Hatton eyeing third straight Dunhill crown

ST ANDREWS, United Kingdom: England’s Tyrell Hatton was just one shot off the lead at the end of the second round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Golf Championship on Friday as he looked to become the first player since Tiger Woods to win the same European Tour event three years in a row.

The Ryder Cup winner shot 66 at Carnoustie, the venue for this year’s British Open, and widely regarded as the most difficult of the three Scottish courses that are all used during each edition of the Dunhill.

Four birdies and an eagle on the par-five 14th left Hatton on a halfway total of eight under par in this £3.8 million ($4.9 million, 4.3 million euros) pro-am event.

But it will be Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard and Italy’s Andrea Pavan who head into the weekend atop the leaderboard thanks to rounds of 65 and 63 respectively at Kingsbarns.

Woods won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational from 2005 to 2007 in Akron, Ohio but the tournament was a joint PGA and European Tour event.

Having helped Europe win the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National near Paris last week, where Woods failed to score a point for the United States, Hatton has returned to a set-up he knows well.