Everything went well for Tyrrell Hutton Saturday at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Hatton shot an 11-under 61 in a round with nine birdies and one eagle on the Old Course at St. Andrews. This impressive score equals the course record set by fellow Brit Ross Fisher in 2017. Hatton's 61 was also the lowest round of his career.
“I was just trying to take each hole as it came and get as many birdies as I could,” Hatton said.
“When I holed that putt on the 17th, I knew I'd shot 10 under here before. I can't remember if it was in 2016 that I won. But at the end I really I wanted to get a birdie [and I did]. In fact, this is also my worst round on tour. I felt like I was working harder than usual on the last putt. It was a good putt and thankfully it went in. It was a cool day. ”
Hutton filled the hole with back-to-back birdies at St. Andrews, perhaps the two greatest in the world. Hatton stuck to a 3.5-foot approach. The 17th par-4 road hole is considered by some to be one of the most difficult holes in golf.
“I got a pretty good number, 171, off a slight uphill hill. This week the ball was spinning a little off the grass, and I was hitting a 7-iron with a grip down, which is equivalent to a three-quarter, but it felt really good. ,” Hutton said of his approach. 17.
“It landed a little shorter than I expected. I thought it would stretch a little more. It bounced off the ground and rolled a couple of feet, but I think that hole will last me all day.”
At 22 under after 54 holes, Hatton currently holds a one-stroke lead over Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, who served as co-captain at last year's Ryder Cup. But Hatton had no worries about where he was on the leaderboard. All he was worried about was himself and how many birdies he could make. This is a good strategy for Day 3 of a DP World Tour event.
“The first leaderboard I saw was on the 17th green, and of course I wasn't too worried about what everyone else was doing,” Hatton said.
“Like I said, I took each hole as it came and tried to get a birdie on that hole. It ended with a great performance.”
That's what he did, and Hutton went on to further etch his name into St Andrew's legend.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
