It’s been a memorable couple of weeks for English golfer Tyrrell Hatton.
The 26-year-old, who won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last week at St Andrews, followed up his victory in Scotland with another success at the Italian Open yesterday. He also celebrated his birthday on Saturday, moved to fifth in the Race to Dubai rankings and is currently top of Europe’s Ryder Cup points list.
After Hatton’s victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn told the BBC last week that he expected “great things” from him.
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Bjorn, whose European side will face Team USA in France next September, said: “He really has risen and become a player that has a very good chance of not just being there [at the Ryder Cup] in 12 months, but in general has a good chance of achieving great things.”
Did Bjorn, or even Hatton himself, expect that the great things would continue so quickly in Italy? A birdie on the 18th meant that Hatton ended with a final round 65. His 21-under overall score edged out Ross Fisher and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who finished one shot behind.
With victory in Monza, Hatton has also put himself in contention to finish the season as Europe’s No. 1 golfer. He has moved from 11th to fifth in the Race to Dubai rankings after picking up 990,398 points.
“It’s amazing to win one but to win back-to-back and defend in two weeks is unbelievable,” said world No. 17 Hatton.
“I knew I needed a low score, and the front nine was pretty slow and I didn’t really get any momentum. I was fighting myself, trying to stay patient and J.B, my caddie, was saying ‘good things will come’.
Hatton found this hard to believe, but tried to stay patient. “In the end, I guess I got my reward,” he said.
“The end goal is to get as high as possible up the world rankings. Obviously the last two weeks have helped a lot.”
Spanning 47 tournaments throughout the season, the Race to Dubai rankings will crown the European Tour’s No. 1 player. There are four events to go before the end of the season finale at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai from 16-19 November.
After finishing in a tie for sixth in Italy, Englishman Tommy Fleetwood remains top of the rankings with 3,974,247 points, while Spaniard Sergio Garcia is in second place with 2,851,251 and Jon Rahm in third spot with 2,840,693.
The European Tour heads to Spain this weekend for the Andalucia Valderrama Masters hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.
European Tour Race to Dubai top ten rankings
- Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 3,974,247
- Sergio Garcia (ESP) 2,851,251
- Jon Rahm (ESP) 2,840,693
- Ross Fisher (ENG) 2,452,144
- Tyrrell Hatton (ENG) 2,443,181
- Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP) 2,124,686
- Alex Noren (SWE) 2,026,440
- Francesco Molinari (ITA) 1,836,902
- Rory McIlroy (NIR) 1,832,091
- Justin Rose (ENG) 1,593,949
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