One day after matching the course record at St. Andrews, Englishman Tyrrell Hatton made even more history at the Home of Golf.
He won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship for a third time, becoming the most accomplished player in the event’s 23-year history.
Hatton began the day with a one-shot advantage over Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and won by the same margin. Colsaerts and Hatton have a close relationship, as Colsaerts served as a vice-captain at the Ryder Cup last year. But Hatton’s birdie on the final hole, where he brilliantly navigated the infamous Valley of Sin, proved to be the difference.
It’s also the first time Hatton’s father, Jeff, who played alongside him in the Pro-Am, witnessed his son conquer the Old Course.
“It means a lot. And yeah, to do it on the Home of Golf is really special,” Hatton said after.
“Hard to describe, to be honest. I’m at a loss for words.”
Yet, nobody could have guessed that this would have come down to the wire, especially since Hatton held a three-shot lead through 12 holes. But he found a fairway bunker left of the 13th fairway and compounded his error by missing a three-footer up on the green. Hatton consequently etched a double-bogey six into his scorecard as his lead dwindled to two. But the Englishman made another bogey on the par-5 14th, thanks to his drive settling in another pot bunker.
In the blink of an eye, Colsaerts now had a chance. He trailed Hatton by one while standing on the 15th tee. The Belgian then stripped a tee shot down the middle of the fairway and stuck his approach to 10 feet up on the green. He drained the birdie putt, and now he and Hatton sat atop the leaderboard, knotted at 23-under-par.
The two Europeans then exchanged pars on the 16th and 17th, setting up a dramatic finish on the 18th. After their drives landed just short of the green, Hatton got up and down while Colsaerts could not.
“To be able to put a couple of good rounds together, get all the way to the end, you know, in a position that I haven’t really been in the last couple of years is quite good, of course,” Colsaerts said.
“When you have not been in a position like this for a while, yeah, you kind of forget how much it grabs you. Yeah, you become a bit anxious, but at the same time, you focus and get really, really tuned in. I was able to hit a few amazing shots down the last couple of holes.”
Colsaerts has struggled with his game over the past few years as he saw his Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) plummet to 695th in the world. Gone are the days of him vying for a Ryder Cup spot, which he secured in 2012. He has not played in a major championship since 2018, either. But ‘The Belgian Bomber’ showed some magic this week, which included an albatross during the third round, as he gave Hatton quite the fight.
In the end, though, the LIV Golf star hit the right shot when it mattered most, thus etching his name further into the history books.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
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