Thursday 12 March 2020 07:11, UK
After Tyrrell Hatton's breakthrough victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Nick Dougherty assesses the chances of further English success this week at The Players.
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We knew Hatton's golf game was good enough to be able to hang around the very best, but his win at Bay Hill last week was almost like a coming-of-age victory.
That was a hard win, at a hard venue in those conditions, so demanded a lot of him to get the job done. So many people have questioned him over the years, but he has shown that he has got what it takes to compete with the very best.
The way he controlled his attitude on the golf course was most impressive, starting on the Saturday when everyone was starting to struggle. He recovered so well from his double-bogey on the ninth, which is something that might have had a ripple effect through his game previously but didn't on this occasion.
The same thing happened on Sunday, where he hung in there brilliant with both his golf game and his mental toughness. The only bit that does surprise me is that it was off the back of two and a half months off, because you'd expect a little bit of rust after two and a half months off.
When you're a player you watch someone win who you think you can beat, you do think 'Well, if he can do it, I can do it'. It's a very simple mentality and players do think like that, so it'll be interesting how it motivates his compatriots in the coming weeks.
Tommy Fleetwood doesn't need to see Hatton's result to know that he can win on the PGA Tour, but it might egg him on a little bit that we saw Hatton winning out here before he managed it.
Fleetwood is obviously playing nicely over the past few months. He's playing great golf and his run-in to the end of last year, winning the Nedbank [Golf Challenge], pushing Jon Rahm all the way at the DP World [Tour Championship] shows his game is where he needs it to be.
He missed the cut last week, but it was just a week in a strange-playing golf course and tough conditions, as well as coming on the back on nearly winning and finishing third at the Honda Classic.
Even though it's Fleetwood and he's so consistent, he goes under the radar a little bit at this tournament because we are focusing on the likes of Rahm, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy.
He has a great record around TPC Sawgrass and has the best stroke average here over the past decade, so it's clearly a place he likes. He played well here last year and out of all of the English interest, he's the one that I would back as the next English winner.
Matt Wallace is the sort of player that will look at Hatton's win and think 'that should be me'. He had an encouraging performance last week at Bay Hill, but there's an element of Wallace that thinks that's not enough and that he's out there to win.
Wallace works awfully hard on his game, his technique and is excrutiatingly hard on himself. That's fine when you're playing well, because it's that fire that pushed you forward, but when it's not quite going your way sometimes it can make it tough.
Bedding in of new equipment has been the big factor, as there is inevitably a change in feel and performance from what he has used previously. That's what I think has been holding him back, but it would suggest last week that he's starting to get back there.
I think he's going to get back to playing his best golf and I think he will build on it again here - he finished 30th last year, which is good for your first Sawgrass appearance.
Matt Fitzpatrick is also going to be dangerous this week. His form is where he wants it to be, he has a great team around him is someone who shouldn't be underestimated at big events.
He hasn't got the worldwide wins he may have wanted, but got all those seconds last year and arrives on the back of top-five finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Sawgrass is a golf course where you have to drive it well and hit fairways, which are two things where Fitzpatrick is right up there with the very best of them. He doesn't feel fear and I can see him doing really well.
Justin Rose is working really hard on his game, which unfortunately is there like we know it can be right now. He has missed three of his last four cuts, but no-one will bat an eyelid when he turns it on again.
We know what Rose is capable of and he's got that kind of game which you think he'll never really be that far away. I don't think we're looking at someone who's on the way out - far from it - but there's some tidying up that needs to go on there.
We know there have been some equipment issues lately, so there's a level of discomfort with that. It's unclear how much it is the clubs, but the fact that he's changing would suggest that he needs to feel something different.
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