RIDGELAND, S.C. – The scene-stealing star of the hilarious “Angry Golfers” video released by the European Tour had every reason to go ballistic on his wedding day.
Somehow, however, world No. 11 Tyrrell Hatton’s head didn’t explode.
It was unsettling enough that the wedding plans needed to be altered due to COVID-19 restrictions, which led Hatton and his longtime girlfriend, Emily Braisher, to wed alone May 28 in Asheville, North Carolina.
And then things didn’t go as planned on the way to “I do.”
“The day wasn’t very smooth,” Hatton said Wednesday ahead of his start in the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. “Our driver turned up an hour late, so that meant we arrived half an hour late for our ceremony.
“Obviously, it wasn’t ideal. I think the most frustrated I got was when we were actually in the car driving there because the fact that he pitched up an hour late and then was driving under the speed limit. I politely asked him to use the right pedal and press a little harder to try and make up a little bit of time.”
Then the day took another unfortunate turn for the man who has helicoptered irons after poor shots, bitten into the shaft of his putter after bad putts and nearly broken clubs over his knees.
Mr. and Mrs. H wanted to take their wedding photos along the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway but Mother Nature chimed in. And Hatton kept his cool.
“We wanted to hike up and have some nice pictures. Unfortunately, after finishing the ceremony, it absolutely pissed down with rain, and we then had to drive like two miles down the road, pulled over in a lay by, and we had our wedding pictures taken on the side of the road,” Hatton said. “Not quite as magical as you’d planned it, I guess, but it was still pretty special.”
Hatton, who won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January, last played in the PGA Championship two weeks ago, where he tied for 38th. He’s back at work but needs some gym time.
“It might have changed my waistline because I certainly drunk my body weight in beer up in Asheville,” he said of his wedding day. “I need to get back in the gym and sort myself out.
“I started practicing again last Wednesday, so I’ve had a few days to kind of try to get back into it. Naturally, I think I’ll be quite rusty. I would say the last month and a half has been a little bit awkward for me really. I started to feel like I was playing really well again at the Zurich Classic when I partnered with Danny Willett, and then getting the COVID test, the positive result the following week in Tampa was a surprise, and I felt like I was going to have a really good week there.
“All of a sudden, it’s two weeks off, and my next event’s the PGA. Again, rusty at the start, and as the week went on, it felt like it got a bit better, and I’ve just had two weeks off again. So naturally, going to be quite rusty, and just hoping that I can hit some good shots to find some momentum out there.”