Another golfing superstar has defected to LIV Golf, with world number 16 Tyrrell Hatton signing for a deal worth up to £50 million ($A96m) according to the Telegraph (UK).
The deal could be announced as soon as tomorrow, with Hatton set to withdraw from the AT&T Championship at Pebble Beach, the $20m USD PGA Tour event he was set to compete in from Thursday.
32-year-old Hatton, the highest-ranked British player to ever join LIV, will play for the new team led by Jon Rahm – and could debut in Mexico when the season opener begins at El Camaleon Golf Club on Friday.
Rahm joined LIV in a bombshell £450 million move last month, and will now reunite with his Europe Ryder Cup team partner, who were an all-action pairing as Europe beat the United States in last year’s edition.
The feisty duo quickly became known as ‘Team Angry’ for their outbursts in Rome – but now neither will be able to compete in the Ryder Cup until the ongoing merger negotiations between LIV owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are completed.
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Meanwhile, Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir said he wasn’t surprised by the move given LIV’s links to Hatton in the past.
“I reached out to Tyrrell’s manager and Tyrrell’s manager’s manager, who are both usually very good at getting back to me straight away and haven’t. They’re usually very quick to shoot down any false reporting and they haven’t on this occasion, so usually there’s no smoke without fire,” he said.
“When Jon Rahm announced that he would be joining LIV, we also reported on that occasion that his No 1 target to join him on his new team, which is called Legion XIII, was Hatton and now he has got his target.
“Hatton was his partner at the Ryder Cup. They led off Team Europe together on that Friday morning, won their points and they’re very close friends. They’re similar characters in terms of how they behave on the golf course and it appears that Rahm has got him on his team.”
Hatton had been the top target of LIV this off-season after Rahm’s move, having failed to sign two other Europe Ryder Cup stars in Tommy Fleetwood and Nicolai Højgaard. World number 39 Adrian Meronk of Poland is the other major signing made by LIV ahead of the new campaign.
The Telegraph reports that Hatton rejected an offer from LIV made last month, but agreed to an updated offer having also spoken to Rahm on the phone.
Hatton has won six times on the DP World Tour and once on the PGA Tour, but has not won an individual tournament in three years.
But he is in strong form after his 2023 campaign included finishing runner-up at the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
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