Padraig Harrington’s claim about LIV players rings true as Tyrrell Hatton comes under fire on DP World Tour

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Padraig Harrington hit the headlines in April after making an interesting claim about LIV Golf stars playing at the Masters Tournament.

Harrington was surprised by the level of expletives from LIV players during the year’s first major championship at Augusta National.

“A side-effect which I was surprised about. There was quite a bit on the Masters last week. There was an awful lot of extra expletives from LIV players,” Harrington said. “Clearly, LIV players don’t get fined for expletives, and I am not saying they’re encouraged, but they’re certainly not discouraged from doing it.”

LIV, unlike the PGA Tour, doesn’t fine their players for swearing on the course. Therefore, when LIV players return for the majors and DP World Tour events, acclimatisation is required.

And one player who is perhaps struggling to conform to the longstanding rules is Tyrrell Hatton.

Tyrrell Hatton proves Padraig Harrington’s LIV Golf point

Hatton is known for letting his emotions get the better of him, and incidents occurred before he made the move to LIV.

However, the third round of the DP World Tour Championship saw the Englishman’s behaviour reach new lows.

Hatton lost his cool on the 4th hole after missing a short putt before using poor language on the 10th after a birdie attempt shaved the cup.

Hatton went on to snap his club on the 14th to cap a forgetful day. And it comes as no surprise to see the 33-year-old heavily criticised.

Is LIV Golf impacting Tyrrell Hatton’s behaviour?

• READ MORE: Andrew Coltart has theory over why Tyrrell Hatton often seems angry after another outburst at the DP World Tour Championship

Considering LIV players are given more freedom, perhaps Hatton can get away with much more in the breakaway league.

Foul language, breaking clubs, and petulance appear to be part of the fabric of LIV and the Englishman’s poor behaviour could well be reinforced rather than criticised.

After Harrington’s comments in April, witnessing a LIV player eventually be called out at a DP World Tour event doesn’t come as a shock, and Hatton was always going to be the prime contender.

“It’s time for a change, I’m afraid,” said long-time Sky Sports commentator Ewen Murray.

“That’s a terrible influence on the next generation. I’m sorry to say it; I’m his biggest supporter. We’ve all had our moments, but he’s having too many of them.”