PALM HARBOR, Fla. — There was Viktor Hovland, moments after profitable his first PGA Tour championship in 18 months, after storming again from three photographs down with 5 to play to beat a top-10 participant on this planet for the Valspar Championship.
If there was a second to declare himself again, to say that each swing repair and training change he has put himself by means of for the reason that 2023 Ryder Cup was completely price it as a result of right here he’s with the trophy subsequent to him, this was it.
However as a lot because it was clear that Hovland, the 27-year-old Norwegian flashing that straightforward smile, was comfortable, I needed to ask him, “How comfortable are you together with your swing proper now?”
“Yeah, it’s nonetheless not nice,” Hovland mentioned. “… The membership is simply not in an ideal place for me coming down. It’s simply not what it was once. So I can’t actually depend on my outdated feels anymore as a result of the membership is in a distinct spot and I’ve to vary my launch sample to make that work.”
OK, nicely, it did work. Outcomes over course of, proper? Hovland simply performed 4 straight rounds underneath par on the Copperhead Course, together with a Sunday 67 with birdies on two troublesome holes to edge Justin Thomas by a stroke. No, not a lot.
“I feel that’s one thing that I’m extraordinarily pleased with that I can present up at a PGA Tour occasion at one of many hardest golf programs we play all yr and nonetheless win with not my greatest stuff. … However on the identical time, it makes this sport much more anxious than I feel it must be,” Hovland mentioned.
Viktor Hovland, proper, walks off the 18th tee with caddie Shay Knight. (Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Pictures)
That is, at its core, who Viktor Hovland is and why he believes he’s been capable of go from a comparatively minor {golfing} nation like Norway to Oklahoma State to the PGA Tour and have as a lot success as he has. Sunday was his seventh PGA Tour win, together with a Tour Championship, and he has three top-five finishes on the majors within the final three years.
It’s not sufficient to be good. It’s not sufficient to flirt with nice. He’s striving for one thing right here, and why is that an issue?
“I discover it sort of bizarre that we’re skilled athletes and the folks which might be wanting to enhance are considerably checked out, ‘Oh, he’s a perfectionist, he’s out on the perimeter looking out an excessive amount of.’ It’s like, that’s what we do; we’re right here to get higher, and we’re right here to win tournaments. So for those who’re not going to attempt to get higher, what are you doing?” Hovland mentioned.
There’s one thing to be admired there. The not-so-secret fact of the PGA Tour is that the cash is nice sufficient that you simply don’t must win to arrange your self and your loved ones properly. And for years the tour has operated in a approach that for those who stored your card for a couple of years, it was exhausting to lose it, perpetuating a cycle of doing simply sufficient to maintain the checks coming. Good is, actually, the enemy of nice. Males’s skilled golf is not any completely different from some other business in that approach.
Nobody has been capable of persuade Hovland to hitch the murky center, even his well-meaning mom, who makes it a behavior to let Viktor, at his low moments, know that lots of different folks performed poorly that day too. “It by no means consoles me,” he mentioned.
This was the match week for Hovland, who had not made a reduce in 2025 and was ejected from The Gamers Championship with a first-round 80: Whereas dedicated to the Valspar, he spent Monday in Orlando working with swing coach Grant Waite, they usually discovered one thing of a swing really feel. Sufficient that Hovland figured he would possibly as nicely drive over to Tampa Bay on Tuesday, taking part in a late apply spherical. Solely after these 9 holes did he make the ultimate choice to play within the match, however with little or no, if any, expectation of contending.
Then got here a first-round 70, and a 67 the following day that had him one shot off the lead. “I don’t have management over what I’m doing,” Hovland mentioned that day. Taking part in within the ultimate group Saturday, Hovland shot a 69 and ended the day in a three-way tie for the lead. “Nonetheless appears like I’m saving lots of photographs, however they’re going pretty straight, so it’s OK,” Hovland mentioned.
Viktor Hovland leaned on his irons throughout the Valspar Championship. (Brennan Asplen / Getty Pictures)
Sunday was a stress check, then. May Hovland handle his sport, play into that swing really feel and discover a method to win? The reply was a testomony to his work. Hovland not solely prevented his largest downside proper now — a “huge push fade” — on No. 16, the place water runs the size of the green, however he additionally hit perhaps the shot of the match, an strategy from 187 yards out to lower than 6 toes. With a birdie putt there and one other on No. 17, Hovland had a two-shot cushion, sufficient to bogey 18 and nonetheless win.
Now the work begins once more with Waite, one of many swing coaches Hovland employed and fired during the last 18 months, bringing him again this month partly as a result of Waite is an data man and Hovland needs all the data. All the information. Don’t cover from the issue. Lean into it and are available again out the opposite facet. Hopefully.
You win this time of yr on the PGA Tour and it’s solely so lengthy till the questions inevitably come round to the Masters. There are 18 days till the primary spherical, and Hovland believes what he did to win this week — taming tight fairways with correct iron photographs and a very good week placing — won’t have the identical impact at Augusta Nationwide, a completely completely different check of golf. That’s his actuality as he sees it, although Hovland sprinkled in some constructive self-talk.
“I nonetheless must be trustworthy so I can assault the issues that I’ve and we will enhance, however on the identical time, I received to offer myself some credit score. And even irrespective of how dangerous it feels or what number of poor photographs I’m hitting, I’m nonetheless able to taking pictures good scores with it. So I sort of must maintain that behind my head,” Hovland mentioned.
So, is Viktor Hovland again? Sure. Simply don’t ask him to verify it.
(Prime photograph: Brennan Asplen / Getty Pictures)