Who is Viktor Hovland’s coach?

The Norwegian has done plenty of tinkering with his team, so who is Viktor Hovland’s coach?

Hovland is one of the finest talents in golf, highlighted by his success on the PGA and DP World Tours.

He is also a multiple European Ryder Cup star, but work with one coach transformed his game in 2023.

That man was Joseph Mayo, but the pair parted ways (again!) ahead of 2025.

Now, as the new season gets underway, Hovland doesn’t currently have a formal swing coach. But it’s a little more complicated than that…

• Who is Viktor Hovland’s caddie?

• Who is Viktor Hovland’s girlfriend?

Viktor Hovland’s

At the end of 2024, Viktor Hovland began consulting coach TJ Yeaton – after splitting from Mayo for the second time.

But at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Hovland teamed up with his swing coach from his time at OSU (Ohio State), Denny Lucas.

As reported by Espen Blaker, Lucas was Hovland’s coach from early 2017 until he turned pro in 2019. The pair have stayed in touch since and worked together in the lead up to Bay Hill.

So, with his coaching team up in the air, let’s go back to where the conundrum began. At the start of the 2023 season, Hovland teamed up with Mayo, a highly respected coach in professional golf.

One of the pioneers in the use of the Trackman simulator in golf training, Mayo grew up in Cedar Grove, Tennessee.

The American teaches at The Summit Club for Discovery Land Company in Las Vegas and moved into coaching in 2008.

After suffering an eye injury which ended his volleyball career, Mayo found golf and started his first coaching job at a golf club in Palm Springs.

He then played poker professionally for around a decade before heading back to golf, where he began taking advantage of Trackman.

While working in a retail golf store, Mayo sold one of the inventions for $25,000 and soon became an expert in the innovative technology.

That opened the door to teaming up with high-profile golfers, and the rest is history as far as Hovland is concerned.

After the pair joined forces, Hovland won more than one tournament on the PGA Tour for the first time, on route to claiming the Tour Championship.

The biggest changes to Hovland’s game were his short game and strategy, transformed entirely by Mayo.

• Who is Tyrrell Hatton’s coach?

• Who is Shane Lowry’s coach?

After winning the 2023 Memorial Tournament, Hovland said: “He suggested our course management, or our strategy is not very good.”

“I didn’t have the short game that I have now.

“So, when you do end up on the downslope and you need to be able to spin the ball or slow the ball down, I just couldn’t do that.”

Mayo added: “I told him, ‘It’s not a birdie contest.

“This is a double-bogey-avoidance contest. At Oklahoma State, you could out-hit those guys, but you’re not going to outhit Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler.

“You have to outthink them, start playing chess.”

But in a surprise development before Hovland’s first tournament of 2024, it was confirmed that he had parted ways with Mayo.

It wasn’t until after a disappointing start to 2024 that Hovland was reunited with Mayo in the hope he could arrest his slump in form before the PGA Championship.

Previously, Hovland has worked on his short game with renowned coach Pete Cowen and had former player Denny Lucas as his ex-coach.

Hovland described his 2024 season as “pretty miserable”, with and without Mayo. That was before things got worse, as he picked up an injury.

As bunkered.co.uk learned, the unspecified injury forced Hovland to sit out of the DP World Tour’s season-ending play-offs.

However, Hovland returned to action at The Sentry in Janauary 2025 – the first event of the new PGA Tour season.

That is where he announced his second split with Mayo.

Hovland told Golfweek that he was talking to ‘a consultant’ – now confirmed as Yeaton – in a bid to rediscover his swing.

“In the long run, I’d like to be my own guy and once I know the swing is in a good spot and I can control the ball flights reliably I don’t need anyone to hold my hand anymore, but we need to get back there first,” he said.