NCG meets: European Tour’s rising star Tyrrell Hatton

Tyrrell Hatton was unlucky not to be named European Tour Rookie of the Year in 2014 after a string of impressive results.

The trend continued in 2015 as the 23-year-old edged closer to the world’s top 100.

A final round 62 at the Omega European Masters left him in third place and showed that it is surely only a matter of time before he lands his first win.

We met the Hilton Hotels Ambassador at Bearwood Lakes to find out more about life as a top professional golfer…


How tough is it playing on tour week-in-week-out?

It’s not really tough but the travelling makes it quite difficult and not spending that much time at home isn’t ideal but that’s just part of being a professional golfer.

I don’t usually spend that much time away from the golf course or the hotel, I don’t really go out exploring or anything like that. 

We’re lucky that we stay in some great hotels though, and through my association with Hilton I have the familiarity of staying in the same sort of hotel most weeks which helps. 

I’m also a Diamond member of Hilton HHonors so I’ve been really lucky to be upgraded into a suite a few times this year. Having my own suite in a luxury hotel is a nice perk!

How much time do you spend practising and when you do practise, what do you work on?

I’m not a big practiser to be honest, I’ll hit a bucket of balls when I’m at home and when I’m at a tournament I’ll never hit balls after a round of golf, I’ll hit a few before I go out and play but that’s it – I’m really not a big practiser.



Alignment is the only thing that I will always try and keep on top of – that’s with the long game really. 

My dad is my coach and we haven’t really changed anything in my swing for about eight years so if anything goes wrong we just go back to basics with alignment or ball position. I like to keep things really simple.
I like to see where I am on the leaderboard, especially in the final round" What do you do to relax when not playing golf?

Between events when I’m at home I like to see my friends, play a bit of Xbox or watch movies. When I’m away It’s just chilling out in the hotel room really. If I’ve had an early tee time I’ll usually have a little power nap in the afternoon and listen to a bit of music.

What targets have you set yourself this year?

Over the next 12 months I’d obviously love to get that first win. For this year my goals were to get inside the top 100, get my first win and make it to the Race to Dubai again. As long as I have another couple of decent results I should be fine.

What’s it like being in the mix coming down the stretch on a Sunday? 

It’s what you work towards. It’s quite nerve-wracking but you’re excited at the same time. It’s a good feeling and it’s nice to be up there on a Sunday. 

I like to see where I am on the leaderboard, especially in the final round, I’m always looking so I know where I am.

I’m comfortable with it. I try and take it one shot at a time and if I make birdies, I make birdies but if not then you just have to accept it.

If you’re faced with a four-foot putt to win a tournament, how do you think you’ll handle that?

I guess when that moment comes, I’ll just do what I do and hopefully that moment will come fairly soon.

If you could be one other professional golfer, who would you be?

I’d probably say Adam Scott. No one seems to have a bad word to say about him, he’s won The Masters and has had a fantastic career.