MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2025

Tyrrell Hatton

Quick Quotes

Q. Not to make assumptions, but you've worked on your patience over the years. How important is it to stay patient on this golf course?

TYRRELL HATTON: I don't know if I've worked on my patience. I think it just depends what side of the bed I get out of, if I have a little bit or none. Obviously today was a good day. Drove the ball pretty well, which in years gone by is something that I've struggled with.

Last year obviously was my best finish, and I said that week I felt like I couldn't have driven the ball much better than what I did. It was nice to go out there today and play a pretty solid round.

Naturally I'm disappointed with making bogey on 17. I don't feel like I did a huge amount wrong there. But I think that's kind of this place, as well. You don't really have to do anything wrong to drop shots.

Yeah, as I said, a little bit disappointed with that, but happy to shoot another round in the 60s.

Q. You talked about how you've struggled at this place a little bit. Now you have two straight rounds in the 60s. Are you coming around on it a little bit or figuring it out?

TYRRELL HATTON: I don't know. I'm just -- ultimately I'm still just out there trying my best. It's been nice to have another good round today. I haven't seen the forecast, but is it meant to rain tomorrow?

Q. I don't know if it is or not.

TYRRELL HATTON: Fingers crossed the rain stays away. The course is in great shape. The greens are for a Thursday pretty rapid already and pretty firm in places. I imagine if the rain stays away then the scoring has the potential to get a little bit worse. That just shows how hard it is around here.

Q. Did you learn something last year or did something click for you that you can maybe take into today?

TYRRELL HATTON: I always felt like from watching this event as a kid and seeing guys that you always see on TV that hit the best shots, and there's always balls falling in from slopes, and I think my first few years here I was just almost hitting where the slopes were rather than naturally I kind of see the pin and want to aim at that.

Of course you have to be a little bit cautious sometimes, but generally I try -- I feel like I'm fairly aggressive. Maybe last year I did a better job at just trying to not be so negative at times and play away and try and hit certain slopes and just go more at wins, and that sort of fed fairly well for me. But I did drive the ball great.

I need to keep doing that this week, and I'll try my best.

Q. You had the early win; how did you feel like you've performed this season?

TYRRELL HATTON: If I'm honest, not great. The last two events on LIV, I've needed a really good Sunday to even earn points, and that's not really a place I want to be competing out on a Sunday.

Yeah, I've struggled a bit. I feel I've put a new driver in play this week with a different shaft, and yeah, that's been a little bit better for me. Seeing the ball come back to the right again, which is nice.

That's my natural shape. Standing on certain holes and being able to trust that better has been good, and I think that was one of the keys for me today.

Q. Are you starting to like this course?

TYRRELL HATTON: Do I like any golf course? (Laughter.) It's just so hard. It's like, you love being here and it's very special, but at any moment you can just hit a shot and it just does your head in. I just need to keep hitting perfect shots.

Q. You said 15 was giving you problems, but what about 15 makes it so difficult?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, I mean, the wedge shot is so hard. I think over the years, as well, that green has got firmer and firmer. I really wish they hadn't lengthened it. I don't think there's probably any of us that stand here now that says when the guys are hitting 8-irons in on Sunday when the greens are firm and you've got to hit a perfect 8-iron to even hold the green that that's not exciting. I wish it was more that way.

Jordan hit -- I think he hit 5-iron in today, which okay, you're like, right, he's hitting an iron, but he's landed it short of the pin on the green and if it goes two yards further it's off the back. He's hit an amazing shot, but it's just holding the green to the front pin. When you move that pin over on the left, it's going to be near impossible to hold the green because if we don't have any rain, it's going to keep getting firmer.

I mean, yeah, that would be one thing I wish that it could go back to how it was, but maybe I'm in a minority there. But also what I say doesn't really matter.

Q. When you play with someone like Jordan who has a great track record here, how much do you talk about the course when you're out there playing a round?

TYRRELL HATTON: Didn't really talk much about the course. For me, I've not seen a lot of the guys for quite a while, so it's nice to all be playing together again and having chats with guys throughout the week and trying to catch up a little bit.

I know Jordan had his surgery last year and I said to him the last time I saw him was during the warm-up at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. We just chatted a bit. As I said, it's nice to see quite a few guys this week.

Q. There's a big trend that the eventually winner is within about the top 10 after the first round here the last few years. In terms of trying to be in chase mode here, is the balance more towards the physical demands of how the course firms up and changes over the weekend or is it that mental side of how it can twist you around?

TYRRELL HATTON: It's probably more the mental side. There's going to be times where you'll go through a period in the round. You're not going to play 72 holes perfectly, and you're probably going to have potentially a nine-hole patch where you have to just try and grind it out the best that you can and hope that the other 63 holes are good enough.

Yeah, it's such a challenging course, and as I said, anything can happen on any of the holes so quickly. Yeah, you just have to keep it in play the best you can. If you are going to miss, hope your misses are in a good spot. Otherwise, as I said, that's when the numbers can get pretty high very quickly.

Q. As a follow-up to that, considering Scottie's history here and what he does, when he goes out and puts up another number today, does it almost feel like a pace car type situation, like keep up with him?

TYRRELL HATTON: Not really. I think you just have to -- certainly for me anyway, whatever I do has no control over what he's going to go and do. Ultimately, yeah, if he shoots the scores that he shoots, same as anyone, anyone that is playing this week is very capable to go and have four good days and win the tournament.

But for me, yeah, just trying to focus on myself, try and get up on the right side of the bed, try and keep hitting the fairway and go from there.

Q. What was your best shot of the day?

TYRRELL HATTON: Best shot of the day? That's a good question. I don't even know. I don't think there was one standout, like wow, that was great. There were a lot of very solid shots. I'm just going to say the tee shot on 1. Just new driver, new shaft, and yeah, it feels good in practice, but to stand up and see the shot shape under the gun was good.

Q. What driver did you switch to?

TYRRELL HATTON: The 440 Max. It's a bit more fade bias, and that's been great for me.