Hovland has won the Valspar in a great finish against Justin Thomas, but he still doesn’t have it all together in the purely technical aspect. He still feels that his swing is held together with pins and he is not comfortable on the course. A true paradox, almost incomprehensible to earthlings, when he has just won a tournament on a very demanding course.
“Yes, my game is still not great. I’m still hitting the same shots as all year, to be honest. But this week I achieved an excellent rhythm. I felt that every good shot I hit was actually saving it perfectly because the club is not in the best place for me on the downswing. It’s not what it used to be. So I can no longer rely on my previous feelings because the club is in a different position and I have to change my release pattern to make it work. Incredibly, I managed it and was able to win, and I think it’s something I’m very proud of: being able to show up at a PGA TOUR event on one of the most difficult golf courses we play all year and still win without my best game. So I think it’s great, something I’m very proud of, but at the same time, it makes this game much more stressful than I think it should be,” he reasoned in the winner’s press conference.
And how has he managed to produce the enormous number of good shots needed to win a 72-hole tournament in a very challenging setting, it must be emphasized? This was his explanation:
“I’ve been recording a lot of videos and sending them to Grant, and Grant was here earlier in the week and we did a good job (referring to Grant Waite, coach who worked with him last year and has rejoined the Nordic’s team a few weeks ago, after missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer). I feel like we pushed things in the right direction. It didn’t solve anything at all, but it definitely mitigated some of the problems I was already having. So I felt a bit more comfortable because of that. But yes, the problems remain the same. But obviously, when you manage to push things in the right direction, at least it gives you something when you’re on the golf course.”
The Nordic, who signed up for the Valspar at the last minute, admits he is very proud to have been able to win again, but remains very sceptical when, for example, he is talked about this great event that is just around the corner, the Masters at Augusta. “Some of the problems I’m having are going to make it very difficult for me to compete at Augusta if I don’t correct them, if I don’t see improvements. It’s just a different golf course. You’re going to use a lot of long irons on par 4s and you have to hit quite far because the fairways are quite wide; it’s more like a bomber’s paradise, unlike this place, where it’s more about being precise off the tee. So there are still some things I need to improve, but luckily we have two weeks and it’s good to have this in mind before Augusta.”
The victory at the Valspar, therefore, has been something like a powerful painkiller that has taken away the headache, but in no way has it made him feel that the bad times are definitely behind him. Quite the opposite, Hovland believes he still hasn’t found the naturalness in his swing and that the success at Copperhead is more due to the excellent functioning of some emergency patches, if you can say so. Viktor has won again, but he doesn’t consider the rehabilitation finished. That’s golf. And that’s Hovland.
