Tyrrell Hatton celebrated the recent birth of his daughter with a first-ever LIV Golf event lead after the first day at Valderrama on Thursday. Image courtesy LIV Golf.
From a Correspondent
Sotogrande, Spain: Tyrrell Hatton entered LIV Golf Andalucia with limited prep work, understandable given that he just became a first-time father.
His practice sessions earlier this week at Real Club Valderrama were, in his words, “pretty awful.” And now his first putt as a dad was a 33-footer at his opening hole on Thursday.
He drained it.
Hatton celebrated his first round as a father with a 4 under par 67 to grab a share of the lead with Scott Vincent on a challenging day on Spain’s most famous course.
It was an impressive performance, as Hatton’s focus has been on his wife and daughter. Until this week, he had not hit balls outside since his last start at the PGA Championship, as his practice sessions were limited to his indoor swing studio at home.
“I was somewhat nervous of how bad it could be today,” said the Legion XIII star, who grabbed the 18-hole lead for the first time in his LIV Golf career.
“But just tried to have a single thought and not overcomplicate it out there. My warmup was better, and that gave me a little bit of confidence to just trust it out on the golf course, and I felt like I hit a lot of good shots in the end.”
Hot streak
Few LIV Golf players have hit more good shots recently than Vincent, who is making his fourth start in the HyFlyers GC lineup as a replacement for captain Phil Mickelson.
Vincent, who started the season as an independent wild card, has given his team their best individual results this season with three consecutive top-10 finishes, including a solo fifth last week in Korea.
The Zimbabwean continued riding that momentum by firing one of just two bogey-free rounds on the day – Thomas Detry, in solo third at 3 under, had the other one – in which the par-71 Valderrama played to a stroke average of more than 1-1/2 strokes over par due in part to its famous gusty winds.
“It’s the best 18 holes I’ve played this year,” Vincent said.
“I was able to execute a lot of the shots how I wanted to, and then when I did get in trouble, I was able to make some amazing saves. All in all, it was just a fantastic day on an amazing course that played really tough.”
Valderrama showed its teeth early, as 47 of the 57 players in the field suffered at least one bogey in the first 90 minutes after the shotgun start. The stroke average of 72.509 made it the sixth hardest opening round in league history.
Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, fresh off their win last week at LIV Golf Korea, shot a cumulative even par across their four individual scores to grab the team lead.
Tough conditions
That’s the highest team-best score relative to par in any round since the Crushers opened at 3 over last year at Valderrama.
“A mystifying golf course, that’s for sure,” said DeChambeau, one of three players on his team to shoot a 1-under 70.
“There’s a lot of times where you’re just hoping. You hit great shots and they’re just going to not be rewarded at some points in time out here. It’s a great test of golf.”
Fireballs GC captain Sergio Garcia, a four-time winner at Valderrama with 17 top-10s in 18 career starts, said the difficulty level was extremely high Thursday. Garcia opened with a 2 under 69 that left him in a five-way tie for fourth place.
“I have played it more difficult, but I would put it in the top 20, 25% today,” Garcia said.
“Obviously if you play really well, you could shoot a 67 like Tyrrell and Scott did. But not only did you have to hit a lot of good shots, a lot of things had to go right – hitting it at the right time, making sure that you guessed the gust the right way.”
Despite the limited prep work, Hatton guessed right most of the time Thursday. His new daughter will be proud of her dad.
“This golf course demands a lot,” he said. “It’s kind of stood the test of time, to be honest, and it’s an iconic venue. Although I can lose even more hair around here than I would like, it’s always good to be back here.” (courtesy LIV Golf)
Leaderboards
Individual Top 10
T1 (-4) – Scott Vincent, HyFlyers (67); Tyrrell Hatton, Legion XIII (67)
3. (-3) – Thomas Detry, 4Aces (68)
T4 (-2) – Cameron Smith, Ripper (69); Sergio Garcia, Fireballs (69); David Puig, Fireballs (69); Minkyu Kim, Korean (69); Branden Grace, Southern Guards (69)
T9 (-1) – Thomas Pieters, 4Aces (70); Charles Howell III, Crushers (70); Anirban Lahiri, Crushers (70); Matthew Wolff, RangeGoats (70); Doyeob Mun, Korean (70); Bryson DeChambeau, Crushers (70)
Team Top 3
1. (E) – Crushers GC (DeChambeau 70, Howell III 70, Lahiri 70, Smyth 74)
T2 (+1) – Korean Golf Club (Kim 69, Mun 70, An 72, Song 75); RangeGoats GC (Wolff 70, Campbell 71, Watson 72, Uihlein 73); Legion XIII (Hatton 67, McKibbin 73, Rahm 73, Surratt 73)
Day 1 stats
Driving Distance: Caleb Surratt, 341.8-yard avg.
Longest Drive: Joaquin Niemann, 380.2 yards (11th hole). Official measured drives taken only on holes 11 and 17.
Driving Accuracy:Ben Campbell, Sam Horsfield, 78.57% (11 of 14)
Greens in Regulation: Scott Vincent, Cameron Smith, Minkyu Kim, 72.22% (13 of 18)
Scrambling:Thomas Detry (8 of 8), Scott Vincent (5 of 5), 100%
Fewest Putts: Louis Oosthuizen, Miguel Tabuena, 22
Bogey-free rounds:Scott Vincent (67), Thomas Detry (68)
Also read: Neimann wins eighth LIV title as Crushers top team race in Korea
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