PGA Tour star Viktor Hovland: "I was still a little upset with that"

Viktor Hovland hasn't had the season he wanted nor expected. 

The reigning FedExCup champion hasn't been in the winner's circle and has rarely contended. 

In the majors, Hovland also missed cuts at The Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship. 

He finished third at the PGA Championship, which came as a shock to him, as he revealed that he almost didn't play given where his game was at. 

For his part, Hovland felt like there was simply no point in showing up if he felt like he had absolutely no chance of winning. 

Since that 'surprise' performance at Valhalla, Hovland posted a T20 at the Travelers Championship and a T46 at the Scottish Open. 

He represented Norway in the men's Olympic golf tournament at Le Golf National in Paris where he finished in a tie for 30th. 

Hovland's final two rounds saw him post 67-68 which must've felt like a confidence booster coming into this week's FedEx St. Jude Championship, right?

Wrong. 

"Not really," Hovland told reporters at TPC Southwind. 

"That was kind of just a weekend where I just made a few putts. I missed on the right sides and I was able to score well. 

"The first couple rounds I about hit it the same, but that golf course is very penal off the tee, and into the greens it really penalizes the bad shots. 

"But if you're playing well, you can shoot low."

He continued: "I just missed it in the wrong spots because I didn't have that much control over the ball flight. 

"So the second round I was just at mercy of the randomness of where my ball was going. 

"Then over the weekend I made a lot of putts and just was able to score well. 

"That's always nice, but the quality of the shots were not there. I was still a little upset with that."

Hovland's downturn in form could be attributed to the fact that he split with his longtime swing coach Joe Mayo at the turn of the year. 

It appeared a bizarre decision, considering his glittering success in 2023 that culminated in the 26-year-old playing a starring role in Europe's Ryder Cup win in Italy. 

The duo are back together now and Hovland has not wanted to divulge why they initially split. 

Mayo acknowledged to No Laying Up before The Open that he is a challenging character.

Hovland said he's been through 'peaks and valleys' this year. 

"I mean, it's just not that fun to play golf when you don't know where the ball is going," he said. 

"I do pride myself in trying to make the best out of it, but it gets to a point where you kind of lose that belief — you just see a shot, and that's not good enough. 

"I can try to grind my hardest. I can try to chip in from there. But you do that too often, too many times during the course of a round or a tournament, it's too much to overcome, and I feel like it's a waste of time for me to be playing golf if that’s where I'm at. 

"I'd rather be off the golf course and work on it, trying to figure out why I'm doing those things."

He added: "But hey, that's how it goes sometimes, and I feel like I've learned even more about my golf swing, which I didn't really think I could, so there's always stuff to learn, and I’m super pumped about kind of where I'm headed."

Hovland said he's not sure how long it will take for him to get back to his 'best golf'. 

But at least now he's on the path to progression.

Hovland was pressed on what the issue has been. 

"The things that I did in my swing that made me good, that made me able to predict a certain ball flight, I went home and tried to do a certain move, not necessarily because I had in mind that I wanted to change my pattern; I knew my pattern was really good.

"But I was upset that I wasn't cutting the ball as much as I would have liked. My ball flight started to become a little bit of a draw, which is fine.

"I was still hitting it good. But sometimes visually I would have liked to have seen the cut.

"Then in the offseason I made a conscious effort to try to cut the ball more, and when I did that, I ruined a relationship that happens in my swing that makes it really difficult for me to control the face coming down. 

"So now it's just kind of me learning from that. I know exactly why it happened. I know exactly what happens because I've gotten myself measured, and now it's just kind of a process of getting back to where I was.

"But at least I know I have all the data and the facts on the table to go about it."

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