Viktor Hovland has been engaged in a tug of war with his game. He has had a successful career on the PGA Tour, but he hadn’t won anything since 2023. Hovland won the US Amateur in 2018 as was a member of the Oklahoma St. national championship team. He has a list of amateur victories and accomplishments as long as the list of players competing on tour. He had six victories on the PGA Tour since 2020 and was in the conversation as one of the elite players in the game. You have to wonder how a player with this skill level and experience could lose confidence in his game, labelling this victory as “disgusting.” How is this possible? In my entire 50 years of playing the game at a reasonable handicap, I couldn’t shine Hovland’s shoes on my best day.
The answer is simply it’s the game of golf. In my first book, ” Golf Chronicles”, I wrote about the Pyramid of Competition from the hacker to the professional golfer. It turns out that golf is even more complicated than that concept. The professional golfer has its own pyramid of competitiveness ranging from the golf professional business executive running a golf club, to the Korn Ferry player that is trying to earn a PGA Tour card, to the PGA professional competing on tour, to the elite membership of the PGA Tour. Other strands of the professional golf pyramid are the various mini tours within the United States and the International tours. The PGA Tour has its own mini pyramid consisting of the elite multiple winners, Ryder Cup team members, major champions and those players that qualify for the tour but haven’t been able to win and everyone else “in between.” Hovland is currently one of the “in between.” He has an incredible amount of skill as he rips the cover off the ball and goes right after it with every shot. It seems that his troubles started in 2022-2023 when his short game began to veer off the reservation and cost him dearly in close tournaments including bunker play and chip shots. He worked hard with his team to overcome the short game issues and he definitely made progress in 2024. In 2025 it seems the gods of golf have introduced challenges to his golf swing that has been unnerving to him. Professionals will tell you that they only hit a handful of “quality” shots during their competitive rounds. At the highest level of golf, swing techniques and movements can be disturbed in mystifying ways. You would think that after all these years of tremendous competitive success that it would be impossible to have serious lapses with your golf swing. The issue is that the game is so difficult at the highest level that any physical issue or flaw is geometrically compounded by mental collapses in confidence. When this occurs, you have no choice but to work it out physically until you return to that comfort zone. It’s easy for me to accomplish because I’m not trying to earn a living or reach the top of the pyramid. Hovland missed three cuts coming into this event but his “disgusting” play was just good enough to defeat Justin Thomas. Thomas is also coming back from a major slump and eventually this will happen. Hovland appreciated his victory but was sanguine in his attitude. It could be interpreted that his comments demonstrate a tinge of arrogance as it is highly unusual that “disgusting” golf wins golf tournaments. He is still flighting certain swing mechanics that will allay his feelings and get him into a position where he feels he can compete every week on tour. Tiger Woods was often able to win tournaments without his best stuff and I’m sure that Hovland will continue to pursue the magic elixir.
Golf is Crazy!
TGL Season
The TGL season is in the books with Atlanta besting New York winning the trophy and a bunch of money with 2 consecutive wins. The team of Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas defeated Xander Schauffele, Ricky Fowler and Cameron Young. Schauffele missed a four foot putt to enable Atlanta to win the first match. Trailing 3-0 in the second match, Billy Horschel snaked a 20 foot putt to put Atlanta in the lead on the 14th hole in the singles competition. Patrick Cantlay then chipped a very difficult shot over the bunker on the final hole onto the synthetic green to a foot to secure a 6-3 victory. The second match was highly competitive and the crowd turned into a mini Ryder Cup scream-out with supporters from both squads generating significant noise and emotion. Horschel would easily be anointed as the League MVP as he holed a number of significant putts throughout the entire season. Cantlay would be a close second as his tee to green play combined with an ability to chip on these tricky synthetic surfaces complemented Horschel’s prowess.
The TGL season has to go down as a huge success and has introduced some really good concepts into growing the game of golf such as the shot clock and general pace of play. The players thoroughly enjoyed themselves and their camaraderie added to a very competitive environment. Simulation golf can bring additional participants to the game and I believe the popularity of this concept will expand and grow in the coming years.
Joe, Watching the Valspar I was hoping to see Justin Thomas win his first event in several years. Two bogeys in the last three holes sunk his chances, but I think he has risen from the depths of his own confidence issues. And winning the TGL with the Atlanta team should help cement that confidence, hopefully leading to a win on Tour this season. I did a lot of fast forwarding while watching the TGL events, but I really found it more exciting than I expected. I will definitely add TGL to the golf I record on my DVR, but no way would I watch every minute of the coverage Of course I do not watch every minute of PGA events either. Thanks, Peter