Viktor Hovland, the Pride of Norway, Continues to Smile His Way Right Into Golf's Elite Class

Hovland has started 69-66 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational to put himself in prime position with 36 holes remaining.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Yeah, you’d better have a sense of humor if you’re from Norway. The place is cold. It makes the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field sound like a good vacation spot. And dark. Norway gets six hours of daylight in December. No need to pass the sunscreen.

So Viktor Hovland can’t stop smiling. Ask him how he made bogey at Bay Hill’s 13th hole Friday, he grins as if he’s about to tell a joke. He isn’t, he’s just happy to be asked. He’s a real Norwegian, transplanted since college to Stillwater, Okla., who’s happy to be here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Correction, he’s happy to be anywhere. Let’s shorten it further: He’s happy.

What’s not to be happy about in Hovland’s world? He is one of Europe’s next great golfers, and probably one of golf’s next great golfers. While you weren’t looking, he sneaked up to No. 4 in the world golf ranking. When he finished Friday’s second round at Bay Hill, he held the tournament lead at mid-day after a 69-66 start. A steady breeze strengthened about the time he finished, a fact that didn’t bode well for the afternoon players, but there is still a long weekend and 36 holes to go.

Viktor Hovland followed his opening-round 69 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a 66 on Friday and sits at 9-under 135 through 36 holes.  / USA Today Sports

Hovland is already by far the best golfer Norway has produced. No one is in second place. Hovland is close to being one of Norway’s great achievements/national treasures at 24 — his age, not the country’s. Sure, there are the 1,190 fjords but those came with the place, so don’t give Norway too much credit. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded from Oslo, Norway’s capital, and we all know one Russian guy who’s not winning that in 2022. Norway invented skiing 4,000 years ago, approximately the same year Bob Barker was born. And Norway is the proud owner of the world’s longest tunnel. Luckily, it doesn’t connect with Russia, a country with whom Norway shares a land border, perhaps nervously these days.

Everyone loves a smiling face. And at 5 feet 10 inches, 160 pounds, Hovland has enough boyish charm to fill the world’s longest tunnel. (If you’ve been reading carefully, you already know where that is.) That’s why he was a national rage back home during the 2021 Summer Olympics when he competed in golf. Men want to play golf like him, women want to adopt him. “Even grandmothers stay up to watch him,” Harald Hovland, his father, told a golf magazine that summer.

Hovland and Rory McIlroy are the core of Europe’s future Ryder Cup teams and Hovland was impressive at Whistling Straits in a losing cause. When Ryder Cup warhorse Ian Poulter came off the course after beating Tony Finau in what was probably his last Ryder Cup appearance, his composure came apart. Then the kid, Hovland, stepped forward to hug him and shout, “The f------ Postman!” Instinctively, he knew what Poulter needed.

Since 2014, Hovland has played in 76 events and had six wins, seven other top-3s and eight other top-ten finishes. You will not be sorry if you keep betting him to win in tournaments. He’s a terrific iron player, putter and a consistent high finisher. His star brightens every time he plays, within reason, given the difficulty of winning on the PGA Tour. Breaking through in big events is what he’ll do next.

Hovland has already impressed there. He shot 280 at Pebble Beach as an amateur in the 2019 U.S. Open. That broke the amateur scoring record set by Jack Nicklaus of 282 in 1960. “It’s obviously cool to perform such a thing,” Hovland admitted. Earlier in ’19, Hovland was low amateur at the Masters, too. He’d already won a U.S. Amateur and those finishes put him on similar track to some of the game’s greats.

McIlroy, Bay Hill’s first-rounder leader, played a practice round with Hovland before that ’19 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and came away impressed. “He reminds me of Jon Rahm when he came out,” McIlroy said. “He just consistently played well and shot great scores.”

So Hovland has a winning personality and a winning game. Few places seem less likely to develop a world-class golfer than Norway, which has a short season and only about 150 courses, but it happens. Fiji, with six courses, and Vijay Singh; Russia, with 132 courses, and Maria Verchenova, who competed in the 2016 Olympics.

Hovland’s father worked in the U.S. for a while, took up golf and brought home a set of clubs for Viktor when he was 11 — Viktor, not his dad. The rest has been the rise of a phenom, Mozart with golf clubs. A smiling, happy Mozart.

Has any of this success gone to Hovland’s head? Probably not. Norwegians are notoriously practical, not counting the time they knighted a king penguin (don’t ask) or chose a lion as the nation’s symbol instead of Norway’s official animal, the moose. Probably because a moose doesn’t strike fear in the heart of an enemy.

Hovland likes to utilize his cold-weather resume in interviews. Friday, he was asked how a player from a cold climate is able to play so well in hot weather, given his wins in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Middle East. “I can swing when I’m wearing five layers,” Hovland joked, “so when I have only a shirt, it’s easier.”

He has delivered varying versions of that line on several occasions. Mainly because he keeps getting asked Norway questions.

He hears about his home country even when he’s playing in the U.S. Spectators with Norwegian relatives feel the urge to give him a shout-out.

“That happens quite a bit,” Hovland said. “I heard one this morning, actually.”

Do they ever ask anything funny? “Normally not, no,” Hovland said, grinning, of course.

Friday, a male fan told him had relatives from Asker, Norway, close to where Hovland grew up.

His response? “I just said, Cool!” Hovland answered, prompting laughter from a group of media types clustered around him on the practice range.

Hovland laughed, too. Because cool is better than cold.

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