Few could blame Tyrrell Hatton for taking his putter, raising the grip into a firing position, and then blasting his pretend shotgun back down the 18th fairway on Friday afternoon at Royal Liverpool.
In one hole, the Englishman had dropped 40 spots on the Open leaderboard.
Hatton arrived at the par-5 last 2 under on the day and for the tournament. He’d birdied three of his first eight holes on the back nine with no dropped shots. But he couldn’t dodge one of Hoylake’s best defenses: the internal out of bounds that hugs nearly the entire right side of the hole.