The Punter's De-brief: Hatton lands the hattrick at St Andrews

• Long odds-on Mitchell comes up short again

• Read my Open de France preview here

• Read my Black Desert Championship preview here

After a course-record equalling 61 around St Andrews on Saturday, Tyrrell Hatton began Sunday's fourth and final round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship leading Nicolas Colsaerts by a stroke and trading at just 1.434/9.

He kicked off the round nicely enough, birdying the second and the fifth but after a run of four pars, he made the turn in only two-under and he was still just one ahead of Colsaerts with fellow LIV player, David Puig, up into a tie for second.

The Spaniard, who had been matched at as high as 690.0689/1 was matched at a low of 5.69/2 but just as he'd done the week before in Madrid, where he was matched at a low of just 1.331/3, he fell away on the back nine. Eventually finishing tied for fourth.

Hatton eased three strokes clear with back-to-back birdies at 10 and 11 and he was matched at just 1.071/14 as it was starting to look like a done deal, but the drama was far from over.

When Hatton made a mess of the 13^th, recording a double-bogey six, Colsaerts, who had been matched at 1.875/6 on Saturday when he led the tournament by five, closed to within two, despite bogeying the hole himself and two holes later the two were tied.

Tyrrell followed the double at 13 with a bogey at the par five 14^th and Colsaerts drew alongside the Englishman with a birdie at the 15^th.

While all that was going on, Tommy Fleetwood, who was matched at a low of 5.69/2, got to within two of the lead with a birdie at the 14^th but he could only par his way in after that and it was left to Colsaerts and Hatton to fight out the finish.

Both men made pars at 16 and 17 before Hatton sealed the deal with this brilliant birdie at the last.

Every shot of @TyrrellHatton's 72nd hole to win a record third title at St Andrews #dunhilllinks pic.twitter.com/zgibB7YIVC

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 6, 2024

Hatton was generally a 16.015/1 chance before the off, having drifted from an opening show of 13.012/1 and he was trading at just over 4/15.00 after rounds one and two.

He equalled the course record around St Andrews on Saturday, the tournament scoring record of -24 that he set in 2017 and he's the first man to win the title three times.

Yu off the mark in Mississippi

Over on the PGA Tour, Keith Mitchell began the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship by a stroke, but playing partner, Beau Hossler, started round four much the better and he was matched at just 1.875/6 early before bogeys at 10 and 14 halted his progress.

Mitchell looked far and away the most likely victor with just two holes to play, and he was matched at just 1.330/100 after a quite brilliant up-and-down at 16 saw him head to the 17^th tee with a one stroke lead of Kevin Yu and Hossler but he didn't even make it to extra time!

Hossler drained a birdie putt at 17 from just inside 20 feet to draw alongside Mitchell and Yu birdied the last to get to 23-under-par too.

After a poor drive on 18 by Hossler, that saw him stymied behind a tree, it looked like Yu and Mitchell would fight out a playoff to decide the title, but Hossler got up-and-down for par from 130 yards and Mitchell three putted for bogey from just 34 feet!

Hossler was matched at a low of 1.84/5 but it was advantage Yu after Hossler had found sand with his approach at the first extra hole and Yu had stiffed his to inside six feet.

To his credit, Hossler played a brilliant long bunker shot to tap in range, but it made no difference when Yu rolled in his birdie putt to seal the deal.

Birdie to force a playoff.
Birdie to win in a playoff.@KevinGolfYu came up clutch for his winning moment @Sanderson_Champ pic.twitter.com/lzU697WGDl

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 6, 2024

Matched at as high as 170.0169/1, Yu had gone off at around 140.0139/1 and that hadn't looked huge given his current form figures read MC-MC-73-52-MC.

Trailing by two, Yu was trading at around 7.613/2 after 54 holes.

Easy Kingsbarns not the place to be on a windy day

The Alfred Dunhill Links is played over three different courses in rotation over the first three days before those that make the cut fight out the finish at St Andrews and Kingsbarns is the easiest of three played, but it was very interesting to see how tough it played this year on Friday.

Kingsbarns averaged 67.88 on Thursday in benign conditions but only 70.05 on Friday, even though that was where all the elite players played that day.

Carnoustie, which is the toughest of the three courses encountered, averaged 70.66 in the calm weather on Thursday, which was almost three strokes more than Kingsbarns, but it only averaged 71.05 one Friday, exactly a stroke more than Kingsbarns on Friday, so even though it's the easiest of the three tracks played, it's not the best course to play in the wind.

Watch for the Wednesday afternoon drifts

I've mentioned this before but thought it worth mentioning again.

I was quite keen on Chandler Phillips at the Sanderson Farms Championship, and I wanted to include him in the Find Me a 100 Winner column.

I waited until Wednesday morning to publish the column, but Phillips was still trading at double-figure price, so I left him out but by Wednesday night he'd been matched for a couple of grand at 100.099/1 and above and he'd even been matched at as high as 130.0129/1!

Whenever you place your bets, it's always worth checking in again late on Wednesday as some of the drifts are just ridiculous.

Now read my Open de France preview here

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