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'It’s just how I am': Hatton chunters and curses his way into contention at the British Open

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — He curses out loud, he slams his clubs, he castigates himself — and his ball.

All sometimes on the same hole.

Tyrrell Hatton, a combustible English golfer, can divide opinion with his on-course conduct but few can argue about the quality of his game.

And this week at Royal Portrush, he’s making another run at a major championship.

Hatton shot 2-under 69 in the second round of the British Open on Friday and, on 5-under par, was three strokes off the clubhouse lead held by Brian Harman.

It comes just a few weeks after he was tied for the lead on Sunday at the U.S. Open when teeing off on the 71st hole, only for a bad break to derail his challenge.

Maybe, then, his seemingly erratic behavior doesn’t do him too much harm.

“Although from the outside it looks like I’m completely gone,” Hatton said, “in my own mind I still know where I’m at.”

Like at the par-4 14th hole Friday when he missed the green with a lob wedge. He screamed at himself and pointed at the slopes around the green of this grand old layout off the North Atlantic.

Like on the par-4 18th hole when he hit a drive down the middle, only to set off down the fairway glaring at his 3-wood.

“I’m not going to change,” Hatton said. “It’s just how I am, how I play.”

So, he isn’t for changing?

“I’m 33,” Hatton replied, smiling. “I think that ship has sailed, to be honest.”

Hatton can go too far.

In November, he was fined by the European tour and rebuked by a TV commentator after he cursed loudly after shots and pressed his iron so hard into the ground that it snapped at the World Tour Championship in Dubai.

“It’s time for change, I’m afraid,” Ewen Murray, a commentator on British broadcaster Sky Sports, said. "That’s a terrible influence on the next generation.”

This doesn’t look like it will happen.

Hatton’s chuntering and general on-course antics can be box-office viewing at times, especially when tournaments are at their most tense and he’s in contention.

“I’ve always said, as long as it’s not affecting my playing partners,” he said. “Sure, there’s been times I’ve probably gone too far and you comment on a putt when they’re putting on the same line and then it maybe affects where they’re hitting their putt, stuff like that.

“I think that’s part of what you learn as you get more experience, so I do try and avoid that kind of thing. But yeah, as long as I’m not affecting the other guys, then I’m not going to change.”

What he hopes will change is the result compared to last month’s U.S. Open. In a five-way tie for the lead at Oakmont and in with a shout of his first major title, Hatton hit what he thought was a good drive to the right — only for the ball to settle in knotty rough on a downslope above a greenside bunker. He made bogey and wound up tying for fourth, four back of winner J.J. Spaun.

“I know it wasn’t the ending of how I’d like it to have played out, but how I dealt with everything there and even out on the golf course with the most pressure, I still feel like I hit some really good golf shots,” Hatton said.

“I’d love to have another chance to win.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

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