Tyrrell Hatton rues late miss as Simon Thornton gets inside top 50

Pre-tournament favourite Tyrrell Hatton bemoaned his failure to take advantage of an "unreal" shot in the opening round of the Betfred British Masters.

Hatton looked set to end the day just a shot off the lead after covering his first 17 holes at The Belfry in four under par and hitting a superb recovery from a greenside bunker on the difficult 18th.

However, the Ryder Cup star then missed the short par putt and vented his frustration with his caddie before signing for a three-under-par 69, leaving him two shots behind compatriot Paul Waring and France's Jeong weon Ko.

"I’m not going to change at 32," admitted Hatton, who is playing on the DP World Tour after appealing against the sanctions imposed for playing LIV Golf events without permission.

"I was 22 when I started out on the DP World Tour so, if I’ve not changed in 10 years, then I don’t think I can change. I’m just reacting to things in the moment.

"Sure, there are times when I wish I didn’t say certain words and some things come out that you wish you could take back. But at the end of the day it’s just a reaction. I guess I can’t apologise for being myself.

"Sure, there are times when I wish I didn't say certain words and some things come out that you wish you could take back. But at the end of the day it’s just a reaction. I guess I can’t apologise for being myself."

"I played some pretty good golf today, missed pretty much every putt I looked at and don’t think I could have scored much worse to be honest."

Asked about the frustration of missing his par putt on the last, Hatton added: "You’d rather hit it out to 20 or 30 feet and two putt. You hit an unreal bunker shot and then miss from three-and-a-half feet, it’s annoying."

Ireland's Simon Thronton's level-par round