Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship 2022: Reigning champion Tyrrell Hatton searching for practice motivation
The 30-year-old still gets as much fulfilment from playing as he ever did, but admits putting in practise can be a struggle. "That's how I've been for a long time, but at the moment it certainly seems harder to get myself to go to the range to go through that process."
By Marc Bazeley
Last Updated: 20/01/22 6:09am
Practise may make perfect, but Tyrrell Hatton admits that even now he struggles to find the motivation to put in the hours on the driving range as he prepares to defend his Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship crown.
Tyrrell Hatton heads to the Middle East for this week's DP World Tour event, which is live on Sky Sports, on the back of spending the first two weeks of in Orlando, Florida, undergoing a boot camp-style training regime plus plenty of work on his golf.
Yet while Hatton still gets as much fulfilment from playing as he always did, the defending champion finds it difficult to motivate himself to get into a practice routine off the course - just as he did in his formative years.
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"I much prefer playing than practising on the range," Hatton said. "I've always said that and I haven't really been out on the course a huge amount when I'm back home, so that's something that I probably need to get back into and try and find some enjoyment and a reason to go out there and do it, too.
"Training-wise has been good. [I] Still struggle with how to practise and actually, when I get there, it's just going through the motions - but that's a work-in-progress for sure.
"My Dad would say that I found it a chore. I remember the winters when I was probably like 10 years old, and Dad [saying] 'Come on, let's go to the range'. I didn't want to go and was sort of happy being inside or trying to play football all weekend at that stage.
"Going through the motions of almost what I do when I warm up before I go and play, just kind of go through every other club in the bag and that's kind of me done on the range. Generally, that's how I've been for a long time, but at the moment, it certainly seems harder to get myself to go to the range to go through that process."
I remember the winters when I was probably like 10 years old, and Dad's [saying] 'Come on, let's go to the range' - don't want to go, sort of happy being inside or trying to play football all weekend at that stage.
Tyrrell Hatton
Although currently ranked fifth in the DP World Tour Rankings and 22nd in the Official World Golf Rankings, Hatton hoped that last year's success in Abu Dhabi would be a springboard to more success throughout the year but it failed to transpire.
Successfully defending his title at the tournament's new Yas Links venue would provide a timely confidence boost for the Englishman and he is eager to regain that feeling of fighting it out near the top of the leaderboard on a more regular basis in 2022.
"That was an amazing way to start the year," Hatton said, reflecting on his victory by four strokes from Australia's Jason Scrivener at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club last year. "Sadly, from that moment on, it didn't sort of get any better.
"But the first few weeks of the year, you don't really know where your game is at. You're just feeling your way back into it really, and so to sort of pick up a victory like that early is good for confidence.
"It's a little bit different this week with a brand-new course for everyone and that presents a new challenge.
"I'm a very competitive person and obviously results haven't been going that well, and that's disappointing. I think it's when you're up there in the mix and you have that nervous energy, that's what we want to experience every week."
McIlroy readjusts targets
In previous years, Rory McIlroy would have been spending the flight out to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship making a list of his goals for the year ahead.
Having dusted off the cobwebs by playing alongside his father Gerry at Seminole Golf Club in Palm Beach following some time away from the course over Christmas, the five-time major winner makes his return to top-level golf in the Middle East this week.
And while tournament success and beating his highest number of titles in a year remain among his targets, the Northern Irishman's specific aims are somewhat more prosaic these days.
"I used to sit down on the flight here and write down, like: I want to win five times, I want to win a major; I want to win The Race to Dubai; I want to win the FedEx Cup; I want to do this or that, and of course I want to do all those things," McIlroy said. "I'd love to win six times in a season - I've never done that before.
"All those things are great goals, and they are things to try to work towards but, I think the biggest thing for guys that are at the level that we're at, is I want to hit over 60 percent of my fairways. I want my proximity inside 150 yards to be a certain number. I want my strokes gained putting to be a certain number.
"I think having goals that are more objective and more that I'm in control of. I can't control if I win five or six times a year. There are so many other variables in there.
"So, it's about trying to set yourself goals that you can control, and that are objective and measurable, and I guess those are the sort of goals I've started to set myself the last few years."
