Finding levity in a maddening game

Their Ryder Cup adventures have been terrifying and screamingly funny. Which version of the LIV teammates will we get at this year’s Cup? Without a doubt, both.

THE SCENE: On the range at Dallas’ Maridoe GC, filming an episode of GOLF’s “Warming Up.” (The interview has been condensed for clarity; you can watch the whole thing below.

Dylan Dethier: You guys have already been to the gym this morning. Is it something that’s always been part of your routine?

Tyrrell Hatton: Definitely not. As I’ve got older and stiffer and fatter, I’ve needed to start doing a bit more in the gym to try and get the rig ready.

DD: Jon, do you remember meeting Tyrrell? Have you guys always gotten along well?

Jon Rahm: I don’t know if we’d ever spent too much time together before the Whistling Straits Ryder Cup [in 2021]. We’d both played in [the 2018 Cup in] Paris, but we were both fairly quiet that week. Whistling, though, we played together, so that’s a bit of the start of everything. One of the things that makes us get along is we tend to have similar reactions on the course.

DD: Say more about that.

TH: I never understand why he swears in English. He’d get away with it, probably, if he’d just swear in Spanish.

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DD: How does it work when you play together? Do your fires cancel each other out? Is there a calmness that sets in?

JR: To be honest, whenever I play with somebody that might get a little bit more fired up on the course — not just Tyrrell, but anybody — I laugh because I see myself in it.

DD: Tyrrell, what’s Jon like away from the course?

TH: Well, he looks scary, doesn’t he? But he’s just a big teddy bear.

JR: Why do people say I look scary?

TH: [Laughing] It’s probably something to do with you being a f—– unit and being like six foot three. When you’re a five-foot-eight hobbit? Unnerving.

DD: And Jon, what about Tyrrell?

JR: Tyrrell is one of the funniest people you’ll ever meet. He doesn’t like to do it, but I think he should be mic’d up for one of our practice rounds, because any compilation you’ve seen of him saying funny things is mild compared to what we usually hear.

TH: I can neither confirm nor deny.

DD: Tyrrell, when did you first get so good at golf?

TH: That’s a weird question. I don’t think I am [so good]. What does [comedian] Micky Flanagan say? Positivity drains you.

DD: Jon, do you feel the same way?

JR: I am, like, irrationally positive in my mind; always hoping for the best on the next shot in any situation. Even though my mouth may be saying other things, I firmly believe it. But the amount of times I’ll say in Spanish, “If you’re going to play like this, go home, what are you doing wasting your time,” internally I know I’m just trying to fire myself up, to say, Okay, you can do this.

DD: Tyrrell, I know you don’t think you’re very good at golf, but what do you think you’ve gotten better at over the years?

TH: I’d say I’ve remained pretty consistent. I’ve never really tried to change my swing; the positions are still pretty much the same. I don’t really look at stats, but I think iron play has always been pretty solid and then generally putting has been a strength, so I guess if I lose those two then I’m pretty f—–.

DD: Jon, what’s your favorite part of golf?

JR: I think the chase. It’s a weird game. We’re all trying to chase perfection in the most imperfect game there is. You’re trying to miss better than the next guy. You can count on one hand how many perfect shots you hit in a day, maybe in a week. For a game that’s all about missing less, it’s just that chase of trying to figure things out and get better, and new things, new feels. It’s just a thrill for me.

DD: Tyrrell, do you love golf?

TH: I love elements of it. Like, everyone out here is a very competitive person. You shouldn’t ever lose that, but I think sometimes it’s hard to go out and practice. I think when you love it, that’s easy to do. When it feels like a chore to go and hit balls when you’ve got time off — it just depends on what frame of mind you’re in. The longer I’ve played it’s definitely gone up and down.

DD: What’s the best golf shot you’ve ever hit in your life?

TH: Best golf shot? One that I go back to sometimes is actually a 5-iron I hit when me and Jon were playing together at Whistling Straits, on the 18th on Friday to a back-right pin.

JR: I thought you were going to say Rome. On the 15th hole on Friday morning, I’ve put him in a fairway bunker and he hit an insane shot out of there. He comes out of the bunker and he says, “Mate, I was terrified. All I could think about was duffing it or knifing it against the lip.”

DD: Are you hard on Jon when he’s your partner?

TH: No. Look at the size of him!

DD: Tyrrell, what’s something about Jon’s game that you admire?

TH: I think when we’re messing around the chipping green, we’re like big kids, just trying to get as much spin as possible. That’s one thing that impresses me with Jon — the array of shots around the green and the different spins he can put on it. I can spin it a good amount, but it’s got that cut spin. He’s hitting draws out of bunkers and all that, and I’m like, “I don’t have that in the bag.”

JR: That’s a big positive for both of us. We’re like two 12-year-olds on the chipping green. You’ll never see more giggles from two pros, ever. It’s the silliest thing. [At the LIV Golf event] in Jeddah, we made a divot eight feet long, three feet wide. Thirty yards into the wind so you could spin it max.

TH: We were getting sand out of the bunker, sprinkling it on the ground, hitting into wind, and these [shots] were ripping back, like, 30 feet.

JR: We were screaming. We were getting so many looks from everyone it was unreal. You’re supposed to be professional, but I always believe there’s time for fun. That was fun.