Two Thumbs Down
‘I despise everything about this hole’: Legendary golf course critic Tyrrell Hatton roasts boss Greg Norman’s design
Richard Heathcote
Tyrrell Hatton would like to speak to the manager … again. The outspoken English pro has not been shy about his feelings over the years. He can be brutally pessimistic about his own play, he curses like a Millwall fan after a 4-nil loss and he’s perhaps the world’s harshest golf course critic. Few courses or setups have escaped his ire over the years (he’s even taken aim at Augusta National in the past), and we can now add Jumeirah Golf Estates Earth Course to that ignominious list.
On Friday at DP World Tour Championship, the final stop of the DP World Tour’s annual race to Dubai, the LIV pro was overheard ranting about the Earth Course’s par-5 18th before his second shot. Take it away, Mr. Hatton.
“I despite everything about this hole,” Hatton said, surveying the serpentine hazard winding up the 18th fairway. “A truly awful golf hole.”
As is usually the case with Hatton, there’s no need to read between the lines. He says what he thinks and mostly he thinks about how much he hates golf courses. To Hatton, they’re not puzzles to be solved, but mosquitos to be swatted. Hilariously in this case, the buzzing in his ear is the creation of his own boss Greg Norman, who designed Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Earth Course back in 2009.
We doubt Hatton will get called to the principle’s office for this one, though. First of all, Norman’s footing at LIV feels more tenuous by the day, and second, this is just Tyrrell being Tyrrell. When it comes to the Hatton, you take the good with the grumbling and always roll with the punches … lots and lots of punches.