After shooting a final-round 69 to finish T13 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Viktor Hovland and his caddie, Shay Knight, had a difficult chat last week.
The young Norwegian believed Sundays weren’t going well for him because he finished 133rd for the season in Final Round Scoring Average on the PGA TOUR.
This finally paid off in the end.
Hovland came from behind to win the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields by two shots over Scottie Scheffler (66) and Matt Fitzpatrick (66) thanks to a course-record 61 that included a 7-under-par 28 on the back nine.
“It’s quite great to triumph in a setting like this and against some of the best competitors in the world. In order to do this, seven birdies were made over the final nine holes.” Hovland, whose 6th PGA TOUR victory saw him jump from 7th to 2nd in the FedExCup, remarked.
It was Hovland’s lowest finish in his career, the lowest score in the history of the FedExCup Playoffs, and the lowest result by a champion on the TOUR this year.
He shot an almost perfect round, making 12 threes, and 12 out of 14 fairways, leading the field for the week at 43/56, hitting 16 out of 18 greens, and taking first place in both the Tee to Green and Putting Strokes Gained categories.
With birdies on two of the first three holes and three of the first six, Scheffler, who began the day tied for the lead with Fitzpatrick and three shots ahead of Hovland and Rory McIlroy, maintained his lead for most of the day. The next five holes, though, saw a sharp turnabout. While Hovland, who was playing ahead, blasted them in 4 under, Scheffler played them in 1 over par.
“He played as if he had been programmed. He plays aggressively and shows no fear when he is in the zone. He makes an effort to ace every hole. The previous few weeks have seen him playing well. Last week, he played well, but Sunday wasn’t spectacular. We talked about it last week, and he did what he did today, but he kind of feels like his Sundays haven’t been his finest. It was just amazing.” his caddie Knight said.
While playing with Hovland, McIlroy shot 66 and felt stuck in neutral.
“Around 14, 15, I began to suspect something quite special was going on,” McIlroy said.
Knight felt magic in the air as well.
“When he hammered the 8-iron out of the rough and knocked it to a foot, he was at 14. At that point, I began to believe that it would be one of those days when things fall into place for us.” he said.
Fitzpatrick didn’t dwell on his near miss; instead, he simply laughed it off.
“Yes, he said, “played great.” No way to beat number 61. I just saw Viktor, though. However, I’m just incredibly happy that I didn’t lose it despite playing exceptionally well in the final round to compete with the World No. 1. Another person overtook from behind to triumph.” he said.
Hovland is still only 25, but maturity has been a recurring theme this season. Some of that comes from experience and a lot from his work with Joseph Mayo. Mayo advised Hovland to throttle back and teach at The Summit Club for Discovery Land Company in Las Vegas.
Upon hearing that Hovland had won the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, Mayo remarked, “I’m watching this dude hit his ball into places where Harry Houdini couldn’t get it up and down.” Edoardo Molinari, a player on the DP World Tour and a statistician, was brought in as a backup.
“A good iron player, according to Dodo (Molinari), short-sides himself 15% of the time. That was doubled by Viktor. That cannot be escaped. When I presented the facts to him, he said, “Wow” Mayo said.
At last week’s FedEx St. Jude at TPC Southwind, Hovland had yet another awakening. With a first-round score of 72, he got off to such a slow start that one of his friends took a screenshot of the scoreboard showing him in last place. However, he bounced back with scores of 64, 65, and 69 to place T13.
“I still thought I had a chance on Sunday and was still in the running. That served as a wonderful reminder, in my opinion, that I don’t need to play flawless golf to be successful,” he said during the games at Olympia Field.
He became liberated and came close to perfection. He fired a 61 on Sunday at Olympia Fields, two strokes better than the next-lowest rounds of 63 by Tom Kim (T10) and Russell Henley (T8), which made the 66s by Scheffler, Fitzpatrick, and McIlroy look ordinary in comparison.
Hovland had bided his time even though he hadn’t been the focus of attention all week.
“Just because you’re seven shots (behind) with the weekend left doesn’t mean you’re out of it, Joe and I have spoken a lot about it. Just make wise choices, keep going, and if you’re at the proper place, you might be able to grab it and win,” he said.
Now comes the TOUR Championship at East Lake, where Hovland will start two spots behind No. 1 Scheffler according to the FedExCup Starting Strokes system. After that, it’s off to Rome for the Ryder Cup.
McIlroy, who will be one of his colleagues, said of him, “He just keeps his foot on the pedal.”
At the BMW, where Hovland had raced to the finish line in a finish that left everyone in attendance gasping for air, it was a fitting analogy.
