Tyrrell Hatton’s tempestuous relationship with the Masters has continued after he blasted rules officials and a group of players, including the former champion Patrick Reed, over “brutal” slow play.
Hatton will make the cut at Augusta National, which is a slight surprise. Two years ago, he criticised the venue for being “unfair”. Now, the Englishman is angry over pace of play and the lack of action taken by Masters officials.
Reed, Im Sung-jae and Kurt Kitayama were in the group ahead of Hatton, Matthieu Pavon and Keegan Bradley for the opening two rounds. Hatton’s group were routinely waiting to hit shots having returned to finish their first round on Friday morning.
“The lads in front have been so slow,” said Hatton. “It’s pretty poor from the officials that it took 32 holes to put them on the clock. Yesterday they lost a hole and a half, they weren’t any better even this morning and then for the second round they were just brutal.
“Fine for them; they’re not waiting on any shot that they hit. But for us, we stood in the fairway, we stood on the tee. It was really hard to get a rhythm, so it was disappointing that it took 32 holes for an official to go: ‘Oh, we’ve put the group in front on the clock.’”
When that transpires, players are warned they will be penalised by way of shots if slow play persists. Hatton added: “I said to someone walking up the 8th, we stood waiting to hit our second shots in, and they’re still putting out. The lads in front of them have teed off 10. It’s a small field. It’s not hard to really keep up with the group in front. I understand if you’ve had a tough hole but when it’s every hole then it’s a bit more frustrating.”
Rounds of 72 and 74 allowed Hatton to survive for the weekend. He appeared less than excited about that. “The score is as bad as it could be, I think,” he said. “The last two days, you can hit a great shot and you get a gust of wind and all of a sudden it ends up where it probably wouldn’t have done. These two days don’t give you a fair showing of how you’ve played.”
