His small, wealthy country is rightly proud of the achievements of one of its finest athletes. Viktor Hovland is a resounding success story. Born in Oslo 26 years ago, he became the first Norwegian (in 2018) to win the U.S. Amateur, rose to number one in the World Amateur Ranking in 2019 and, a year later, made history again by becoming the first Norwegian to win on the U.S. PGA Tour (Puerto Rico Open). In 2021, he repeated the feat on the European Tour (BMW International Open).
Since then he has won five other PGA Tour tournaments, including the 2023 Tour Championship, which resulted in his victory in the FedEx Cup and $18 million in prize money that came with that triumph. At the end of February this year, Hovland was fourth in the world ranking, preceded by (in order) Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm.
Hovland started playing golf at the age of 11 with his father, Harald, who was introduced to the sport while working as an engineer in the United States. On his return to Norway, he brought his clubs with him and began teaching his son. Five years later, in 2014, the teenage Viktor won the Norwegian Amateur Golf Championship. From 2016 to 2019, he played college golf at Oklahoma State University, where he stood out for his hugely impressive talent, so much so that in 2018 he won the U.S. Amateur, and earned invitations to the 2019 editions of the U.S. Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open. In 2018 he made his debut in a professional tournament playing as an amateur, at the Emirates Australian Open, finishing tied 13th.
In 2019 Hovland played in his first major championship and he certainly did not disappoint: he was the top amateur in the Masters, finishing three-under in 32nd place. Thanks to this meritorious performance he climbed to number one in the World Amateur Ranking.
In the U.S. Open that same year, he finished 12th, again the top amateur in the tournament, carding 280 over the four days. This was the lowest 72-hole score by an amateur at the U.S. Open, beating the previous record of 282, set by Jack Nicklaus in 1960. Hovland became the first player to finish as the highest-ranked amateur at both the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same season since Matt Kuchar in 1998. In 2019, he received the Ben Hogan Award, given to the leading collegiate golfer in the United States.
With such a golfing pedigree, it was only natural that the young Hovland would turn professional, and that's exactly what he did after playing in the 2019 U.S. Open. His professional debut came at the age of 21 at the Travelers Championship in June although, on losing his amateur status, he forfeited his invitation to play in that season's U.S. Open.
In August, Hovland finished tied for second place at the Albertsons Boise Open, part of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. That result secured him a PGA Tour card for the 2019-2020 season. The Norwegian set the PGA Tour record for most consecutive rounds under 70 (19).
In February 2020, Hovland made his country proud again by becoming the first Norwegian to win on the PGA Tour, at the Puerto Rico Open. In December, he secured his second Tour victory when he birdied the 72nd hole at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.
The Scandinavian party continued when, in June 2021, Hovland became the first player from Norway to win on the European Tour, at the BMW International Open.
In September that same year, Hovland played for the European team in the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler (Wisconsin), where the Americans overwhelmed the visitors 19-9.
In November, Hovland successfully defended his title at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in Mexico. He won by four shots and set the tournament record at 23-under-par. A month later, he won the Hero World Challenge, finishing at 18-under-par, one stroke ahead of Scottie Scheffler. The key moments of this victory were back-to-back eagles on the 14th and 15th holes in the final round.
Hovland started 2022 with good vibes and an excellent result: a top-five finish at the European Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January. The following week he won the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, where, after carding a 66 in the final round, he birdied the first play-off hole to defeat Richard Bland. The victory elevated him to number three in the world ranking. In December 2022 Hovland successfully defended his title at the Hero World Challenge in Albany (Bahamas), matching Tiger Woods as the only player with back-to-back victories in the tournament.
In 2023 Hovland was close to securing his first major victory. A poor final round of 74 in the Masters at Augusta National dropped him to seventh, while in the U.S. PGA Championship at Oak Hill he shot a final round 68 to finish second, two strokes behind the champion, Brooks Koepka.
In June, Hovland won the Memorial Tournament, defeating Denny McCarthy in sudden-death. The Norwegian birdied the 17th to force a play-off, being the only player that day to birdie the penultimate hole.
In August, Hovland shot a record 61 in the final round to win the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago. This was the second tournament of the 2023 FedExCup Playoffs. The following week, he won the Tour Championship and, consequently, the FedExCup. The Norwegian, then 25 years old, became the third youngest FedExCup champion.
In 2023, in the same month he celebrated his birthday (18 September), Hovland competed in the Ryder Cup at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Guidonia, Rome. The European team won 16.5-11.5 and Hovland recorded one draw, one loss and three wins, including his singles match on Sunday against Collin Morikawa. His last tournament of the year was the Hero World Challenge, where he finished 10th.
In the early stages of this year, in contrast to the end of 2023, he has been struggling to get into his customary championship-winning rhythm.
Among his key goals for this season are to win a major, move up the world ranking and repeat his multi-million dollar victory in the FedEx Cup. If he achieves the latter, it would be $25 million ($7 million more than last year) added to his earnings on the PGA Tour, which so far stand at over $27 million.
TITBITS ABOUT HOVLAND
The Norwegian star learned English by watching movies on television, especially historical dramas such as Lincoln and Amity.
Hovland is a huge fan of heavy metal music, and an avowed fan especially of bands such as Metallica, Tool and System of the Down.
Apart from golf (obviously), young Viktor grew up showing great interest in two other sports: one played as a team, football (soccer); and the other as an individual, taekwondo.
The young Hovland started playing golf at the age of 11 and, given the adverse Norwegian weather, spent most of the year practising at an indoor driving range.
Of the 14 majors he has played in as a professional, Hovland has three top 10s: second in the 2023 PGA Championship, fourth in the 2022 British Open and seventh in the 2023 Masters. He missed one cut (U.S. Open 2022) and withdrew from the 2021 U.S. Open due to an eye irritation caused by sand splashing into his eyes from a bunker while practising. He withdrew from the tournament after playing nine holes of his second round, as his eye discomfort persisted.
