Viktor Hovland Is Adjusting His Mindset for the Majors

The Norwegian makes a lot of birdies, but firing at flags doesn't always work at majors. He discusses how he's adjusting for this week's U.S. Open.

Rising star Viktor Hovland has played in 10 major championships so far in his young career. He’s yet to finish in the top 10 but it’s easy to overlook that he’s made the cut in nine of his starts and hasn’t finished outside the top 41, throwing out a WD in last year’s U.S. Open.

Perhaps it’s unfair to compare him too closely with his peer Colin Morikawa, who has hit the ground running in his similarly short amount of major starts (10 starts with two wins), but Hovland revealed in a brief interview that he’s looking to adjust his philosophy when it comes to scoring and being aggressive at major championships, especially on tough courses like this week’s U.S. Open at Brookline.

“It’s more about just staying in it instead of maybe being a little too aggressive and trying to push to make birdies,” said Hovland, 24, who’s ranked fifth in birdie average this season.

The strengths of his game are based so fundamentally on making a high volume of birdies, so this mindset adjustment seems to be revealing a mature self-reflection.

“I just haven’t had my game in the majors I have played and made a few too many mistakes,” he said

There’s a lot of criticism about Hovland’s chipping among pundits (204th in strokes gained: around the green) but the Norwegian star feels like he’s turning a corner with that as well.

“I just got to get a little bit better, I feel like my short game is trending a little bit,” Hovland said. “I’ve been trying to really simplify things in the short game and it felt like it’s really worked in some places and I feel like I’m making progress.”

He’ll join 155 other players in trying that around Brookline’s small and challenging greens this week. Hovland also shared that he’s never played Brookline until this week, so he won’t be alone in trying to understand it quickly.

Hit the play button above to listen, and look for more new episodes of Beyond the Clubhouse coming soon to the Morning Read Podcast Network.