As a four-time All-American at Oklahoma State, Austin Eckroat had a lot of positive momentum heading into his professional golf career. After turning pro in 2021, Eckroat played 16 tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022 to finish 35th in the standings and earn his PGA Tour card for the 2022-23 season.
From there, it was a seemingly easy transition to the Big Show, where he notched three top-10s and six top-25s as a rookie, including a runner-up finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson earlier this year.
But in addition to his success on Tour, Eckroat has another interesting bullet-point on his bio. During his time at Oklahoma State, he was roomies with none other than World No. 5 Viktor Hovland.
Viktor Hovland bested all at BMW. Then came a flowery 3-word greeting
Eckroat and Hovland lived together for two years, during which time Eckroat became intimately acquainted with Hovland’s taste — or perhaps lack thereof, depending on your own proclivities — in music. Spoiler alert: Hovland is a metalhead.
On this week’s episode of Subpar, Eckroat explained to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz which side of the fence he’s on.
“Most of the time, [Hovland] was wearing headphones,” Eckroat began. “But sometimes he’d walk in, he’s cooking something, and it was just the worst music you’ve ever heard in your entire life, just on full blast.”
“Can you confirm he owns black lipstick?” Knost asked with a laugh.
“Cannot confirm,” Eckroat replied. “But he showed me a couple of those music videos, and if you listen to it with the music video, you think this guy is just not right. Yeah this guy — he’s got some demons.”
For more from Eckroat, including his relationship with fellow pro and Oklahoma State alum Matt Wolff, check out the full interview below.