Viktor Hovland is soaking in the glory from another win early in his promising career on the PGA Tour. Sure, the Hero World Challenge only featured 19 other players (albeit very good players), and it’s not an official Tour event, but Hovland still put on a show to prove why he’s one of the world’s best players.
And, of course, he still took home a cool $1 million for his efforts, improving his world ranking to No. 7. Not bad for a silly-season event.
But one detail of Hovland’s victorious week in the Bahamas revealed by an onlooker on Twitter showed that he tried his best to maximize his winnings. How? By keeping costs down.
Viktor Hovland wins chaotic Hero World Challenge behind brilliant 3-hole stretch
Many of the biggest names in golf fly around the world from tournament to tournament in expensive private jets, dishing out fortunes for the sake of privacy and convenience. But the down-to-earth Hovland isn’t your average star golfer.
Even though the 24-year-old has already raked in $9,144,863 in his career, it appears that Hovland may have chosen to fly commercial to the Bahamas for the Hero.
At least that’s what it looks like from a photo a bystander posted on Twitter the Sunday before the tournament. In the pic allegedly taken at the airport in Nassau, Bahamas, a masked Hovland can be seen standing around with other passengers, passport in hand, waiting in line.
According to the tweet from Joy Chakravarty, another passenger asked Hovland who he was, to which he replied, “I live in Oklahoma and play a bit of golf.”
Check it out below.
No word on whether he splurged for a private flight home after his victory, but either way, if he did indeed fly commercial, he likely saved in the neighborhood of $10,000. That should at least help with his taxes.