Do you believe in miracles?
Heading into the 2025 Valspar Championship this week, Viktor Hovland didn’t even believe in himself.
Nearly 18 months had passed since his last PGA Tour win, a drawn-out period of frustration marked by changes to his swing and coach but little in his results.
When he turned up on the first tee Thursday at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course, the 27-year-old Norwegian star was fresh off three consecutive missed cuts and wracked by deepening self-doubt.
“When you have no confidence and you don’t believe you’re going to play well that’s pretty tough,” Hovland said.
It was Sunday afternoon, and Hovland was speaking to the cameras in the incredulous tone of a man trying to wrap his head around what had just transpired.
Moments earlier, with a tap-in bogey on 18, he had completed a 4-under round of 67 to claim his first victory since the 2023 Tour Championship. He won the 2023 BMW Championship the week before. His 11-under total for the week put him one shot clear of Justin Thomas, who had surged to a three-shot lead with four holes remaining but slipped down the stretch while Hovland birdied two of his final three holes. Jacob Bridgeman finished in solo third, two off the pace at 9-under.
“It’s unbelievable to see that I could win,” Hovland said. “Because I honestly did not believe that I could do it this week.”
His lack of faith was based on mounting evidence, including a dispiriting showing at last week’s Players Championship, where he shot an 80 in the opening round. Battling his mechanics and his mindset, Hovland was an 11th-hour entry into the Valspar.
“I wasn’t even sure I was going to play or not until I got here Tuesday afternoon and played a late nine holes,” he said. “I played nine holes in the pro-am the next morning and we were here ready to go.”
Sort of ready, anyway.
On a tight, tree-lined course that ranks among the toughest venues on Tour, Hovland leaned on his iron game to overcome an inconsistent driver — “I am still hitting a lot of disgusting shots,” he said— and scrape his way into a tie for the 54-hole lead. Even then, he wasn’t sure what to expect on Sunday.
“I didn’t really know,” Hovland said. “I just tried to go out there and play my game and I knew I didn’t feel super comfortable or confident, but I was really patient and just tried to play really smart and I think that’s a credit kind of to myself this week is that I almost felt like I played this week like a veteran, like I’ve been out here for 20 years.”
Early in the final found, a fellow Tour star, Thomas, made a run. After reeling off three birdies on the front side, the two-time major champion kept rolling on the back. Since 2016, Thomas has 15 Tour wins, more than any player other than Rory McIlroy. But he has been mired in a victory drought of his own. His last title came in 2022 at the PGA Championship. On the 15th hole on Sunday, though, it looked like that dry spell was destined to end when Thomas drained another birdie (his seventh of the day) to extend his lead over Hovland to three.
But then came the Snake Pit, Copperhead’s notoriously tough closing three-hole stretch. Errant drives by Thomas on 16 and 18 led to bogeys on both holes. Playing in the group behind, Hovland hit a dead-eye approach on 16 for birdie, followed by another pin-seeker for a rare “2” on the 222-yard par-3 17th. When Thomas bogeyed 18, Hovland had a two-shot cushion with one hole to play.
In golf, it isn’t just what happens. It’s also how you look at it. Thomas said that he saw mostly positives.
“I take a lot of good, way, way more than bad,” he said. “It sucks not winning when you’re that close and have a great chance, but I just hopefully put myself in the same position at Augusta and finish it off better.”
Hovland sounded less certain. Was he looking at dark clouds or a silver lining?
On the one hand, the win “definitely helps,” he said. On the other, “it’s like some of the shots that I’m hitting, it’s going to make it really difficult for me to be in contention at Augusta if I don’t rectify that problem.”
