His small, rich country is rightly proud of the achievements of one of its best athletes. Viktor Hovland is a success story. Born in Oslo 26 years ago, he became the first Norwegian to win, in 2018, the US Amateur, climbed to No. 1 in the World Amateur Ranking in 2019 and a year later he made history again by becoming the first national of his country to win on the PGA Tour (Puerto Rico Open). and, in 2021, to do so on the European Tour (BMW International Open).
Since then he has won five other U.S. Tour tournaments, including the 2023 Tour Championship, which resulted in his victory in the FedEx Cup, with which he pocketed the $18 million prize money that came with it. At the end of February this year, Hovland was fourth in the World Ranking, preceded by Scottie Scheffler, in the lead, Rory McIlroy, second, and Jon Rahm, third.
Hovland started playing golf at the age of 11 with his father, Harald, who was introduced to the sport while working as an engineer in the United States. Upon his return to Norway, he brought the clubs with him and began teaching his son. Five years later, in 2014, the teenage Viktor won the Norwegian Amateur Golf Championship.
From 2016 to 2019, he played college golf at Oklahoma State University, where he stood out for his great sporting talent, so much so that in 2018 he won the US Amateur, being, as mentioned, the first Norwegian player to do so, and earned invitations to the 2019 edidions of the Masters, the US Open and the British Open. In 2018 he made his debut in a professional tournament playing as an amateur, at the Emirates Australian Open, finishing tied 13th.
And in 2019 Hovland played his first major and did not disappoint: he was the best amateur at the Masters, finishing 3 under bar in 32nd place. With this meritorious performance he climbed to number one in the World Amateur Ranking .
In that year’s US Open, he finished twelfth and was of again the best amateur of the tournament, with 280 strokes. This was the lowest 72-hole score by an amateur at the U.S. Open, beating the previous record of 282, set by Jack Nicklaus in 1960. Hovland became the highest-ranked amateur player at both the Masters and US Open in the same season since Matt Kuchar in 1998. In 2019, he received the Ben Hogan Award , given to the top collegiate player in the United States.
With such a sporting background, it was only natural that the young Norwegian player would turn to professionalism to carve out a presumably bright future for himself. And that’s what he did after playing in the 2019 US Open. His professional debut took place at the age of 21 at the Travelers Championship in June. Losing his amateur status, he lost his invitation to play in that season’s US Open.
In August, Hovland finished tied for second place at the Albertsons Boise Open, part of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. This result secured his PGA Tour card for the 2019-20 season. The Norwegian player set the PGA Tour record for most consecutive rounds under 70 strokes: 19.
In February 2020, Hovland made his country proud again by becoming the first Norwegian to win on the PGA Tour at the Puerto Rico Open. In December, he earned his second victory on that Tour by birdieing the 72nd hole at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.
The Scandinavian party continued when, in June 2021, Hovland became the first player from Norway to win on the European Tour at the BMW International Open.
In September, Hovland played on the European team in the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, where the Americans overwhelmed the visitors 19-9.
In November, Hovland successfully defended his title at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in Mexico. He won by four strokes and set the tournament record at 23 under par. A month later, he won the Hero World Challenge, finishing at 18 under par, one stroke ahead of Scottie Scheffler. The key moments of this victory were consecutive eagles on the 14th and 15th holes in the final round.
Hovland started 2022 with a great feeling and a great result: a top 5 at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January. The following week he won the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, where, after 66 strokes in the final round, he birdied the first playoff hole to defeat Richard Bland. The victory elevated him to number three in the World Ranking. In December of that year Hovland successfully defended his title at the Hero World Challenge in Albany, Bahamas, matching Tiger Woods as the only player with back-to-back victories in the tournament.
In 2023 Hovland competed in the Masters and the PGA Championship and was very close to his first major victory. A poor final round of 74 at Augusta National made him finish seventh, while in the major played at Oak Hill he signed a final round of 68, finally finishing second, 2 strokes behind the champion, Brooks Koepka.
In June, Hovland won the Memorial Tournament, defeating Denny McCarthy in a playoff. Hovland birdied the 17th to force a playoff, and was the only player that day to birdie the penultimate hole.
In August, he shot a record 61 in the final round to win the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago, Illinois. This was the second tournament of the 2023 FedEx Cup Playoffs. The following week, he won the Tour Championship and, consequently, the FedEx Cup . The Norwegian, then 25 years old, became the third youngest FedExCup champion.
In September 2023, his birthday month, he played in the Ryder Cup at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Guidonia, Rome. The European team won 16.5-11.5 and Hovland recorded one draw, one loss and three wins, including his Sunday singles match against Collin Morikawa.
His last tournament last year was the Hero World Challenge, where he finished tenth.
This year, in contrast to the end of last year, he is struggling to get into the rhythm of good results that was usual for him and, in the first three that he had played until the end of February, his best result was a 19th place in The Genesis Invitational. In the next two he was 58th in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and 22nd in The Sentry).
Among the Norwegian player’s goals for this season are to win a major, move up in the World Ranking, where he was third, and repeat his multimillion dollar victory in the FedEx Cup. If he achieves the latter, it would be 25 million dollars (7 more than last year) to add to his earnings on the PGA Tour, which so far stand at just over 27 million.
HOVLAND STUFF
The Norwegian player learned English by watching movies on television, especially historical dramas such as Lincoln or Amity.
Hovland is a huge fan of heavy metal music, and an avowed fan of bands such as Metallica, Tool and System of the Down.
Apart from golf, of course, young Viktor grew up showing great interest
in two other sports, one practiced as a team, soccer, and the other as an individual : taekwondo.
Little Hovland started playing golf at the age of 11 and, given the adverse Norwegian weather, spent most of the year practicing on an indoor driving range.
Of the 14 majors he has played as a professional, Hovland has three top 10 finishes: second in the 2023 PGA Championship, fourth in the 2022 British Open and seventh in the 2022 British Open. Masters 2023. Missed a cut (US Open 2022), and withdrew at the US Open 2021 due to eye irritation caused by splashing in his eyes. the sand of a bunker while practicing. He abandoned the tournament after playing 9 holes of his second round because his vision discomfort persisted.
One of Hovland’s most curious golf getaways had nothing to do with a major tournament, but rather with his desire to fulfill one of his most special wishes. Norway’s top golfer got together with three friends, took a small car, four sets of clubs and drove from his hometown 1,400 kilometers for 22 hours straight! It was after the 2022 British Open, where he finished fourth, and the destination of the long excursion was Lofoten Links, which is located in a remote area of northern Norway, already inside the Arctic Circle. In winter the sun barely rises and in summer it never sets. That means you can play golf 24 hours a day, playing at noon or midnight or any time in between. Hovland set the course record, with 63 strokes, 8 under par.
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