Viktor Hovland hits his tee shot on Saturday on the 1st hole at Albany Golf Club.
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The story was mud. And the star was nearly spotless.
During Saturday’s Hero World Challenge third round, Viktor Hovland birdied 3, 4 and 5, and 7, and 11, 12 and 13, and 15, 16 and 17. Ten circles in all, against two bogeys. On a day when the field was mired in muddy conditions — and the mud balls that cropped up from them — the event’s defending champion cruised.
After an eight-under 64 that gave him a 13-under total and a three-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round, Hovland said all of it was fun. Of course it was.
“I started — I missed probably like a 10-footer on the first hole and lipped out and I kind of thought, here we go again, but after that, it was a lot of putts that went in,” Hovland said. “You need that on a day like today, when the winds are down and you can be a little bit more aggressive. That’s the only way you can make that many birdies, so that was a lot of fun.”
Indeed. His reward is a final-round final pairing, at 12:40 p.m. with Scottie Scheffler, his closest pursuer, at three back. Five back of Hovland are Justin Thomas and Cameron Young, and they make up the penultimate pairing, at 12:29 p.m.
Below are the final-round tee times. TV coverage will begin at noon on Golf Channel, then it will turn over to NBC starting at 1 p.m.
2022 Hero World Challenge final-round tee times (All times ET)
Tee No. 1
11:01 a.m. — Corey Conners, Kevin Kisner
11:12 a.m. — Matt Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry
11:23 a.m. — Jordan Spieth, Max Homa
11:34 a.m. — Tom Kim, Tommy Fleetwood
11:45 a.m. — Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel
11:56 a.m. — Sam Burns, Tony Finau
12:07 p.m. — Jon Rahm, Sepp Straka
12:18 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele
12:29 p.m. — Justin Thomas, Cameron Young
12:40 p.m. — Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler
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Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.