Viktory for Viktor: How Hovland built a more complete game and made a late birdie for a playoff win at the 2023 Memorial Tournament
Viktor Hovland finally bagged a PGA Tour win at one of the biggest events.
The 25-year-old Norwegian made a two-putt par from 58 feet on the first playoff hole to defeat Denny McCarthy and win the Memorial on Sunday.
“I don’t want it again,” Hovland said of the decisive five footer he holed, sporting his trademark smile.
Hovland now has won in each of the last four seasons on Tour but fellow pro Edoardo Molinari, who doubles as Hovland’s performance coach, noted that his previous wins have shared something in common.
Indeed, all of his Tour wins had been on tropical islands: in Puerto Rico and twice in Mexico near Cancun plus two more unofficial titles in The Bahamas. It’s ironic given that he grew up in the cold of Norway.
“Sometimes I tease him that it’s about time he wins on a serious golf course, not at a tourist place,” Molinari said.
Muirfield Village Golf Club, the course that Jack Nicklaus built near his childhood home in Dublin, Ohio, certainly qualifies as “a serious course.” On another warm and sunny day, Jack’s Place, as it is affectionately called, played fast and firm and the greens turned into concrete, but Hovland managed to shoot a final-round 2-under 70 to finish at 7-under 281.
“This week the golf course is arguably harder than most major championship golf courses we play,” Hovland said. “It felt like a major. So it was really cool that I was able to get it done at a place like this…It feels even better after some close calls.”
The seventh-ranked player in the world, Hovland has been a model of consistency with 24 straight cuts made worldwide – and has been knocking on the door at some of the biggest tournaments, including top-10 finishes at the last three majors. He chased Brooks Koepka almost to the finish at the PGA Championship last month, settling for a T-2, his best result in a major and recorded a T-3 in March at the Players Championship. It didn’t take long for Hovland, the winner of the 2018 U.S. Amateur, to establish himself as one of the best ballstrikers on Tour, but his short game admittedly was a weakness. What made this victory special for Hovland was the way he won it: without his best stuff from tee-to-green but a short game that has made great strides and a putter that continually bailed him out.
“It feels great to win one without having to ball-strike it to death,” Hovland said.
He also credited his improved course management. Two years ago, he played a practice round at the U.S. Open with Molinari, the brother of Francesco, the 2018 British Open winner, and a week later he implemented some of his tips at the BMW International in Germany and won the tournament.
“I was impressed with the way his mind worked,” Hovland said.
He hired Molinari to help with his strategy and it has paid big dividends. Speaking ahead of the tournament, Hovland noted that Molinari crunched his numbers and discovered earlier this year that when Hovland attacked greens with pitching wedge and 8-iron, he was short-siding himself 30 percent of the time and the Tour average is 20 percent of the time.
“Because I’m a good iron player it should be closer to 15 percent of the time if not less than that,” Hovland said. “I was putting too much pressure on my short game by being too aggressive.”
“It would be kind of a double whammy for me before,” Hovland said at his winner’s press conference. I would short-side myself and I didn’t have any tools around the green to slow the ball down, and now I can’t even keep the chip on the green. So you’re just always grinding.
“But this week I told myself that when I’m out of position just play for the fatter part of the green and if I miss the green, I still have a shot where I can roll the ball up or slow the ball down enough to get it close to the pin.”
Hovland shot a third-round 69 and started the day one shot behind Rory McIlroy, who stumbled to 75, Si Woo Kim (73) and David Lipsky (77). Three strokes back on the 15th tee, he made birdie there and drained a 28-foot birdie putt at 17, the only birdie at the hole during the final round, to cut his deficit to one. McCarthy, whose putter had been brilliant all day, drove into trouble left at the last and missed a 23-foot par putt for his first Tour title.
Returning to the 18th tee for the first playoff hole, McCarthy overcompensated and drove right and couldn’t reach the green. McCarthy burned the left edge on his 12-foot par putt, bending his knees in disbelief that his well-struck putt wouldn’t drop. Hovland, who ranked third in putting for the week, snuck in a 5-foot putt for the win.
“I’m heart broken right now,” McCarthy said. “I thought this was going to be the week.”
Entering the final round it was anyone’s tournament with 22 players within three strokes of the lead. For the second week in a row, Scheffler finished a stroke out of a playoff despite a marvelous ball-striking week and a closing 67, which was three strokes better than anyone else in the field. Scheffler, who made the 36-hole cut on the mark at 3 over, ranked first in SG: Tee-to-Green and SG: Approach the Green but ranked 65th — or dead last — in SG: Putting, losing more than 8.5 strokes to the field on the greens for the week.
“I think a little bit of my struggles with the putting have probably helped me sort of elevate my ball striking just because if I’m trying to compete out here I have to – I mean, with the putts not going in, I got to hit it really good and I’ve been able to do that,” Scheffler said.
But not well enough to beat Hovland, who finally won on the U.S. mainland. Back in Norway, Hovland’s star continues to rise but golf’s popularity pales in comparison to skiing and soccer. Asked how well known the name Nicklaus, the winner of a record 18 majors, is back home, Hovland smiled and with the Golden Bear by his side, said, “Not to break your ego, but I don’t think there’s too many people that know about you.”
