Tyrrell Hatton hoping to impress in front of home crowd at JCB Golf and Country Club in Staffordshire

Hatton was tied on 13-under-par with Jon Rahm at the 18th hole at the JCB Golf and Country Club near Uttoxeter last year, but a three-putt bogey handed his Legion XIII teammate a maiden LIV Golf series victory.

Returning to the Staffordshire course this week, Hatton is hoping to impress and feed off the home crowd. 

He said: “The crowds were brilliant last year, certainly all of the players enjoyed having that atmosphere and I am sure that this year will be no different. There will be a lot of support out there.

“For me personally I have friends and family coming, so I am looking forward to playing in front of them and hopefully I can play well.

“It would be nice to go one spot better than last year, but that will be a tough ask.”

Hatton arrives at the course near Uttoxeter fresh from a tied-16th finish at The Open Championship.

The 33-year-old has enjoyed a strong year at the four major championships, having also finished tied-fourth at the US Open and tied-14th at the Masters. 

Asked about his performances at the major championships with the Ryder Cup approaching in September, he added: “You always want to play well in the majors, but I guess this year they had more importance for me. 

“The US Open was a standout in terms of performance, but it has been nice to be a bit higher up on the leaderboards this year.”

Hatton and Rahm’s Legion XIII team lead the way in the LIV Golf team standings with four regular season events remaining (including the tournament in Staffordshire).

Defending champion Rahm expects to be competing with Hatton more often for titles. 

Speaking on his win at JCB last year, he said: “It’s always going to be bitter sweet because I don’t know if there have been many cases where two teammates have been going at each other for the individual title and then go on to win the team title as well.

“You never want to see a teammate and friend make a mistake to win. In a little way as much as I like that I won here, it is not something that I can celebrate in that sense because it was in such unusual circumstances.

“As we get better, I think it is something that will happen more often.”