wait for your approach --

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, the lads in front have been so slow. It's pretty poor from the officials that it took 32 holes to put them on the clock. Yesterday they'd lost a hole and a half, and then they weren't any better even this morning, and then for the second round they were just brutal. Fine for them; they're not waiting on any shot that they hit. But for us, we stood in the fairway, we stood on the tee. It was really hard to get a rhythm, so it was disappointing that it took 32 holes for an official to go, oh, we've put the group in front on the clock.

Q. Were you asking --

TYRRELL HATTON: I said to someone walking up 8 -- we stood on the 8th waiting to hit our second shots in, and they're still putting out, and the lads in front of them have teed off 10. It's a small field. It's not hard to really keep up with the group in front.

I understand if you've had a tough hole, but when it's just like every hole, then it's a bit more frustrating.

Q. There was a bit of talk last year with rounds taking five hours. Is there any --

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, the last two days the rounds are going to take longer here because of the conditions we face. That's just the reality of it. It's such like a brutal golf course, so you have to be so exact. You've got no margin for error. Rounds will just take longer here.