Tyrrell Hatton has given his thoughts on the collapse of LIV Golf after the breakaway league's efforts to rebuild were left in ruin due to a lack of player commitments

Tyrrell Hatton expressed his sympathy for LIV Golf staff who have been left jobless after the breakaway league's collapse.

LIV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September after Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund stopped bankrolling the league, prompting numerous star players, including world No. 28 Hatton, to quit. LIV hoped to create a phoenix league after striking a $300 million refinancing deal with private equity and credit firm BC Partners.

But the deal collapsed this week due to a failure to secure commitments from star players, and it was confirmed at a hearing in New Jersey on Thursday that the league is set to be liquidated.

The league laid off the vast majority of its staff ahead of the bankruptcy filing, and that is who Hatton felt sorry for.

“I only heard at breakfast this morning,” Hatton told Today's Golfer after his opening round at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship. “I don’t have social media on my phone so it’s kind of news to me.

“I already said I wasn’t continuing with 2.0, but it’s sad. There was a lot of great people that worked on LIV and a lot of people lost their jobs so that’s pretty sad in itself and I had some great memories on LIV.”

Hatton's exit from LIV appeared inevitable weeks before it filed for bankruptcy, and he signaled his intentions by adopting Queen's 'I Want to Break Free' as his walkout song at the season finale in Indianapolis.

He has since returned to the DP World Tour and holds a share of the 36-hole lead at Yas Links with Jon Rahm and Francesco Laporta. Playing alongside his close friend on Legion XIII stands out as his best memory from his time with LIV.

“I enjoyed being Jon's teammate for three years and had some fantastic experiences,” the Englishman added. “So at the end of the day, I think it is sad, but from my side I’ll obviously move on and I am looking forward to the future now."

Hatton leads the way at 12 under par thanks to a stellar 65 in Abu Dhabi on Friday. He credited a stint working with former DP World Tour player-turned-coach Chris Paisley for his promising start.

"Really happy how I've played," he said. "Obviously, there's been a couple of mistakes. But overall, compared to where I've been at over the last month and a half, it's nice to put a couple of decent scores together again.

"I spent a bit of time over in Orlando at Lake Nona, and yeah, it was good to practice out there again. I asked Chris Paisley — he's a member there — to help me with my practice. I feel like it's something I've been struggling with probably the last couple of years, to be honest.

"He just kind of structured it a bit better for me. He was there on the range, helping me sort of video some swings, set up some putting drills, all that kind of stuff.

"I feel like it's helped me a lot, and I feel like I've come into this week ready to play decent golf. So it's nice that it's already shown that so far. Obviously, there are still 36 holes to go, but hopefully I can keep hitting it well and holing putts."