LIV Golf’s Tyrrell Hatton spat the dummy prematurely during the opening round of the US Open at Pinehurst.
On the 213 yard par-3 17th hole, Hatton, who has a history of losing his cool on the course, thought he was headed for the bunker after his tee shot and couldn’t contain his frustration.
As the ball sailed into the air, Hatton dropped his club and then kicked at, without paying any attention to where the ball may actually land.
After abusing his club, Hatton looked up and noticed the ball had actually bypassed the bunker and made it onto the green, landing within a couple of metres of the cup.
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He went on to put a nine foot putt into the hole for a birdie to sit at two under for the round at the time.
Hatton stayed on that score for a first round total of 68 to put the Englishman in sixth position.
Hatton is no stranger to letting his emotions get the better of him on the golf course.
Earlier this year, he went on rant after a tee shot in Miami.
“That can reach those trees, can’t it?’ Hatton was heard asking. ‘F—ing what a w–k bounce that was… if it f—ing bounces left it’s fine.”
Hatton’s rant continued as he bent down to pick up his tee. “F— you,” he said to himself. “F—ing c–t’.”
Meantime, Ludvig Aberg’s US Open debut couldn’t have gone much better.
And if the 24-year-old Swede can maintain his ball-striking ability over the next 54 holes, he has a chance to become the first rookie to win the tournament in more than a century.
Aberg fought off some pre-round nerves and hit all 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens at the Pinehurst’s difficult No.2 course to shoot 4-under 66, leaving the budding star in contention for his first major championship.
“I’ll absolutely take it,” Ludvig said. “I’m very, very pleased, obviously. I wouldn’t want to have to do it again.”
Not since Francis Ouimet beat Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff in 1913 has a first-time participant won the US Open.
Aberg’s success doesn’t come as a huge surprise. He finished second at the Masters last month and is ranked sixth in world.
Tony Finau said he’d never played with Aberg before, and walked away impressed.
“Yeah, he’s a strike show,” said Finau, who shot 67. “He’s far from a rookie. I mean, he’s not even your average first guy playing in a major championship. He’s been on some of the biggest stages already and shown he’s going to be a world-class player. It was a joy to watch.”
Aberg averaged 321 yards off the tee, outpacing the remainder of the field. But it was his accuracy that stood out in round one.
His focus coming into the day was to stay disciplined, and he did just that.
“There’s a lot of pins where you don’t really think about going for,” Aberg said. “My caddie and I had a lot of good conversations about certain areas that you try to hit it on. It’s difficult to be very, very precise with the numbers and those things. But try to get a gauge on where to hit it, where to miss it.”
He said that isn’t always easy to do at Pinehurst, where the margin for error is thin.
“Especially when you have a wedge in your hand or something like that where normally you would go at the pin, but you can’t really do that here,” Aberg said. “It’s the US Open, it’s supposed to be hard.”
Aberg never made it look hard.
The player that Rory McIlroy has called golf’s next big star played with a calm confidence, never getting rattled or intimidated by Pinehurst’s fast, bowl-shaped greens.
Aberg, though, admitted he was little bit worried coming into the tournament.
“I’m always nervous when I’m playing tournament golf,” said Aberg, who has one win on the European Tour and one on the PGA Tour. “I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I think the day when I’m not nervous, it’s not a good sign. Obviously, a lot of butterflies this morning.”
Aberg seemed unfazed by failing to make the cut last month at the PGA Championship.
And his 66 puts him in position where he doesn’t have a chase a number and can focus on his own game — and a shot at a historic victory.
“We’re just trying to manage our way around the golf course,” Aberg said. “Obviously today I executed it very nicely, and that’s maybe not always going to be the case. Pinehurst is hard as it is. It’s going to be difficult, it’s going to be tricky. All we try to do is just hit as many good shots as we can to the areas that we’re playing for, then see where that adds up.”
Not such great news for Tiger Woods, who started off with a birdie, putting him into the red and atop the leaderboard, and turning back the clock 25 years to when a phenom still on the rise first played the national championship at Pinehurst No.2.
The next 17 holes, however, contrasted the player he once was with the player he is now.
Woods drove the ball exceptionally well, threading narrow fairways flanked on each side by native grasses, and he made a couple of long putts to save pars.
But he also hit far too many wayward iron shots on a course that demands accuracy, and his deft touch around the greens abandoned him more than once on the way to a 4-over 74 in the opening round.