MARLOW'S Tyrrell Hatton is coming to the boil nicely again a fortnight before The Open Championship, after finishing just four shots behind the winner at the BMW International Open in Germany yesterday.

Hatton, playing his first season on the full European Tour, carded rounds of 69, 67, 70, 67 for a fantastic -15 finish at the Golf Club Gut Larchenhof in Koln.

In one of the most tightly packed leaderboards of the year, his score was good enough for a tie for 22nd behind winner Fabrizio Zanotti, earning him a cheque of just under £17,000.

Hatton might have even challenged for the title if he'd got his putter working during the first three days, when he wasn't able to take advantage of some excellent play tee to green.

After Friday's round he tweeted: "Pretty happy with the last two days, tee to green has been great, struggling to hole putts atm, hopefully some will drop over the weekend."

And Saturday was a similar story: "Another frustrating day on the greens, played good each round just can't hole a putt! 68th out of 69 in putts per GIR and putts per round."

However, Hatton shot up the leaderboard on the final day with seven birdies, bringing his total for the week to 22.

He tweeted: "Worst I played all week but short game was great and holed a few putts! -15 for four rounds and wasn't inside top 20."

The Open Championship tees off at Hoylake on July 17.