The win marks Hovland’s first since the 2023 season, when he won three times on Tour and claimed the FedEx Cup title. (Brennan Asplen/Getty Images)
Thanks to a near-perfect finish on Sunday, Viktor Hovland has fixed what has been a very rough stretch of golf.
Hovland, who was three shots off the lead at one point on his back nine, carded three birdies in his final five holes to overtake Justin Thomas and claim the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, on Sunday afternoon. That marks his seventh career win on the PGA Tour, and came after the 27-year-old had missed three straight cuts.
“It’s still kind of sinking in. It was just really cool,” Hovland said on NBC. “I think when JT made a birdie there on 15 and he was three shots ahead, I still just felt really calm and I wasn’t really stressing even though I knew I probably had to make my putt on 14. When that went in, I just felt really, really calm there. I just hit good shots, made some putts, it was awesome.”
Hovland started Sunday tied for a share of the lead, though it was Justin Thomas who surged ahead. Thomas, who just barely made the cut on Friday, posted a 65 on Saturday to get right in the mix. He then got to 7-under in his round on Sunday after making four birdies in a five-hole stretch, but he stumbled down the finish. Thomas bogeyed twice in his final three holes, which completely opened the door for Hovland.
Hovland’s back nine, however, was just about perfect. He cut into the deficit after walking in a birdie at the 14th, and then he made another birdie after sticking his approach at the 16th.
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Hovland then drained a nearly 12-footer to give him the solo lead at the 17th after Thomas bogeyed ahead of him. That gave him a two-shot lead, which allowed him to bogey the last and walk away with the one-shot win. He finished with a 4-under 67 to close out his week.
Hovland’s win came after what was a very chaotic start to the tournament earlier this week. Three golfers absolutely erupted on the course in the first two rounds. Patton Kizzire tried to punt his putter across the green after he missed a putt on Thursday. He later withdrew due to an injury. Sahith Theegala then launched a club down the fairway after flaring a shot out to the right, though he still saved par on the hole.
The best incident came from Adam Hadwin, though, after he took his anger out on a sprinkler head after making a double bogey. The sprinkler then went off, which left Hadwin standing over it looking completely defeated.
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Thomas finished in second at 10-under on the week with his final-round 66. The 15-time winner has not won on Tour since his victory at the 2022 PGA Championship. Jacob Bridgeman finished alone in third at 9-under.
The win is Hovland’s first since the 2023 season, when he won three times on Tour and claimed the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup titles. He only had two top-10 finishes last season, however, and missed the cut at three of the four major championships. He missed the cut at The Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship before this week’s event, too.
Sunday’s win also came just two days after Hovland was incredibly critical of his own game. He walked away from the second round talking about how frustrated he was with his own game in recent years.
“It’s pretty frustrating, and you start thinking things you’ve never thought before,” he said Friday. “And this game becomes infinitely more challenging, and it’s already really challenging … “
I am hard on myself, yeah. But that’s also why I’m good. If I wasn’t hard on myself, I probably wouldn’t be out here. And yeah, I know that even with terrible mechanics I can still get out here and shoot a couple of nice scores, but that can also lead to 80 shots at The Players because I just don’t have control over what I’m doing.”
His comeback, though, is now complete.
