Tyrrell Hatton's Top Tips

Focused Practice

Once your ball striking is reasonably consistent and you’ve worked out your carry yardages, there’s no point bashing balls endlessly down the range, as you’ll never face that situation on the course. I like to hit three balls to one target, and then change club or direction and hit the next three to a different flag, and so on. Depending on the difficulty tariff, I like to try and get them inside ten or 15ft. Setting your own target for your set of three balls will help you monitor your progress and highlight any clubs or lie types where you need to put in extra work.

Make it Tough on Yourself

We don’t always find the fairway or get perfect lies, so it makes no sense to only practise from flat ground in the fairway. So when I’m practising my pitching, hitting three balls to each flag, I’ll switch between the fairway, the rough and a bunker to make the drill more realistic to what I’ll face when I’m out on the course.

Read the Green

If I’m close to the green, before I do anything, I’ll walk up to the putting surface or closely study the course planner to decide where I want to land it. This will involve highlighting any downslopes to avoid, any tiers that will work as backstops and finding any notable break that will affect the line once it’s rolling.

Choose Your Club Carefully

After looking at the green, I’ll also take into account my lie, as an uphill slope will make the shot come out higher and a downhill slope lower, while any rough will affect the spin. You also need to think about the wind, temperature and conditions of the green. If it’s soft I’ll be trying to land it fairly close, but if I’m playing a links-style course I’ll need to land it that bit shorter. If it’s wind into I might club up and hit a punch, or add a few yards to where I’m aiming, and so on.

Visualise the Shot

Lastly, I like to visualise the shot. So during my first practice swing I’ll be looking at the landing spot I’ve chosen to really visualise how it will land, spin and roll towards the hole. Once I’ve got a clear picture in my mind, I’ll then rehearse the swing length to get a good feel, before I then pull the trigger.