Viktor Hovland comfortable in Oklahoma

by ken macleod

He comes from the land of the ice and snow and seemingly armed with a Hammer of the Gods.

Viktor Hovland, Norway native and current Stillwater resident, has bashed his way into the top four of the World Golf Rankings at the age of 24, probably a great age for plundering but until recently viewed as a bit young for world domination.

Look now, however, and youth is being served. Hovland, Collin Morikawa (25), Jon Rahm (27) and Scottie Scheffler (24) were the top four in the OWGR at this writing.

Tiger Woods came out of Stanford with, “Hello, World,” on his lips and a steel grip on everyone’s throat. That was regarded as precocious on a tour then dominated by 30-somethings. Not anymore.

“It’s pretty crazy and kind of hard to pinpoint exactly why it’s happening,” Hovland said. “But you see other guys do it before you and it gives you the belief you can do it as well. It’s a domino effect. Kids have much more information now on swing speed and proper training. Guys are hungry, they want it bad and it’s contributing to better play earlier.”

After winning three times during a Ben Hogan Award-winning junior season at Oklahoma State, winning the 2018 U.S. Amateur with coach Alan Bratton on the bag and helping lead one of the best collegiate teams of all time to the ‘18 NCAA championship on OSU's home course at Karsten Creek, Hovland knew he was ready to test himself on the PGA Tour. But he wasn’t ready to leave Stillwater. To this day, he plays and practices with the OSU team when he’s in town and feels perfectly comfortable doing so. As time goes on, he can see the role changing from one of the guys to more of a mentor role, but he doesn’t plan to be headquartered in Stillwater much longer. Hovland is building a house near Oak Tree National in Edmond, where he often plays and practices with the host of talented young professionals and amateurs that are members, including former OSU teammate Matthew Wolff, Talor Gooch, Austin Eckroat, Quade Cummins, Rhein Gibson, Josh Creel, Michael Gellerman, Blake Trimble and a host of others.

“Oak Tree is awesome,” Hovland said.

“Any day you go Hammer time there, there are at least a couple of guys around and you can get a game going.

Hovland conquers “My plans are to stay in Oklahoma for a bit, with a smile but I don’t put any restrictions on myself. Stillwater has been great, but I feel like I’m maybe in an inbetween place now.” Hovland could see himself eventually moving to

Norway's Viktor Hovland enjoys his the East coast to time in Stillwater and Edmond. be closer to direct flights to Europe and his Nordic homeland. For now, however, Oklahomans are fortunate to enjoy the company of one of the nicest young men in the game, one who does his conquering with a radiant smile. His chances of being in strong contention at Southern Hills in May would seem to be strong. But in his first visit to the course after the restoration by Gil Hanse, Hovland said he preferred the venue he competed on during the Big 12 Championship in 2018. “I only played it one time since the restoration,” he said. “It was cold and we played one step from the tips and it was brutal. Really long compared to the Big 12. I didn’t dislike it, but just felt like a different course from the Big 12, where you didn’t have to hit it the longest, but you really had to shape your shots. “But it’s going to be a great week. We don’t see a lot of professional golf in Oklahoma and people in Oklahoma love golf. Hopefully we’ll get some good weather.” OSU coach Alan Bratton is not going to say he foresaw Hovland’s metoric rise up the rankings when he first saw him play in Europe six years ago, but he recognized plenty of innate talent. “That would be pretty arrogant of me to say,” Bratton said. “I may have said it Hovland at the 2018 Big 12 Champi- about Rickie (Fowler) or Pablo (Martin). But onship at Southern Hills I thought Viktor could be great. He could continue to get better and do anything he wanted to do in golf. “I think the environment in junior golf and college golf is empowering these guys to do what they’re doing. It’s good for the game to see the power shift younger. It’s a credit to the popularity of junior golf and the compe-

tition and work they put in in college.”

In his first full season on Tour in 2019-20, Hovland made 17-of-20 cuts, won the Puerto Rico Open and earned nearly $2 million. In 2020-21, he won at Mayakoba, had seven top-10s and made over $5 million. Already this year he repeated at Mayakoba, won the Hero World Challenge, finished second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and also won the non-PGA Tour Dubai Desert Classic.

“He’s just built on what he did in college,” Bratton said. “He’s very disciplined in what he eats and tries to figure out how to maintain weight and strength so you feel the same all the time when you’re on the road. He hasn’t changed his swing any, he’s just refined it and improved his strategy. He’s learned how to prepare mentally when he’s on the road.

“It’s a tremendous benefit for our guys when he’s home and they get to play with one of the top players on the world. It would be real easy to have him up on a pedestal, but he still acts like a college kid. It’s rare and unbelievably valuable for our guys.”

Hovland’s ball striking is a sight to behold and his putting has improved tremendously over the years. His chipping and finesse shots around the greens are a work in progress, one reason he enjoys playing at Oak Tree National where those touch shots are more often required than on the large greens at Karsten Creek.

“I would tell him not to worry about his chipping,” said fellow OSU alum and rising PGA Tour star Talor Gooch. “He’s a stripe show. The way he hits it and the way he putts it, he’s going to be pretty danged good for the next 20 years. The last thing you want is for any negative thoughts about chipping to creep into the rest of your game.”

“With chipping you have good weeks and bad weeks, it’s a work in progress,” said Hovland. “I think I’m a way different player than I was in college. I can hit it higher and been putting a lot of emphasis on my longer clubs and getting more speed off the tee. I’ve really had a good putting year (ranked 51st in strokes gained putting in early April).”

Hovland’s career has already included a stint on the European Ryder Cup team, where he took some serious ribbing at Whistling Straits from U.S. fans, who chanted Boomer Sooner at him. But he’s a hard guy not to like.

What are his goals after so much early success?

“It’s a boring answer, but I would love to put on the green jacket at Augusta, and I would like to win the PGA Championship in Oklahoma,” Hovland said. “But that’s not what I focus on. I look at little things, like how do I get a little more ball speed, how do I chip it better. If I can slowly improve those things, the big goals are much more likely to come my way.”

Hovland, left, with current OSU players Brian Stark and Leo Oyo.

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