After an ‘interesting year’ in 2024, Hatton’s hoping for a ‘big year’ in 2025

Tyrrell Hatton enters his final start of 2024 with a chance to do something he’s never done in a single calendar year: Win three times.

With victories at LIV Golf Nashville and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in the last five months, Hatton has matched his career-high in victories in one season.

The 33-year-old Legion XIII star goes into this week’s PIF Saudi International powered by Softbank Investment Advisers in terrific form, coming off a stretch of four DP World Tour starts since the end of the LIV Golf season in which he posted one win, one runner-up, and two other top 10s.

He’s one of the favorites this week in Riyadh, where more than 40 LIV Golf regulars from the 2024 season make up a third of the 120-player field. That’s the most LIV Golf players in a tournament outside the LIV Golf schedule.

Although Hatton no doubt is in form, his prep work isn’t at a similar level. Since his last start at the DP World Tour Championship, he’s taken three weeks off, working in a seven-day vacation to the Maldives. Meanwhile, his best intentions to train at the gym didn’t exactly come to fruition.

That’s left him unsure how he’ll perform in Riyadh.

“I think it's something about this time of year and end of season, you just try and enjoy yourself a bit more,” Hatton said Tuesday on the eve of Wednesday’s first round. “I don't have any regrets over that.”

In fact, his time off could pay off in a more relaxed approach this week in the Asian Tour and International Series finale – although as anyone who has watched him play realizes, “relaxed” is a relative term when it comes to Hatton’s mindset inside the ropes.

“I think everyone's rusty after a break, but sometimes that can help because then your expectations are a little bit lower,” Hatton said. “Yeah, we'll see how we go this week. I've got new woods in the bag this week, so it's a good opportunity for me to test them out and feel comfortable with them before the start of next year. 

“Next year is going to be a big year.”

Indeed.

Hatton desperately wants to be a member of the European Ryder Cup team that will face the U.S. in late September at Bethpage Black in New York. He’s played in the three previous ones, including partnerships with his Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm. In 2023, they twice knocked off Scottie Scheffler and his American partner en route to Europe’s win in Rome.

His primary goal in 2025 is to represent Europe again.

His ability to acquire Ryder Cup points is limited, however, as he’ll make far fewer starts in qualifying events than others on the DP World Tour. 

Although he’s currently third in points on the Europe Team Rankings, odds of him landing one of the six automatic spots are slim, although results in next year’s majors could move him up high enough to earn a spot. He anticipates playing all four majors in 2025 thanks to a variety of exemptions.

Even if he doesn’t grab an automatic spot, he could impress returning European Luke Donald with big performances in the majors and the LIV Golf tournaments he’ll play for Legion XIII. In his first LIV Golf season, he finished fourth in points and was the league’s highest-performing non-captain.

“I really want to be on the Ryder Cup team,” he said. “As everyone says, once you've played one, you never want to miss one again. I've been fortunate to play in the last three, and I'd love to make it four in September.”

For now, he’ll concentrate on chasing the third win of the season this week. It’s his 27th start in 2024, which matches his most of any year in the last decade. He describes his 2024 season as “interesting” as he made the transition to LIV Golf and played a global schedule in the league’s team-centric format.

While he won on LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, he remains one of the best players without a major victory. He did post his best finish (T9) at the Masters, earning him a spot in next year’s field. But he was a non-factor in the other three.

At age 33, the clock is starting to tick perhaps just a little.

“Although this is the end of my 11th year playing at the top level of professional golf – it sounds crazy to say that it's already been 11 years – but I would have liked to have probably done better in majors,” Hatton said. “I certainly would have liked to have contended in at least one of them. I think my best finish is probably 4th or 5th in a major. From my point of view, that's not really anything to get overly excited about.

“Maybe next year will be the year that I actually give myself a chance, but ultimately, I try my best every week. Some weeks work out better than others.”