Viktor Hovland perfectly described Augusta National’s challenge — and himself

Viktor Hovland is a searcher. The Norwegian star is deeply curious about all things — not just golf. His curious soul leads him to constant tinkering with his swing and equipment. Hovland wants to know. Not just the what but the how and the why. And the why behind the why.

Hovland and his inquisitive nature ascended as high as No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s since slid. But could that desire to know more allow Hovland to solve the mysteries in his own game and those presented by Augusta National this week?

Since 1934, the Masters’ host course has challenged, battered and bested the world’s top golfers. The faces change. The skill sets differ. The technology improves.

But Augusta National and the Masters continue to be the gold standard because the course demands your game have all the answers; out here, there’s no shortcut.

For Hovland, Augusta National’s short-game demands presented issues for him early on. He only has one top 10 in four career starts and missed the cut last year after shooting a second-round 81 while deep in the golfing wilderness.

Augusta has a way of exposing your weaknesses, Hovland said. It’s a course that only a golfer who is in complete control of his game and mind can conquer.

“It just seems like this whole place is just set up in a way to where it doesn’t allow you to get away with poor technique,” Hovland said Tuesday in his pre-tournament press conference. “It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s like, you have to hit the ball a certain distance. You have to be able to hit the ball a certain height. You have to be able to curve the ball somewhat. Around the greens, because it’s a longer grass, it’s always mowed into you, and if you have a subpar technique, it’s really going to punish you, especially when those greens are raised up. They’re really slopey. They’re really firm and fast. So if you don’t put spin on the ball, you’re going to have a really hard time. Especially the bunkers, too, there’s a lot of sand in the bunkers. The type of grain that’s in the sand, it makes it so that if you — maybe at a different place, if you get a little bit more behind the ball and you lose the spin, well, now it’s going to spin even less. And at those green complexes, you just can’t survive.

“It forces you to be kind of at the best in every single part of your game to be able to win this championship, and I think that’s just a sign of a great tournament, that it truly tests the best players.”

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At 27, Hovland is still young, and he’s continuing to build a library of knowledge at Augusta. He’s young and curious, filled with a freedom of mind and spirit, compelled to wander and search. Perhaps we’ll eventually see a different version of Hovland — one more reserved and less willing to walk out onto the branch of the unknown. But not yet.

Instead, Hovland opened himself up. There was a reference to the movie “8 Mile” with Eminem. My colleague Nick Piastowski wrote about Hovland’s fascination with UFOs and how that connects to his pursuit of a green jacket.

“I think it’s just interesting when you have an open mind and you question anything,” Hovland said. “I think even in the golf swing you can get very dogmatic and you look at things as, oh, this has to be a truth, this has to be correct, and sometimes the beliefs that you hold the most deeply can obfuscate yourself. When you question things and look at things from different angles, you might get to a deeper truth.”

That deep interest in the mysteries of life, the pursuit of the unknowable, is a window into a golfer whose nature aligns perfectly with what Augusta National asks of its champions — creativity, imagination, fearlessness.

“When you try to put yourself in a position to where you can learn and try it out for yourself, kind of view the world as you’re a scientist and you’re trying things for yourself and then writing down or seeing the results of the things that you try and then you try something different to see if that works better,” Hovland said. “I think that’s just an exciting way to go through life instead of just kind of being in a mundane routine where you do the same things every single day and hoping for a better result. That’s not really how I’m wired. I just like to try new things and see what happens.”

Augusta National asks profound questions of the golfers who walk its fairways and attempt to read its greens. It demands precision and a willingness to look beyond what you already know about the game and about yourself. That’s where the answers lie. Enter Hovland, the type of restless and curious golf soul excited to chase Augusta’s mysteries, opening himself up to a whole new plane of golf understanding in the process.