Sign up for our daily newsletter
Latest news, reviews, analysis and opinion, plus unmissable deals for bunkered subscriptions, events, and our commercial partners.
The entrance to Jernbanetorget, Oslo’s main railway station, is dominated by a large bronze tiger. It’s a nod to Bjørnsterne Bjørnson’s poem “Sidste Sang” from which Norway’s historic capital takes its nickname: Tigerstaden.
The Tiger City.
Assuming
he can maintain his current trajectory, it’s surely only a matter of
time before that statue is replaced – or at the very least joined – by a
similar sculpture of Viktor Hovland.
Still
only 23, Hovland was still some months from being born when Tiger Woods
won the first of his 15 majors at the 1997 Masters, yet he is the
closest thing Norway has, or has ever had, to the former world No.1. And
like Woods, he has his father to thank for introducing him to the game.
It
was 2008 and Harald Hovland, an engineer, had spent most of the year
4,000 miles from home on a project in St Louis. To kill time, he bought a
set of clubs to use at a driving range close to the site. When he
returned to Norway at the end of his secondment, he took a junior set back for 11-year-old Viktor.
Unbeknown
to Harald or his Russian wife Galina, it was a present that would set
their only child on the path to stardom, an unremarkable gift that has,
by serendipitous quirk, delivered remarkable results.
Fuelled by an intense passion and quiet perfectionism, Viktor committed himself fully to golf. He would practice on the range at the Drøbak Golf Club deep into the long summer nights on the fringes of the Arctic Circle. In the winter, when the sun rose only briefly, he would grind for hours at an indoor range within a converted airplane hangar.
His tunnel vision became the stuff of local legend. “We used to joke that a bomb could go
off next to Viktor on the training field and he wouldn’t even notice,” his junior coach Nicolai Langeland is on record as saying.
• Ryder Cup: Where to watch it on UK TV
Another
of his former coaches, Magnus Ohlsson, remarked: “He’s the only one I
know who would keep training even on his birthday, or who would come
home from a tournament in Europe, land at Gardermoen Airport in Oslo and
head straight to the golf club to practice. In the autumn, he would be
furious because the sun went down too early. Then there weren’t enough
hours to train.”
In
short order, the family mantelpiece began to fill up with silverware.
He won title after title and represented Norway and the Continent of
Europe at various high-profile events: the Jacques Leglise Trophy, the Youth Olympics, the European Amateur Team Championship, the Eisenhower Trophy and more.
This,
in turn, attracted the attention of US college recruiters. Tennessee,
Texas Tech, TSU and Oklahoma State all tabled offers. After much
deliberation, Hovland accepted the latter and in three hugely successful
years at OSU he competed in several NCAA championships, secured first
team All-American honours
from the Golf Coaches Association, reached the top of the World Amateur
Golf Rankings and, in 2018, became the first Norwegian – and only the
seventh different European – to win the US Amateur. More of which
shortly.
After
winning the low amateur spoils at both The Masters and US Open in 2019 –
the latter in record-breaking fashion, eclipsing Jack Nicklaus’
previous low total of 282 – Hovland turned professional.
• The ugliest US Ryder Cup outfits of all time
A month into
his career, he earned his PGA Tour card for the 2019-20 season by
finishing in a tie for second in the Albertsons Boise Open, part of the
Korn Ferry Tour Finals. In February 2020, he became the first Norwegian
to win on golf’s most lucrative circuit when he won the Puerto Rico
Open. Before the year was out, he’d done so again, this time at the Mayakoba Classic. More recently, in June, he won the BMW International Open on the European Tour.
Comfortably
ranked within the world’s top-20, he will make his Ryder Cup debut
later this year, capping a meteoric rise to the very top of the game.
No wonder he’s smiling…
* * *
You’re about to make your Ryder Cup debut. How excited are you?
It’s
going to be incredible. I’ve watched countless Ryder Cups since I was a
kid, rooting for Team Europe and, you know, the last ten or 15 years,
it’s been a good time to do it, so hopefully I can be part of keeping
that streak going.
You’re
obviously making a cool piece of history this year as the first
Norwegian to play in the match. How will that be received back home?
I
don’t know about regular people tuning in to watch it but if you play
golf, you’re probably going to pay attention – a bit like anywhere in
the world, really. If you like golf, you love the Ryder Cup. But you
know, it’s cool. As a kid, I would spend a big part of the day on my
couch, in front of the TV and fist-pumping whenever a putt for Team
Europe would go in, so to think I’m going to be a part of that now and
claim that little bit of history, it’s pretty neat.
• The Ryder Cup stars you’d forgotten about
What are your favourite memories of watching the Ryder Cup as a kid?
The
year at Medinah was pretty special. I can’t remember the whole timeline
because it got pretty crazy on that Sunday as we know but I clearly
remember Justin Rose clutching-up to get a half from his match from Phil
Mickelson and [Ian] Poulter getting a good win against Webb Simpson. It
seemed like we won the last couple of holes in every match. It was just
bonkers.
You’re obviously primarily based in the States on the PGA Tour. Can that be an advantage for you this year in particular?
I
think so, especially with the American crowd. Playing so much out there
means that I at least have an idea of what it’s going to be like!
Don’t worry, they don’t tend to give rookies that hard a time…
Ha!
We’ll see about that! I’m not sure they’re going to go easy on me but
we’ll see how it goes. As long as we get the right result, that’s all
that matters.
* * *
It was Hovland’s win in the 2018 US Amateur that gave the first meaningful
notice of his talent. He wrapped up his six matches in a combined 104
holes, matching the mark for the fewest holes played by a champion since
1979. He trailed for only one hole all week and at no point in his
final 86. Of the 104 holes he played, he won 44. It was an outrageously
emphatic victory in the most competitive, most prestigious amateur
tournament on the planet.
• 6 reasons the US will win Ryder Cup
His
form in the sport’s paid realm has been equally impressive. In only his
eighth PGA Tour round, he closed with a 64 in the Rocket Mortgage
Classic in Detroit. That began a record-breaking sequence of 19
consecutive sub-70 rounds on the tour, two more than the previous record
set by Bob Estes in 2001.
Those
who know him best will tell you that’s just typical of Hovland, who has
routinely achieved the unlikely and impressive. He learned English, for
example, by watching historical films such as Amistad and Lincoln in
between listening to Metallica, System of a Down and Tool. His fluency
now would put many native speakers to shame.
Unsurprisingly,
his performances have caught the eye of his peers. How couldn’t they?
The man who will captain him in this year’s Ryder Cup, Padraig
Harrington, has said that he “looks like he belongs”. Tiger Woods
reckons he has “such a bright future ahead of him”.
Fellow
OSU alum Rickie Fowler agrees. “Hovie’s had a great career so far,” he
told bunkered. “It’s been a short one so far but he’s making the most of
it. He’s a great player. He drives it awesome – I actually think that
may be one of the strongest parts of his game – he’s a great iron
player, he’s got great hands and when he gets the putter going, things
can happen like his win in the BMW.
• Bradley: I think about Medinah every day
“He’ll be a good young addition to
the European squad. He doesn’t need a whole lot of advice. He’ll be on
an experienced European team who’ve been doing alright the last 30 years
or so, so I think he’ll be just fine.”
Just fine if he can harness those Day One jitters…
* * *
A
lot of is made of how nerve-wracking the first tee is in the Ryder Cup,
particularly for rookies. Have you given any consideration to that yet?
I’ve heard some stories of guys sky-ing
their first tee shot. Was it maybe Webb who did that at Gleneagles? So,
yeah, I’m going to try not to do that but, you know, it’s just one of
those things. You’ve got to embrace the situation, stick to your routine
and put the club on it.
You don’t seem like the sort of guy who gets too affected by nerves. Is that fair?
Oh,
I can get pretty nervous but a lot of the time that’s because I want it
too bad. There’s a lot of self-induced pressure. If I hit a couple of
bad shots early, I can kind of get a little jittery and maybe don’t
commit as well as I should to the next couple of shots. It can be a
conscious decision on my part to snap out of that but it’s weird, it’s
something that changes from day to day. Sometimes you feel really
comfortable and others you don’t have your ‘A’ game and that’s when you
can start to feel the nerves kick a bit more. With any luck, that won’t
happen at Whistling Straits.
We
all know how much of an influence your fellow Norwegian Suzann
Pettersen has had on the Solheim Cup down the years. Have you reached
out to her for any advice about how to prepare for what is, let’s face
it, a pretty unusual week?
Not
really particularly about that. I get a couple of text messages here
and there from her saying, ‘Hey, good playing’. I think she’s back home
in Norway now, enjoying the life over there, so I haven’t had a chance
to talk to her about the Ryder Cup or anything. Not yet, anyway.
Suzann was talismanic for the European Solheim Cup team. It seems like you’re in a good place to potentially do likewise with the Ryder Cup over the next decade or so.
Man,
that would be really cool. We’re going to start with this first one,
though, and see how it goes. I’m feeling good about it. I’ve played some
of my best golf in matchplay and I hope to continue that trend in Wisconsin.
* * *
Wisconsin.
It’s there, roughly 400 miles from St Louis where the story began, that
another chapter of Viktor Hovland’s own personal golf fairytale will be
written.
The boy from the ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’ has become a man in the ‘Royal & Ancient Game’. Next stop: major glory?
To the Viktor, the spoils.
Get more like this
This piece first appeared in issue 187 of bunkered (July 2021). To subscribe, click here. International subscriptions also available.
ALL ABOUT THE MASTERS
More Reads
The bunkered Golf Course Guide - Scotland
Now, with bunkered, you can discover the golf courses Scotland has to offer. Trust us, you will not be disappointed.
Find Courses