Near top-30 bubble, Viktor Hovland enters BMW with surprising St Louis connection
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Viktor Hovland is 22nd in the FedEx Cup standings.
PHOTO: AFP
- Viktor Hovland started golf with clubs bought in St Louis by his father and now competes there aiming to secure a top-30 spot for the Tour Championship.
- He won the 2023 BMW Championship, which helped him win the FedEx Cup, but the Tour Championship format has changed this year.
- Hovland admits being hard on himself to improve his game and values honest feedback from his close circle to maintain top form.
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Viktor Hovland’s first set of golf clubs came from St Louis in the US – an odd fact about a boy who grew up across the ocean in Norway.
His father Harald was working in the St Louis area and bought his then 11-year-old son’s first set of clubs.
“I don’t know exactly where he lived and which golf course he drove by to work every day,” Hovland said on Aug 18.
“But, yeah, (he) just got introduced to the game here and bought some clubs. Brought it back home to Norway and that’s how I got started playing golf.”
Now the 28-year-old has some work of his own to do in St Louis.
At No. 22 in the FedEx Cup standings entering this week’s BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club, Hovland is in a promising position but not completely guaranteed his place in the season-ending Tour Championship next week.
He is seeking to stay alive for his second FedEx Cup title in a four-year span after breaking through in 2023.
Hovland won the BMW that year to propel him into the Tour Championship, where his starting strokes plus his 72-hole score were enough to give him the trophy and a massive season-ending bonus.
Now the starting strokes format for the Tour Championship has been eliminated; he just needs to be in the top 30 at the end of this week to reach the season finale, though there are plenty of hungry players on his tail.
“It’s the tournament leading into the Tour Championship, and it’s a very important week, but I really enjoy a lot of the courses that the BMW Championship has gone to,” Hovland said.
“If you hit the ball long and straight, if your iron game is on point, you’re going to go pretty far in this event. And then it kind of comes down to how many putts you make.”
Hovland has become known for tinkering with his swing for the past few years.
He was asked on Aug 18 whether his family, coach or other team members had told him he is being too hard on himself as he chases the top form he had in 2023.
“Yeah, no, I’ve heard that a few times,” he admitted. “I think it comes from a good place. I really appreciate hearing (it), especially from people around me.
On comments from people watching him online, he said: “I don’t really tend to take that with that much value.
“But when it comes from people in my closest circle, I really listen and pay attention to that.”
But that mindset stems from his desire to get better.
He said: “You’re always thinking, how can this get better and better and better. And if I hit a terrible shot and get lucky and make a birdie, it’s like, ‘Okay, well, the next time, if I’m not lucky...’, you know.
“You’ve always got to think that way. Especially when I know how good it can be, it’s even more frustrating when you don’t execute the way you want to.
“So, yeah, I don’t know, that’s just kind of how I solve this. It’s like I have to be hard on myself to want to get up the next day and solve these problems.
“If everything is just happy-go-lucky and everything’s all right, which it is, my life’s good, but I have still got problems; I’ve still got things to solve. I think if you don’t want to solve them, then I feel like you’re kind of wasting your time.” REUTERS
