'LIV Isn’t The Mortal Enemy It Was Originally Seen As' - Tyrrell Hatton Admits Relief Over Lighter Reaction To LIV Golf Move Than Early Players Received

Tyrrell Hatton believes the reaction he received following his move to the LIV Golf League was nowhere near as bad as those who went before him and suggested time has been a great healer in terms of people realizing LIV "isn’t the mortal enemy it was originally seen as."

The Englishman swapped the PGA Tour for LIV Golf in January 2024 after wondering whether his career had "gone a bit stale" following no wins in three years.

Mildly concerned about his career prospects as well as his chances of making the upcoming Ryder Cup in New York, despite playing a significant role in Europe's home success over the USA in Italy a few months prior, Hatton decided a change of tour was necessary and ultimately opted to team up with his "great friend" and Team Europe peer, Jon Rahm.

Rahm - who had not long moved himself - was keen for Hatton to come over and join Legion XIII, while support from his Ryder Cup teammates and Rory McIlroy in particular certainly eased the 33-year-old's doubts somewhat.

Before signing on the dotted line, though, Hatton knew there was so much to consider. On the one hand, there was the lifetime financial security for not only himself but also his family. Then there was the freedom to choose his own schedule - not that it would mean playing less, far from it.

On the other side of the coin, he wondered what the reaction from the golfing public and his fellow pros might be as well as how many chances to compete at the Majors he would lose.

Hatton ultimately decided to "go for it" and was glad to see the hostile reception many of the early pros had received was not reserved for him, too.

He said: “I think I was lucky that by the time I ‘went over to the other side’, the animosity and bad-feeling over LIV had sort of tailed off.

“The guys who were in the original batch of LIV golfers - the likes of [Phil] Mickelson, [Bryson] DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, even Ian Poulter, Westwood, and Sergio Garcia - copped far more of a backlash.

“They were being called money-grabbers, and even traitors. But even though I came in for a bit of flak for supposedly selling my soul to the highest - I swear that’s how one troll put it - it wasn’t too bad. I’ve had worse stuff to deal with. A lot worse.

“And in the year or so that has passed since I joined LIV, I think there is far more of an acceptance that it isn’t the mortal enemy it was originally seen as. The desire for us to get along, and to mix, has grown massively.

“I can honestly say that I didn’t feel any resentment towards the original LIV guys. For me, it was more a case of being curious about whether they knew what they were getting themselves into. Taking a step into the unknown is always a bit scary, no matter how much money you’re getting paid for doing it."

Off the back of his debut campaign, in which the Englishman won his first title in over three years at LIV Golf Nashville, Hatton freely admits now he wasn't wholly convinced on his choice at the start but said the reasons for joining LIV far outnumbered remaining in the status quo.

Outlining some of the reasons he ultimately decided to cross over, Hatton said: "Even when I joined, I still had a few reservations. But financial security is not something you can sniff at, and I felt the positives far outweighed any negatives, especially as there was obviously a growing sense that the two sides needed to work out a peace deal that would work for both of them. Both of us, I should say.

“And yeah, the money is a big deal - although not as big as some of the figures I heard quoted. The actual amount I was paid will remain between me, wife, my management team, and the taxman!

“But the team element of LIV and the fact that you had more control over where and when you played - away from the actual LIV events obviously - were other things that appealed to me.

“I still took a full week to make my mind up after Dubai last year, because I knew it was going to be a difficult balancing act if I did join LIV. There’s still lots of stuff I want to achieve in the game, and I absolutely hated that week, trying to weigh up all the pros and cons.

“In the end, I thought, 'go for it.' It’s a new challenge and maybe that’s what you need at this stage of your career. Remember, I hadn’t won on the DP World Tour since Abu Dhabi in 2021 - three years and counting, and you wonder whether you might have gone a bit stale."

A new start in the LIV Golf League gave Hatton the mental refresh he had desired and led to significant results - namely, the 2024 LIV Golf Nashville title. The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the 2025 Dubai Desert Classic prizes followed.

And after finally removing the monkey from his back, so to speak, Hatton has become one of the world's form players and is quietly fancied to do well at the Majors this term as well as being a near certainty for Luke Donald's Ryder Cup dozen at Bethpage.

Not that Hatton will be reducing the number of events he appears in as attempts to keep all the relevant plates in his career spinning.

Referencing his move to LIV, Hatton said: “There was a lot going for it. But you can forget the stuff about playing far less golf. I actually ended up playing 27 events by the end of last year. I’ve only ever played more than that once in my entire career, and that was way back in 2014. And I only played 28 then."