A year ago, Viktor Hovland was living happy moments. He had just finished third in the THE PLAYERS, a top 10 in the Masters, a second place in the PGA Championship and won the Memorial, the BMW Championship and the FedEx Cup at the TOUR Championship in Atlanta. A brilliant season that culminated with a tied second place in the DP World Tour Championship, the end of the European circuit. However, even though his game was spectacular, he decided to make some changes during the winter to improve his feelings when hitting the ball. A mistake he still seems to be regretting.
His 2024 is being forgettable. Several missed cuts, practically never in the fight for victories and a single good result to take home, the third place in the PGA Championship. After finishing tied 30th in the Paris Olympics, representing his country, the Norwegian golfer is preparing to defend his champion title of the PGA Tour in the Playoffs that start this week in Memphis. And he does so after a few intense days of work with his coach to try to regain control of the ball that he seems to have lost and that has led him to frustration for much of the season.
Today he has given a press conference in which he has delved into the reasons for the drop in his game that he already talked about after the PGA Championship: “I don’t want to get super technical on the subject, but basically, my game pattern ‘turned off’. The things I did in my swing made me good, made me able to predict a certain flight of the ball, but I went home and tried to make a certain movement, not because I had in mind to change my game pattern, which I knew was very good, but because I didn’t cut the ball as much as I would like and I was upset…”.
“I kept hitting it well. The flight of the ball started to be a bit slow, but it was fine, although visually I wanted to see more of the cut. But when the season ended I made a conscious effort to try to cut the ball more and at that moment I spoiled the relationship that occurs in my swing and that makes it very difficult for me to control the face of the club when going down. So now I’m learning from that. I know exactly why it happened. I know exactly what happens and now I’m in the process to get back to where I was. I have all the data on the table to move forward”, he explained.
This loss of control has generated some moments of frustration for Hovland: “I think there have been many peaks and valleys. It’s not fun to play golf when you don’t know where the ball is going. I pride myself on trying to do my best, but there comes a point where you lose that belief: you only see one shot and that’s not enough. I can try to push myself to the max. I can try to contribute. But you do it too often, too many times in the course of a round or a tournament, it’s too much to overcome, and I feel like it’s a waste of time for me to be playing golf if that’s where I am. I’d rather be off the golf course and working on it, trying to figure out why I’m doing those things”.
“But well, I feel like I’ve learned even more about my swing, something I didn’t think could happen. There’s always something to learn and I’m clear about where I’m heading. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take me to get back to playing my best golf. It might be this week, it might be next. But at least I’m on the path of progress, improving. Whereas before, playing poorly without knowing why or how to fix it was mentally challenging. Now I might play terribly this week, but at least I feel like I’m on the right track and that’s all that matters”, he detailed.
Viktor starts the week of the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first of the three playoffs of the FedEx Cup, outside the top 50, so he needs a good result to recover positions and be able to be in the BMW Championship to continue with the defense of his title. Something he tries to achieve by working with his coach in depth: “I’ve been a week in the U.S. with Joe and we’re on the right track, I’m optimistic and I’ve finally had a good week to train every day and get a good rhythm”. From Thursday we will see if it is enough to start being the player who amazed a year ago… and if he has learned the lesson of not touching what works.
