Rozner: Golf decorum in the eye of the beholder

Let us begin with the necessary qualifier, that Tyrrell Hatton is one of my favorite players on the planet.

The 29-year-old Englishman is No. 8 in the world and No. 2 in the Race to Dubai, with a pair of wins on the European Tour in the last six months.

He's as tough as they come, he's entertaining and he's a bargain at 45-1 to win the Masters.

But Hatton is a feisty fellow, not averse to throwing clubs and displaying his anger on the golf course. To be clear, this in no way offends me, even though it's frowned upon in golf.

It is, however, a sport. In sports you compete. When you compete and you don't succeed, you get angry. When you get angry, most of us display the anger. Throwing a club is like breaking a hockey stick.

This is cheered in hockey and mocked in golf for reasons I will never fully understand. Better to get it out of your system than to carry it into the next shot or onto the next hole.

But a funny thing happened at Match Play in Austin two weeks ago. Hatton threw clubs in both of the first two rounds. Yet, he was not criticized at all by the announcers.

Instead, they all laughed.

From Nick Faldo to Paul Azinger to Dan Hicks to Rich Lerner to David Feherty to Gary Koch, to a man they giggled and joked about it, celebrating the wacky Hatton and the crazy bounces he got after tossing an iron.

Fine by me. Hatton is filled to the brim with personality, the rare golfer who lets you know exactly how he's feeling. Golf could use more personality.

It's just the double standard that escapes those who jump on Jon Rahm for something as innocuous as slapping his leg with his hand after a shot that doesn't please him.

Each time he shakes his head, questions himself audibly, drops a club in his backswing, yells at himself or, yes, slaps his leg - slaps his leg? - the announcers immediately tell us how Rahm needs to control his temper or he will never reach his full potential.

But Hatton throws clubs and it's all grits and giggles for the better part of a week.

This will be on full display again at the Masters, where pomp, circumstance and decorum are the order of the day.

Hatton will be celebrated and Rahm will be criticized - and the hypocrisy will certainly never be noted on the broadcast.

Rahm is No. 3 in the world and has won 12 times here and in Europe since turning pro less than five years ago. Obviously, he is one of the best players in the world.

So why the different requirements for the two Europeans?

This is a question that can only be asked, not answered, but when I asked Rahm about the criticism - at Medinah in 2019 - he was as baffled as anyone.

"It's reoccurring and it's funny to me because golf is the only sport where people complain about a player having emotion. In every other sport it's a good thing," Rahm told me in the parking lot after a practice round for the BMW Championship. "At the same time, people complain when a winner is not displaying enough emotion.

"Pick a side.

"You can always see how I feel and pretty much what's going through my mind when I'm playing golf. For a lot of people, that's entertaining.

"That's how I am. In real life, if I'm happy I'm going to be happy. And if I'm upset, you're going to see I'm upset.

"It's just how I am and I'm never going to change who I am."

This is certainly not a criticism of Hatton, who like Rahm is on the verge of a major breakthrough. It's just fascinating to see the Englishman cheered for his temper, while the Spaniard is constantly under fire for being fiery.

Rahm drops a club and they say you can't win a major if you're angry, the laziest of announcer narratives and a form of amnesia considering that Tiger Woods guy won 15.

Hatton throws a club and the broadcasters chuckle about it for days, endlessly showing replays of the club bouncing and vibrating.

Hockey player breaks a stick, pitcher throws a glove, football player bounces his helmet, basketball player fires a water bottle. They are passionate and they are praised for caring about winning.

Golfer throws a club and, well, it depends on the player, apparently. One can be celebrated and the other condemned.

A reasonable person wouldn't blame Jon Rahm if he couldn't make sense of this at all.