Tyrrell Hatton: English Ryder Cup winner becomes latest player to make switch to LIV Golf

Tyrrell Hatton will make his LIV Golf debut in Mexico this week after becoming the latest high-profile golfer to join the Saudi Arabia-backed tour.

The Englishman is the current world number 16 and was part of Europe’s 2023 Ryder Cup-winning team in Rome.

The 32-year-old, who has won six times on the DP World Tour and once on the PGA Tour, will join Masters champion Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team.

Hatton’s deal with LIV is reportedly worth about £50m, external.

That sum is more than double what Hatton has earned on the PGA Tour during his career, although it is only a fraction of the amount that persuaded Spain’s Rahm to become arguably LIV Golf’s most significant signing in December.

“I’m really excited for this next chapter, to link up with Jon Rahm and Legion XIII and to get started this week in Mexico,” Hatton said.

Despite opening alignment talks with the PGA Tour, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has continued its pursuit of the world’s best players.

Earlier this month Hatton claimed he was “quite happy playing the PGA Tour and DP World Tour,” after his compatriot and Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood disclosed that he had rejected an offer of bigger prize funds and no-cut events.

Hatton had entered this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour, but will now contest LIV Golf’s season-opening event at El Camaleon Golf Course in Playa del Carmen alongside former top amateur Caleb Surratt and Zimbabwe’s Kieran Vincent, who won his place through a LIV promotions event.

Hatton and Rahm won both of their matches together in last year’s Ryder Cup in the Italian capital, with their fiery characters earning the nickname of ‘Team Angry’ as they helped Luke Donald’s side regain the trophy.

The Englishman’s defection, particularly coming so soon after Rahm, will be of huge concern to Donald as he attempts to mastermind a first Ryder Cup win on away soil since 2012 at New York’s Bethpage in 2025.

As things stand Hatton, who has played in the biennial competition between Europe and the United States on three occasions, will be eligible to qualify or receive a wild card as long as he remains a DP World Tour member, which requires him to play in four regular tournaments each season.

He will also earn points towards qualification through major championships but faces fines and suspensions for playing in LIV tournaments without the required ‘conflicting event’ releases from the DP World Tour.

In April 2023, an arbitration panel ruled that the Tour had the right to sanction players for such “serious breaches” of its code of behaviour, a case sparked by 12 players appealing against fines of £100,000 and suspension from the Scottish Open for playing LIV’s inaugural event in June 2022.