To the victor goes the spoils, and in the case of Tyrrell Hatton, those spoils were plentiful. In holding on under the lights to win a six-man playoff at the Turkish Airlines Open on Sunday afternoon/evening, the 28-year-old Englishman earned the $2 million first-place check with the event being part of the European Tour’s lucrative Rolex Series events.
Given the unique circumstances of the victory, however, the discrepancy between what Hatton took home and what the fivesome of runners-up—Erik Van Rooyen, Kurt Kitayama, Matthias Schwab, Victor Perez and Benjamin Hebert—at Montgomerie Maxx Royal course in Antalya, Turkey, made was particularly pronounced. A solo second-place finish at the tournament was worth $828,000, but because you had to add the prize money for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth places, then divide the aggregate among the five players, the amount was diluted to $430,589.98.
In other words, Hatton, the playoff winner, earned $1.5 million more than the other five vanquished playoff foes.
Hatton shot a Sunday 67 to get into the playoff after starting the final round three strokes back of Schwab, the 54-hole leader. Hatton then made a chip-in birdie on the par-5 18th to be one of three players to get through the first hole of sudden death. A par on the second trip to the 18th and a birdie on the third kept him alive, until finally a par while playing the hole for a fourth time in the playoff gave him the victory.
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