PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — He curses out loud, he slams his clubs, he castigates himself — and his ball.
All sometimes on the same hole.
Tyrrell Hatton, a combustible English golfer, can divide opinion with his on-course conduct but few can argue about the quality of his game.
And this week at Royal Portrush, he’s making another run at a major championship.
Hatton shot 2-under 69 in the second round of the British Open on Friday and, on 5-under par, was three strokes off the clubhouse lead held by Brian Harman.
It comes just a few weeks after he was tied for the lead on Sunday at the U.S. Open when teeing off on the 71st hole, only for a bad break to derail his challenge.
Maybe, then, his seemingly erratic behavior doesn’t do him too much harm.
“Although from the outside it looks like I’m completely gone,” Hatton said, “in my own mind I still know where I’m at.”
Like at the par-4 14th hole Friday when he missed the green with a lob wedge. He screamed at himself and pointed at the slopes around the green of this grand old layout off the North Atlantic.
Like on the par-4 18th hole when he hit a drive down the middle, only to set off down the fairway glaring at his 3-wood.
“I’m not going to change,” Hatton said. “It’s just how I am, how I play.”
So, he isn’t for changing?
“I’m 33,” Hatton replied, smiling. “I think that ship has sailed, to be honest.”
Hatton can go too far.
In November, he was fined by the European tour and rebuked by a TV commentator after he cursed loudly after shots and pressed his iron so hard into the ground that it snapped at the World Tour Championship in Dubai.
“It’s time for change, I’m afraid,” Ewen Murray, a commentator on British broadcaster Sky Sports, said. "That’s a terrible influence on the next generation.”
This doesn’t look like it will happen.
Hatton’s chuntering and general on-course antics can be box-office viewing at times, especially when tournaments are at their most tense and he’s in contention.
“I’ve always said, as long as it’s not affecting my playing partners,” he said. “Sure, there’s been times I’ve probably gone too far and you comment on a putt when they’re putting on the same line and then it maybe affects where they’re hitting their putt, stuff like that.
“I think that’s part of what you learn as you get more experience, so I do try and avoid that kind of thing. But yeah, as long as I’m not affecting the other guys, then I’m not going to change.”
What he hopes will change is the result compared to last month’s U.S. Open. In a five-way tie for the lead at Oakmont and in with a shout of his first major title, Hatton hit what he thought was a good drive to the right — only for the ball to settle in knotty rough on a downslope above a greenside bunker. He made bogey and wound up tying for fourth, four back of winner J.J. Spaun.
“I know it wasn’t the ending of how I’d like it to have played out, but how I dealt with everything there and even out on the golf course with the most pressure, I still feel like I hit some really good golf shots,” Hatton said.
“I’d love to have another chance to win.”
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Tyrrell Hatton of England plays his tee shot on the 1st during the second round of the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Tyrrell Hatton of England gestures after putting on the 10th green during the first round of the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Tyrrell Hatton of England chips onto the 7th green during the second round of the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
LOS GATOS, Calif. (AP) — Like many retirement communities, The Terraces serves as a tranquil refuge for a nucleus of older people who no longer can travel to faraway places or engaging in bold adventures.
But they can still be thrust back to their days of wanderlust and thrill-seeking whenever caretakers at the community in Los Gatos, California, schedule a date for residents — many of whom are in their 80s and 90s — to take turns donning virtual reality headsets.
Within a matter of minutes, the headsets can transport them to Europe, immerse them in the ocean depths or soar them on breathtaking hang-gliding expeditions while they sit by each other. The selection of VR programming was curated by Rendever, a company that has turned a sometimes isolating form of technology into a catalyst for better cognition and social connections in 800 retirement communities in the United States and Canada.
A group of The Terraces residents who participated in a VR session earlier this year found themselves paddling their arms alongside their chairs as they swam with a pod of dolphins while watching one of Rendever's 3D programs. “We got to go underwater and didn't even have to hold our breath!” exclaimed 81-year-old Ginny Baird following the virtual submersion.
During a session featuring a virtual ride in a hot-air balloon, one resident gasped, “Oh my God!” Another shuddered, “It's hard to watch!”
The Rendever technology can also be used to virtually take older adults back to the places where they grew up as children. For some, it will be the first time they've seen their hometowns in decades.
A virtual trip to her childhood neighborhood in New York City's Queens borough helped sell Sue Livingstone, 84, on the merits of the VR technology even though she still is able to get out more often than many residents of The Terraces, which is located in Silicon Valley about 55 miles south of San Francisco.
“It isn't just about being able to see it again, it's about all the memories that it brings back,” Livingstone said. “There are a few people living here who never really leave their comfort zones. But if you could entice them to come down to try out a headset, they might find that they really enjoy it.”
Adrian Marshall, The Terraces' community life director, said that once word about a VR experience spreads from one resident to another, more of the uninitiated typically become curious enough to try it out — even if it means missing out on playing Mexican Train, a dominoes-like board game that's popular in the community.
“It turns into a conversation starter for them. It really does connect people,” Marshall said of Rendever's VR programming. “It helps create a human bridge that makes them realize they share certain similarities and interests. It turns the artificial world into reality.”
Rendever, a privately owned company based in Somerville, Massachusetts, hopes to build upon its senior living platform with a recent grant from the National Institutes of Health that will provide nearly $4.5 million to study ways to reduce social isolation among seniors living at home and their caregivers.
Some studies have found VR programming presented in a limited viewing format can help older people maintain and improve cognitive functions, burnish memories and foster social connections with their families and fellow residents of care facilities. Experts say the technology may be useful as an addition to and not a replacement for other activities.
“There is always a risk of too much screen time," Katherine “Kate” Dupuis, a neuropsychologist and professor who studies aging issues at Sheridan College in Canada, said. “But if you use it cautiously, with meaning and purpose, it can be very helpful. It can be an opportunity for the elderly to engage with someone and share a sense of wonder.”
VR headsets may be an easier way for older people to interact with technology instead of fumbling around with a smartphone or another device that requires navigating buttons or other mechanisms, said Pallabi Bhowmick, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who is examining the use of VR with older adults.
“The stereotypes that older adults aren’t willing to try new technology needs to change because they are willing and want to adapt to technologies that are meaningful to them,” Bhowmick said. "Besides helping them to relieve stress, be entertained and connect with other people, there is an intergenerational aspect that might help them build their relationships with younger people who find out they use VR and say, ‘Grandpa is cool!’"
Rendever CEO Kyle Rand's interest in helping his own grandmother deal with the emotional and mental challenges of aging pushed him down a path that led him to cofound the company in 2016 after studying neuroengineering at Duke University.
“What really fascinates me about humans is just how much our brain depends on social connection and how much we learn from others,” Rand said. “A group of elderly residents who don't really know each other that well can come together, spend 30 minutes in a VR experience together and then find themselves sitting down to have lunch together while continuing a conversation about the experience.”
It's a large enough market that another VR specialist, Dallas-based Mynd Immersive, competes against Rendever with services tailored for senior living communities.
Besides helping create social connections, the VR programming from both Rendever and Mynd has been employed as a possible tool for potentially slowing down the deleterious effects of dementia. That's how another Silicon Valley retirement village, the Forum, sometimes uses the technology.
Bob Rogallo, a Forum resident with dementia that has rendered him speechless, seemed to be enjoying taking a virtual hike through Glacier National Park in Montana as he nodded and smiled while celebrating his 83rd birthday with his wife of 61 years.
Sallie Rogallo, who doesn't have dementia, said the experience brought back fond memories of the couple's visits to the same park during the more than 30 years they spent cruising around the U.S. in their recreational vehicle.
“It made me wish I was 30 years younger so I could do it again,” she said of the virtual visit to Glacier. “This lets you get out of the same environment and either go to a new place or visit places where you have been.”
In another session at the Forum, 93-year-old Almut Schultz laughed with delight while viewing a virtual classical music performance at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado and later seemed to want to play with a puppy frolicking around in her VR headset.
“That was quite a session we had there,” Schultz said with a big grin after she took off her headset and returned to reality.
Rendever CEO Kyle Rand is pictured at Salesforce Park in San Francisco on June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Jim Holtshouse and his son, Mike Holtshouse, watch video through Rendever virtual-reality headsets at the Forum at Rancho San Antonio retirement community in Cupertino, Calif. on June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Bob Rogallo watches video through a Rendever virtual-reality headset at the Forum at Rancho San Antonio retirement community in Cupertino, Calif. on June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Mike Holtshouse and his father, Jim Holtshouse, watch video through Rendever virtual-reality headsets at the Forum at Rancho San Antonio retirement community in Cupertino, Calif. on June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Jim Holtshouse watches video through a Rendever virtual-reality headset at the Forum at Rancho San Antonio retirement community in Cupertino, Calif. on June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
