Tyrrell Hatton puts last season's struggles behind him with ideal start to Abu Dhabi Championship defence

For the lucky few, the first golf round of the new year often produces much-needed feelgood instead of all too familiar foreboding and certainly that was the case at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Thursday for Tyrrell Hatton who admitted to “mental struggles” during 2021.

Hatton, the defending champion, shot a first-round 66 at Yas Links to trail Scotland’s Scott Jamieson by three. For the 30-year-old from Buckinghamshire, suddenly it seemed as if the last 11 months had not happened at all.

"Obviously that win up the road from here [at the tournament’s previous venue, Abu Dhabi Golf Club] was an amazing way to start the year, but sadly from that moment on it didn't sort of get any better," Hatton said, reflecting how he fell from world No 5 to world No 22.

"I think it's more down to where I was at mentally to be honest. In 2020, I was working pretty hard in the gym throughout the whole year, in a much better place fitness-wise.

"I was more comfortable with my own skin and that just actually allowed me to go play better golf. But the back half of last year I was doing no training and wasn't that motivated to practice either. There was a combination of things. It's not always plain sailing.

"I flew out to Orlando on New Year's Eve and sort of tried to do a two-week boot camp of training and practise to try to just get back into it and find the motivation again.”

Rather like the idol of youth, Colin Montgomerie, Hatton will never be a prodigious worker on the range - “yeah, that is a work in progress” - relying on feel and his own natural competitive spirit to rise up the leaderboard. He is one of those players who when they click, snap into contention without any hesitation or, indeed, shame. Not that Hatton, the two-time Ryder Cup player, knows when the ducks will line up.

"I'm quite surprised how I scored today," Hatton said after a bogeyless morning featuring six birdies. "It didn't actually feel like I played that well, I just scored really well.

"Everyone should really be coming into the new year without high expectations purely because you don't know where your game is at because you haven't played any tournament golf for a while. I don't think it's a bad thing. Sometimes it helps."

Playing partner Rory McIlroy might testify to that. The world No 8 arrived in the UAE with so much confidence after flushing it in the build-up, but could only manage a level-par 72 that left him outside the top 70 and in danger of missing the cut. He was in good company as world No 2 Collin Morikawa also faces a fight to make the weekend after his 73.

Fine pro that he is, Jamieson would still not have anticipated being nine and 10 clear of that garlanded pair, regardless of his course record 63. The 38-year-old, who is based in Florida only hung on to his playing rights on the DP World Tour - formerly known as the European Tour - in his last event of last year, courtesy of a tie for 13th in nearby Dubai.

“I just missed out on a top 10 there and was pretty comfortable where my game was,” he said. “I just had to hope that it turned up again eight weeks later. When I started practising a couple of weeks ago I kept telling myself that I had to hit the ground running here because it could ultimately dictate how my season goes. There is an $8m prize fund here this week, another $8m at the Desert Classic next week and you don’t want to feel like you’re miles behind.”

Jamieson is one clear of Norway’s Viktor Hovland, with Belgium’s Thomas Pieters in third on seven-under. Another Englishman in Ian Poulter is alongside Hatton, in the group in fourth.