Tyrrell Hatton after destroying tee marker: ‘Does it make me a bad person?’

Tyrrell Hatton had some explaining to do following Saturday’s third round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.

Hatton shot 4-under 68 around Emirates Golf Club and will enter Sunday just a shot off Daniel Hillier’s lead. But tournament officials had other business with Hatton in the scoring area, where they questioned the temperamental Englishman about an incident at the par-3 seventh hole, specifically a plastic tee marker that had been gashed.

Hatton was quick to fess up, admitting that he took two frustrated whacks at the square marker with his club.

“Just a bit of frustration,” Hatton told The Observer afterward. “Probably shouldn’t have done it. Does it make me a bad person? No. It’s just a spur of the moment thing and it happened. I can’t go back and change it, so move on. I was told about it in scoring. I don’t have an issue with what was being said. I’m aware that it’s not the right thing to do but in the heat of the moment when you’re frustrated, you just do things that you probably wish you didn’t do. I’m not going to let it bother me for the rest of the day.

“If that’s the worst thing I do as a human, then, I mean, it’s not that bad.”

Hatton found the green at the seventh hole, where he two-putted from 48 feet for par. He’s looking for his second DP World Tour victory since joining LIV Golf nearly a year ago.

If he’s to capture his first title in Dubai on Sunday, surely some of his winnings will go toward a fine.