It was the third day of the 2024 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Be it the inspiration from the absolute beauty that his father carded back in Carnoustie or the grit to prove himself, Tyrrell Hatton pulled off a remarkable third round at the Old Course. Little did the LIV Golf Pro know that his scintillating performance at the iconic course in St. Andrews would fail to impress many fans.

The English LIV Golf pro dished out a total of nine birdies, six of which came in the back nine. Moreover, he was also able to card one of the same at the layout, which is dubbed the ‘hardest hole in golf’, the par-4, 17th, along with an eagle at the par-5, 5th. By doing so, he carded 11 under and was able to equal the course record (Ross Fisher in 2017) for the par-72 course, all the while topping the scoreboard with a one-shot lead going into Sunday.

But as fate would have it, many in the community weren’t awed at all by the record-equalling performance. Surprisingly enough, his 11-under par that allowed him to total a figure of 22-under 194 after Saturday led to the fans dubbing the ‘Home of Golf’ as nothing short of an easy course.

LIV Golf Pro Hatton’s ‘record-equalling’ moment gets ignored by fans

The current top three golfers on the leaderboard, including Hatton, Niclas Colsaerts, and Tom Vaillant, boast an impressive scorecard over the three days of play. Neither of the three, interestingly, carded a figure of more than 69, and even that happened one time when Valliant played the Old Course on Friday. The LIV Golf Pro, meanwhile, teed off on Carnoustie on the first two days while putting up a score of 65-68 over the two days.

A couple of fans, after seeing the scores of the top-placed golfers on the event at the three Links courses, couldn’t help but comment about the same: “These courses are playing so easy it’s crazy. The scoring has been insane at this event,” and “These courses just don’t stand up to the top players anymore.” Even Colsaerts and Vaillant scoring 65 and 64, respectively, at Kingsbarn failed to impress the fans.

Many top golfers, including the likes of Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Robert MacIntyre, had teed off from the Old Course at St. Andrews on Saturday. And out of the five athletes, none of them reached the figure of 70 on the par-72 course. Rahm scored 7-under 65, Fleetwood made 67 (-5), Fitzpatrick put up 69 (-3) and MacIntyre carded a 7-under 65. Needless to state the obvious, some users on X decided to bash the Old Course as well as the DP World Tour. One commented, “St Andrews is not a championship course anymore!! The Europoor tour sucks, @flushingitgolf!!“ while another person agreed, “St. Andrew’s is not even close to a championship golf course anymore. It is a pitch and putt course these days. I said what I said.”

Remember the golf ball rollback policy? Well, a fan mentioned how it has become as important as ever when they reacted with the comment, “Golf badly needs a rollback to survive. Going to be unwatchable dreck going forward otherwise.” As per the policy, the regulatory authorities will test the spheroids at a swing speed of 125 mph, as opposed to the 120 mph swing speed test at present. What’s more, it will be done so at an 11-degree angle and a 2,200 rpm spin. This would make any ball that goes beyond the 317-yard limit be deemed non-conforming to the R&A and USGA regulations.

How does this affect the golfers? It would basically reduce the average distance on the men’s circuit. Although the golfer only boasted an average distance of 308.2 yards on LIV Golf, the new policy would undoubtedly lead to every ball being affected, thereby decreasing his distance as well. Truly unfortunate for the hard hitters! Regardless of the backlash he and the course received, the LIV Golf Pro would surely look to clinch the top spot and claim the title for himself.