By Steve Keating
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – A long and hard victory celebration left Tyrrell Hatton “cuddling the toilet” in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, the Arnold Palmer Invitational winner said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the eve of the prestigious Players Championship, Hatton acknowledged he was tired heading into the PGA Tour’s flagship event at TPC Sawgrass.
“I was cuddling the toilet by five in the morning, so it was a good night,” the Englishman told reporters.
“There was a lot of red wine and then unfortunately I think the finisher was the drinking the vodka and tequila out of the bottle, which never kind of ends well.
“And, yeah, I fell victim of that, definitely.”
Hatton’s celebrations after being part of the victorious Ryder Cup team in 2018 ended in similar fashion, but career-defining moments do not come along often.
His one-stroke win over Marc Leishman on Sunday was his first on the PGA Tour, to go with four on the European Tour.
The famously fiery Hatton, 28, has a mediocre record in his three appearances at the Players Championship, where frustration got the better of him last year.
“This week’s not normally been a good tournament for me,” he said.
“Last year it was kind of typical me, where I was one shot outside the cut line with five holes to go and I had a blowup, snapped my three-wood and basically started hitting shots on the run, and I think we missed the cut by five or something like that.
“So it kind of just goes back to making sure I can … control myself, and that’s normally the first step to me having a decent week.”
(Writing by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Toby Davis)
