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The red mist descended on Tyrrell Hatton once again, but the Englishman still remains on course to get his season off to a flyer with victory at the Dubai Desert Classic.
Hatton shot a four-under 68 in tougher third round conditions at the Majlis course to move just one shot behind the leader, New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier at -13 under par, in a $9million showpiece that feels finely poised.
But the flashpoint of an otherwise exceptional round, littered with an eagle and five birdies, came in an explosive outburst of anger on the par-3 7th. After leaking his approach 50ft right on the green, Hatton slammed the tee box marker not once, but twice.
“Just a bit frustrated,” Hatton told reporters afterwards. “Just a bit of frustration.”
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Just two months after he was under fire for a club snap at the DP World Tour Championship, Hatton was asked if he regretted his latest tantrum over a misplaced shot.
“Yes, probably shouldn’t have done it,” he replied. “Does it make me a bad person? No. It’s just a spur of the moment thing, and it happened. I can’t go back and change it. So move on.”
Hatton confirmed that he was spoken to by tour officials after his round.
“Yeah, I was told about it in scoring,” he said. “I don’t have an issue with what was being said. I’m aware that it’s not the right thing to do, but I mean, in the heat of the moment when you’re frustrated, you just do things that you probably wish you didn’t do.
“But I’m not going to let it bother me for the rest of the day. I mean, if that’s the worst thing I do as a human, then, I mean, it’s not that bad.”
Hatton was exasperated again later on in his round after missing a birdie putt on the driveable par-4 17th but insisted that particular tantrum was aimed at himself, not a fan beside the green.
“No, not at all, the crowd to be honest this week have been brilliant towards me, which is really nice to have that support,” he said. “Certainly there’s no one out there that’s bothered me.”
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The paradox with Hatton, of course, is that he still play some of his finest golf moments after he appears to have lost complete control. He played the back-nine in four under to put pressure on Hillier, who had his lead sliced from three shots to just one heading into Sunday.
And should the LIV player get the job done again, it would be his fifth Rolex Series victory and an eighth in total on the DP World Tour.
“Hopefully I can be a little bit more patient out there when I need to be and still maintain that fire, because if I lose that, then I’ll just be boring like everyone else,” he said.
Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson, who lives in a Dubai apartment which overlooks this venue, is two back from Hillier’s lead, with Ryan Fox and Laurie Canter a further shot adrift.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy, who came from ten shots back at the halfway stage to win here last year, will need another minor miracle if he is to defend his title again.
McIlroy predicted after his improved three-under par 69 that the winning score would be minus 15.
“So I’d need to go out and shot 63 tomorrow,” he conceded. “If the conditions are right, I’ve been able to do that before. Especially if you can make a score on the front nine before that scorable back nine, that’s my key tomorrow.
“If I can get off to a faster start and shoot three or four on the front, I’ve got a chance.”
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