Viktor Hovland's Breakout Season Punctuated With Dominant FedEx Cup Title
ATLANTA — He looked in control for the majority of the weather-interrupted final round, but if there was a tense moment Sunday for Viktor Hovland, it occurred on the 14th hole at East Lake as he did his best to keep the demons at bay.
Hovland has been open and self-deprecating about his chipping issues, noting a few years ago that "I suck" at the shots around the green. So there he was with his lead down to three strokes over Xander Schauffele—and he left a relatively simple pitch shot short, moans and groans prevalent.
The shot from 100 feet traveled less than 80, meaning Hovland had a 22-foot par putt and the prospect of only a two-shot lead with four to play.
So Hovland stepped up and calmly rolled in the par putt, keeping his three-shot advantage before birdieing the last three holes to win by five.
It was the only blip in an otherwise dominant performance that saw Hovland, just 25, shoot a final-round 63 to win for the third time this year on the PGA Tour and in consecutive weeks.
"To sum it up just throughout the year I feel like obviously short game has improved massively, course management has been a big deal, I'm not short-siding myself as much as I used to, and just handling adversity a lot better because I believe in my game and if I hit one bad shot or make one mistake it's not the end of the world," Hovland said. “I keep pressing on, I keep making birdies, and suddenly we're back in it again.
“Before it felt like, man, I have to not give up any shots to shoot a good round of golf. Whereas, now that's not true anymore. I can hit one bad and I can get up-and-down and move on and birdie the next three and then suddenly we're right there."
The victory capped a breakout season for Hovland, who won the Memorial in May, shot a final-round 61 last weekend at Olympia Fields Country Club to capture the BMW Championship, and then rode that momentum through another brutally hot week to claim the season-long FedEx title and an $18 million bonus. He was 36 under par in the last two tournaments.
His 72-hole score of 261, 19 under par, tied Schauffele for the low total at the Tour Championship. With the strokes-adjusted format, Hovland began at -8 and Schauffele was -3.
This marks the third time that Schauffele has shot the lowest score at the Tour Championship. He won the Tour Championship in 2017 when there was a separate title for that. He got $6.5 million for finishing second.
"I'll hold my head up high," Schauffele said. “It was the most fun I had losing in quite some time. It's such a weird feeling. I shot 62. I lost by five. Just kudos to Hovi. He played unbelievably well the last few weeks to get himself into this position and to really just put a cherry on top for himself and his team."
Hovland built a six-stroke lead through three rounds and has credited his improvement this year to addressing the biggest weakness in his game—chipping. Prior to 2023, the former Oklahoma State golfer who is from Oslo, Norway, had been frustrated by his short game and was below average in the PGA Tour’s statistical rankings.
Last year, Hovland was losing 0.4 strokes around the greens per round, or nearly two shots a tournament. While it still is not among his best statistics, he improved enough to be above average, which makes a huge difference when so many aspects of his game are otherwise elite.
"Really hard worker," said Rory McIlroy, who finished fourth in his defense of the FedEx Cup title. “Does it his own way. I think he's found a really repeatable golf swing. He sort of aims it up the right side, brings it in over and hits that sort of flat cut down there. He's one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world.
“I think as we all know he's improved around the greens this year. That's been the difference from being a still a top-10 player in the world to what he's done this year. Winning at Memorial, winning last week, having a chance at Oak Hill. Hell of a player. He works incredibly hard. Nothing but respect for how he goes about his business. True professional. For someone that's still so young, he's got quite an old head on those shoulders."
Hovland won the 2018 U.S. Amateur and turned pro at the 2019 Travelers Championship to quite a bit of fanfare. The same week, Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff and Justin Suh also turned pro and all have had a level of success.
Morikawa has two major championships but Hovland—who also won the 2022 Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour—has surpassed him in PGA Tour victories with six.
For the year, Hovland had nine top-10s and 17 top-25 finishes with no missed cuts. In the major championships, his worst was a tie for 19th at the U.S. Open. He tied for seventh at the Masters, tied for second at the PGA Championship and was tied for 13th at the British Open.
Having grown up in Norway with a limited golf season and now living in Stillwater, Oklahoma—where he went to school at Oklahoma State—Hovland has overcome some roadblocks to golf success.
"I wouldn't say it's conducive to playing the PGA Tour," Hovland said. “You're so far away. Just from everything, the quality of the golf courses, it's not quite the same. It's not in as great of a shape. The season is not very long. You add up all those things up, it's very hard to play golf for a living.
"But I would say I used the time very well. The time that I had indoors I worked a lot on my golf swing. I just tried to find some ways to get better, even though my facilities were a little bit limited. I sought out people that I could learn from."
Hovland has clearly learned well. He overcame his biggest weakness and now is the fourth-ranked player in the world with still a great future.
And he’s also $18 million richer—approximately 192,199,500 Norwegian Krone—which he said won’t change him much.
"But I live in Stillwater, Oklahoma," Hovland said. "Money goes a long ways there. It's not like I'm spending money out the wazoo every week. I don't need a lot to be happy. I don't need a lot to live within my means.
"So, in a way, maybe it teaches you other things that maybe I wouldn't have learned if I lived in the United States and I grew up on some country club. You kind of take those things for granted. I think it maybe helped me when I got to Oklahoma State and we had a qualifying or just a normal day, just a regular day, playing with the guys on the team.
"I would take every single day very seriously because every day I had home in the summer I couldn't just waste away the day because in a couple months it's winter and I can't play outside. So every single day I tried to get its most out of, and I think that really helped me."