sport news DEREK LAWRENSON: Marmite Man Tyrrell Hatton gets up people's noses by simply ...

Tyrrell Hatton was at it again this weekend, making big headlines and dividing opinion with his outspoken comments.

Where do you stand on the Englishman — fed up with his extravagant theatrics and no-filter remarks, or thanking the heavens there’s at least someone speaking out in a game that is increasingly vanilla?

The 29-year-old certainly gets up people’s noses. Even Thomas Bjorn, the once-explosive Dane who Hatton played under at the 2018 Ryder Cup, appeared to have a pop on Sunday evening.

Hatton had cheerfully revealed he would like to demolish the par five 18th at Yas Links, a hole he had played in an aggregate of 16 shots in the second and third rounds of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Praising the new venue, Bjorn finished with a pithy remark seemingly aimed in Hatton’s direction: ‘I thought the second was a good hole, even though I had two sevens on it.’

Here’s my take: Hatton would be a lot less interesting if all there was to him was a golfer who spoke his mind only when blowing his top. In fact, the fascinating thing about him, given all his gesturing and melodrama on the course, is he doesn’t blow his top when he’s off it, no matter how he has scored.

As it happens, I was the only journalist who spoke to him on Saturday after he concluded with his nine. I even disturbed his lunch — if I’d done that in similar circumstances to Bjorn in his prime or Hatton’s hero Colin Montgomerie I’d have been frogmarched off the premises.

Far from ‘fuming’ or ‘furious’, Hatton was composed and courteous. ‘How’s your day?’ he asked, with a wry smile.

On the 18th, rather than a spur of the moment rant, his response was both witty and self-deprecating. ‘I think it’s one of the worst par fives I’ve seen in my life and, over the past two days, I’ve played it about as well as it was designed,’ he said.