The LIV Golf tagline “Golf But Louder” was never more appropriate with the final round of LIV Golf Nashville proving a noisy affair at The Grove. Tyrrell Hatton kept his foot down on the last day carding eight birdies to secure the win by six on -19, his first victory on the LIV Golf League since joining in January and moves him into third in the individual rankings.
The fiery Englishman hit the course with Bryson DeChambeau and John Catlin for the final round and he left them all in his wake as he powered his way around to earn himself a cool four million dollars for his individual win. Hatton’s team Legion XIII GC would also go on to top the team rankings by 5, helped greatly by his team captain Jon Rahm finishing T3 despite a double on the 6th and an argument with a drone for distracting him on his backswing. Another three million pay-out, to share with Kieran Vincent and Caleb Surrat for topping the teams table in Tennessee.
DeChambeau would join Rahm tied for third along with Lee Westwood, who will be glad of the points as his league position is precarious with five events to come. Joaquin Niemann, Torque GC captain again showed his credentials as the individual ranking leader heading into the week with a sublime -9 final round rocketing him up the standings to -12. Second place belonged to Majesticks GC man Sam Horsefield one clear of his captain Westwood et al in a good week for the team coming in fourth in Nashville.
Graeme McDowell couldn’t make any meaningful progress on the final day with his three birdies cancelled out with three bogeys as he would finish T42 with Smash GC teammates Taylor Gooch and team captain Brooks Koepka leaving them in 5th in the team standings.
Hatton was asked to reflect on his dominant performance this week and whether he felt he had the win under control: “No, to be honest. Yeah, it was still, in my head, it was stressful. You know, early in the back nine, ended up holing a really good par putt on 10. I hit it in the bunker off the tee and these guys know, but I’m internally screaming in fairway bunkers. I either fat it or knife it, and I knifed it over the back” he said.
“So then obviously chip on to like six feet and I have a sort of downhill left-to-right, which isn’t a nice putt to have, and holing that was really nice. And then the par-save on 13, as well, I ran my first putt quite far past and managed to roll that one in. I felt like that was a key moment for me. After 15, I guess I enjoyed it a little bit more.”
Asked if he had an eye on the leader-board as his round progressed: “No, I mean, I kind of, I was in between. I was trying to avoid leader-boards and then I kind of wanted to see what was going on. And yeah, I mean, when I got to the, I think it was the 17th green, I looked at that, and I think it was a five-shot lead at that point, and I had a sort of 10-, 12-foot birdie putt, or whatever it was.” He added: “Yeah, it was nice to play the last few holes and it not be super tight. I guess having not won for 3 1/2 years, it feels, you wonder if you’d be able to do it again in some way. So, I was happy that I had sort of proved to myself, and especially like bouncing back after the disappointment of last Sunday where that was, that was going to be a really important day for me, and I struggled the way I did.”
The 32-year-old will return to his native England before turning his focus to the Open Championship at Royal Troon, but he doesn’t feel that the win will change any of his preparations.
“To be honest, no,” he replied. “We have two weeks off, and I’m going to enjoy my time in England. And we’ve got our little lads’ Guinness golf tour in Ireland the week before Valderrama. So nice to have a bit of downtime.”