World number 17 golfer joins Bucks club

The current 17^th best golfer in the world, Tyrrell Hatton, has joined his local golf club, Stoke Park Country Club, as a member.

The manager of the golf club has said compared Hatton’s membership with the Tottenham Hotspur footballer Harry Kane playing for his local club.

Hatton, 25, last year secured his first European Tour victory in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship title, firing a course record-equaling 62 in his third round on the St Andrews Old Course. He was also runner up in last year’s Scottish Open, and enjoyed two Major top-10 finishes, at the Open Championship and the US PGA.

Tyrrell Hatton during a prictice round prior to the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates on November 16, 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Hatton said: “I’m really excited to join Stoke Park; the facilities are the best in the area, which will only help me get better prepared for my tournaments on the PGA and European Tour.”

Stoke Park’s director of golf, Stuart Collier, added: “Naturally we are delighted to welcome Tyrell to our club and hope that he not only enjoys the golf course – which we believe is one of the finest parkland courses in the country – but also avails himself of the other facilities here.

“As he lives not very far from the club we’ve all been following his recent progress with interest anyway, but now we have extra reason to give him our support, as he’s – as the song goes – ‘one of our own’ [sung by Tottenham fans about Harry Kane].”

Hatton will be walking the fairways of the renovated golf course at Stoke Park, which reopened recently after a winter of work on the second nine holes, the Alison course. The work undertaken included improving the definition of the bunkering, which had, understandably, deteriorated since the course was first laid out in 1908, the addition of new tees and an extensive reworking of the water features on holes 12 and 17, plus some cosmetic tweaks to the water hazard on 16.