Tyrrell Hatton is set to return to DP World Tour action for the first time since joining LIV Golf when the British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo gets underway at The Belfry on August 29.
The Englishman joined the Saudi-backed circuit earlier this year for a reported fee of $65 million, with Hatton teaming up with fellow Ryder Cup star Jon Rahm on his Legion XIII, the first new team to join the LIV Golf since its inception in 2022.
Since signing, the former Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winner has helped the team climb to second on the league’s team standings, while also picking up an individual victory at LIV Golf Nashville, which was his first professional title since winning at Abu Dhabi Golf Club in 2021.
His last appearance on the DP World Tour came earlier this year at the Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club, but he will now return to golf’s Global Circuit at the British Masters, securing his place in the field as a Rolex Series tournament winner between 2020-2024.
While the likes of Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson resigned their membership from the DP World Tour after joining LIV Golf, Hatton, along with Dubai resident Adrian Meronk and Jon Rahm, opted to remain a member.
This is likely due to the fact that you must be a DP World Tour member to be eligible for Ryder Cup selection.
After making the switch to LIV Golf shortly after the Dubai Desert Classic, Hatton has been picking up fines and one-week suspensions each time he plays a LIV event. With the LIV Golf schedule featuring 14 events across the globe, it was assumed the likes of Rahm and Hatton would have to serve a 14-week ban following LIV’s final event of the season in September.
That would have made it almost impossible to retain DP World Tour membership, with members having to play a minimum of four tournaments per season.
But the DP World Tour’s new CEO, Guy Kinnings, cleared that up in April as he discovered defectors could serve their bans in the LIV rest weeks throughout the year, even if they had no intention of playing those events.
With Hatton in the field next week, one must assume that he has paid all fines that are due to the DP World Tour, while also entering himself into their events and serving his suspension to ensure he is eligible for the closing stretch of the season, which includes the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and DP Word Tour Championship, Dubai.
If he is to make the DP World Tour Play-Offs in the UAE, Hatton must be inside the top 70 players on the Race to Dubai Rankings the week prior to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and inside top 50 ahead of the DP World Tour Championship. The 32-year-old currently lies in 82nd place on the season-long standings.
The other possibility is that instead of paying his fines, Hatton and his team have managed to negotiate a deal with DP World Tour chiefs to enable him to play, with the DP World and PGA Tour currently in negotiations with Public Investment Fund (PIF) to heal the divisions in the game.
Have those negotiations between golf’s biggest Tours played into Hatton’s hands in allowing him to escape fines, while the DP World Tour, in return, gets one of its biggest stars back playing in the final events of the season? For now, we aren’t entirely sure as nothing has been said by either party and it will likely remain on the down low for the time being to avoid ruffling any feathers of those that stayed loyal to the DP World Tour.
What we do know is that Hatton’s return to DP World Tour action couldn’t have been more perfectly timed, with the qualification process for the 2025 European Ryder Cup team beginning at the British Masters. The six-time DP World Tour winner will no doubt be looking to get off to a fast start in front of Captain Luke Donald, as he looks to add to his three outings in the biennial contest between Europe and the USA.
