The 18th hole at Yas Links will be lit up with fireworks on Sunday as the penultimate event of the DP World Tour season draws to a close. We can only hope that Tyrell Hatton will be involved.
Of course, it’s not for his own psyche, as Hatton hates that hole. But mostly because it’s so rare in this sport to see a player conquer or succumb to emotions like hating a certain hole. Part of the reason is that players rarely vocally express their distaste for golf course design during games.
But that’s exactly what Hatton did after the third round on Saturday – shooting a stellar 64 that, predictably, ended with a bogey on five strokes. Hatton added fuel to the fire with a double bogey on that hole in the second round.
“And then, yeah, it’s my least favorite hole in the Middle East,” Hatton said of the 18th hole. “We have a close opponent on the finishing hole next week. [at Jumeirah Golf Estates]. It wasn’t the best shot, it was the second shot. It was a perfect kickoff. Yeah, I don’t know how the ball connected with the 7-wood, but I mean, the sand was so bad it was unbelievable; we were in the desert. “
This complaint contains more than one element. First, Hatton didn’t seem to like the bunkers at Yas Links, as his second shot on No. 18 appeared to have gone into the bunker, despite using a lower-spin 7-wood. But back to the beginning…
Hatton hates No. 18, calling it his least favorite hole in the Middle East — where he plays a lot of golf every year, between about four DPWT tournaments and at least one LIV event. The hole has a bunker cut into the center of the fairway about 280 yards away. Beyond it, the fairway tightens at 360 yards.
With a winding water hazard on the left side of the hole and a not-so-wide approach to the green, there aren’t many comfortable layup positions, which can lead to players pulling away from their driver and, as Hatton found out Friday, sometimes ending up in a centerline bunker. That would unsettle anyone, just like Hatton did three years ago.
“This has to be one of the worst par 5s I’ve ever seen in my life,” Hatton said at the 2022 HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi. (He had just made a quadruple-bogey 9.)
When asked to explain himself, he opened up:
“Any questions? Where do you start? There shouldn’t be a bunker in the middle of the fairway, and it shouldn’t be more than 600 yards from the front tee. If you hit a good tee shot as a pro, you should at least have a chance to get to the green, otherwise this hole becomes a par 3 if you play it right. Almost no one is going to get to the green with the wind even slightly against you.”
