While many pros have elected to board the PGA Tour’s private jet and cruise through the clouds from one city to the next, Viktor Hovland has been among those who has decided to drive. And he’s racking up the miles in his Lexus RC F.
Hovland, who lives in Stillwater, Okla., decided to make the short four-hour drive to Fort Worth, Texas, when the Tour returned at the Charles Schwab Challenge last month — and he’s still going. From Texas to South Carolina to Connecticut and, now, to this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
“I just kept on thinking, Well, what if I just take my car to all these tournaments,” he said. “I looked up, it’s 16 hours to Hilton Head, it’s 13 hours to Connecticut and yadda yadda. I just said, OK, I’m not going to think about it, we’re just going to do it. Yeah, been having a lot of fun so far.”
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Hovland stayed with his caddie, Shay Knight, in Charleston, S.C., after the RBC Heritage and they drove together to Hartford, Conn., for the Travelers. That’s been the only leg of the trip where he’s had company. He said he’s not driving simply due to the coronavirus pandemic, but mostly because he likes to drive and this way he can set his own schedule. He’s turned to lots of music (a bunch of metal, especially since it keeps him awake), podcasts (Joe Rogan and Making Sense) and Red Bull. Lots of Red Bull. He drank six when he made the long overnight drive from Texas to South Carolina on Sunday night into Monday morning.
But the driving has apparently paid off. The 22 year old, who earned his first PGA Tour victory at the Puerto Rico Open in February, has finished T23, T21 and T11 in his three starts since golf’s return. Just this week he became the first Norwegian male to break into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s now 45th.
Hovland is playing the next two weeks after Detroit — the Workday Charity Open and Memorial, both of which are at Muirfield in Dublin, Ohio — but plans to take the 3M Open off on July 23-26. So his highway adventure might come to an end after Ohio, unless he decides to kick-start it again for a trip to San Francisco for the PGA Championship.
But, more importantly. Any speeding tickets?
“Not yet,” he said.