'On edge' as usual, Tyrrell Hatton shoots a 66 at Augusta National in the 2nd round of the Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — In a normal tournament, Tyrrell Hatton is one of golf's most combustible personalities.

At the Masters, under the pressure of a major championship? Tick ... tick ... tick ...

“If anything, I am probably more on edge,” he said.

If so, Friday was proof that you can succeed at Augusta National even if you're wound a little tight. Hatton shot a 6-under 66, the lowest round of the Englishman's Masters career. Hatton hit all 18 greens in regulation, becoming the third player in the last 30 years to do that at this event.

The 66 was also the lowest round by any player this week until Rory McIlroy's 65 later Friday.

All of this on a golf course that can test a player's patience. So, it was posited to Hatton afterward, that must mean he's the most patient player in the field?

“I mean, quite clearly,” Hatton cracked.

Hatton's opening round included a gesture in which he jerked his fist upward, doing everything but extending his middle finger. (It was Robert MacIntyre who did that on his way to a first-round 80.)

Hatton had reason to be livid. His approach at No. 7 bounced off the flagstick and into a bunker. He made bogey and went on to shoot 74.

“I was absolutely headless on 7 yesterday,” Hatton said after Friday's round. “I had gone from essentially having a very good birdie opportunity to not only has it gone back in the bunker at speed, it’s gone onto the flat, and then it’s semi-buried itself.”

Hatton birdied No. 7 on Friday, along with six other holes, and it wasn't until a three-putt on 18 that he made a bogey. That stuck with him, of course.

“Today was a great day. Actually walking up 18 I was pretty confident that I couldn’t mess it up enough that I wouldn’t shoot my best score here. I mean, naturally I tried with a three-putt, so that was disappointing, to say the least,” Hatton said. “But yeah, I mean, I certainly would have taken 6 under before I went out.”

Hatton had never shot better than 68 at the Masters, and his best overall finish was a tie for ninth a couple of years ago. It'll be hard for him to win this year, trailing the leader McIlroy by eight strokes, but Hatton is only two behind second place and can keep trying to move up the leaderboard.

That could be eye-opening for viewers not familiar with the way he wears his heart on his sleeve.

“People, I guess, will either like how I am on the golf course or they won’t. I won’t lose sleep over it,” he said. “But maybe they see themselves in me and how they play golf at the weekend and how they react, but that’s for them to judge.”

Friday was a pretty good day for temperamental types. Wyndham Clark, who last year damaged a locker at U.S. Open host Oakmont, shot 68 on Friday. Even MacIntyre rebounded a bit to shoot 71.

“Right now I feel like I’m in a great place mentally. Calm, relaxed,” Clark said. “So when I tee it up I feel comfortable and just go play golf.”

Hatton was even better, and his round helped salvage a rough couple days for LIV Golf, with Bryson DeChambeau missing the cut and Jon Rahm barely making it.

Hatton could have had to sweat it out after his Thursday struggles, but now he can look forward to an even bigger stage, with a late tee time in the third round.

“I feel like my swing was getting in a better spot. So it was nice to hit the ball like I did today. Hopefully I can take that into the weekend,” he said. “I know it’s going to be tough, so the more greens I can hit and hopefully hit it on the right spots on those greens, then it will make my life a little bit easier.”

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Tyrrell Hatton, of England, watches his shot on the second hole during the second round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Tyrrell Hatton, of England, reacts after missing a putt on the 13th hole during the second round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Tyrrell Hatton, of England, walks on green on the 13th hole during the second round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Tyrrell Hatton, of England, reacts to his shot on the second hole during the second round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Federal safety investigators opened two days of hearings Tuesday to examine why the engine flew off a UPS cargo plane last year, causing a crash that killed 15 people, and why Boeing didn’t address an underlying flaw sooner.

The engine separated from the MD-11's wing as it accelerated down the runway Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport in November. The crash killed three pilots on the plane and 12 people on the ground. More were injured.

“Please know: Your loved ones are the reason we’re here. We want to find out what happened,” Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said as she addressed families during her opening remarks.

Separately, more details emerged as the NTSB released more than 2,000 pages of documents related to the disaster. The ill-fated plane was pressed into service after a fuel leak sidelined the original plane, investigators said, and the flight crew shared good-natured banter with the maintenance team during the second pre-flight inspection about “meeting again” so soon.

The hearings at the NTSB headquarters in Washington involve rounds of questions and answers among board members, investigators, and representatives of Boeing, UPS, the mechanics' union and other parties. The NTSB's final report likely won’t be ready until more than a year after the crash because it will look at every potential factor.

Here's what you should know:

The UPS plane, which was headed for Hawaii loaded with packages and fuel, had barely left the ground and cleared the airport fence when it crashed into several nearby Louisville businesses and created a massive fireball.

Dramatic photos the NTSB released after the crash showed the engine detaching and flying up and over the wing as flames erupted on the wing. The final images show the plane ablaze as it briefly gets airborne, leaving behind trails of smoke.

All MD-11s and DC-10s, a predecessor aircraft, were grounded after the crash. NTSB investigators said Tuesday that similar part flaws were found in three other UPS planes and a DC-10.

The Louisville disaster was reminiscent of a 1979 crash in Chicago involving a DC-10. The left engine also fell off in that crash, which killed 273 people and led to the worldwide grounding of 274 DC-10s.

The airliner returned to the skies because the NTSB determined that maintenance workers had damaged the plane that crashed while improperly using a forklift to reattach the engine. That meant the crash wasn’t caused by a fatal design flaw even though there had already been a number of accidents involving DC-10s.

But even at that point, the plane's manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas, raised concerns about the spherical bearing that helps hold the engines to the wings. McDonnell Douglas later merged with Boeing.

The NTSB said shortly after the Louisville crash that investigators had found cracks in some of the parts that held the engine to the wing. Those cracks hadn’t been caught in regular maintenance done on the plane, which raised questions about the adequacy of the maintenance schedule. The last time those key engine mount parts were examined closely was in October 2021, and the plane wasn’t due for another detailed inspection for roughly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings.

Boeing had documented in 2011 there were four previous failures on three different planes of a part that helps secure the MD-11’s engines to the wings, but at that point the plane manufacturer “determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition.”

The service bulletin that Boeing issued didn’t require plane owners to make repairs like an FAA airworthiness directive would, and the agency didn’t issue such a directive. At that point, Boeing just recommended replacing the bearings with a redesigned part that was less likely to fail.

Some MD-11s, a workhorse of the cargo fleet, are now back in the air after the FAA approved Boeing's plan to replace the spherical bearing on each aircraft and increase inspections.

FedEx resumed using the planes to deliver packages on May 10, but UPS has said it plans to retire its fleet of MD-11s. Western Global also uses MD-11s but hasn’t said what it plans to do.

Some experts speculated after the crash that the MD-11s might never fly again if the repair proved to be more expensive that it was worth in these older planes. But Boeing said it found a way to address the safety concerns simply by replacing the bearing and stepping up inspections.

FILE - This photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows UPS plane crash scene, Nov. 6, 2025 in Louisville, Ky. (NTSB via AP, File)

FILE - Plumes of smoke rise from the area of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry, File)