The post Inside Viktor Hovland’s pre-Masters gear change appeared first on Golf.

The post Inside Viktor Hovland’s pre-Masters gear change appeared first on Golf.

Not all bag changes on Tour are massive, especially at a major championship.

This week at the Masters for example, players are simply doing the basics, like loft and lie checks, regrips, etc. Any additions to the bag were planned and dialed weeks ago. So if a 7-wood or mini driver lands in the bag, that decision was made well in advance of this week.

However, on the Ping truck, something “big” did go down. Viktor Hovland finally put a new driver in play — the Ping G440 LST.

Hovland is the poster boy for Ping and its Tour operations, so Viktor being in new product is a big deal. Although regardless of how he is playing, he’s never been a huge club tinkerer. If it works, it’s staying in the bag unless something comes around that makes a more compelling argument.

Check out his bag, for example: he had a four-year-old driver (G425 LST), seven-year-old irons (Ping I210) and six-year-old 3-wood (TaylorMade SIM).

The whole setup screams “hard switcher.”

Another reason why this is such a big change? It’s the first major of the year and he’s coming off a win not even three weeks ago. The whole situation is quite bananas and not optimal as club-switching goes.

But what I’ve learned about Hovland the past few years, the guy only does things his own way.

On-site at Augusta National this week, Tour representative Kenton Oates explained to me this was five or six months in the making, and it was a game of putting bait on the hook and waiting for the perfect moment. Sometimes that big bite takes a long time to manifest and sometimes it happens when you don’t see it coming.

As Oates told me this week at Augusta National, the process started last October when Viktor wasn’t in the mindset to look at anything new. His swing was in flux and a new variable wasn’t helpful. Good Tour reps back off in this case as each player responds to testing differently and part of the art of being a good rep is knowing when to engage. Pushing to get new product in is never a path to success, as we’ve seen with literally all the major OEMs and some of their big staffers not putting in-line gear in at launch. It’s a process.

The other moving target in that Ping didn’t have exactly the head they knew Viktor would respond to. The G430 and at the time 440 only came in 9 and 10.5 degree lofts and Hovland requires something with a neutral face and a sub-8 degree loft to even start the conversation. So you can’t just get a 9 degree head and loft it down, as that opens the face and Viktor won’t look at it.

There’s only one way to fix that — make a special 7.5 head that doesn’t need adjusting. That’s exactly what happened, but it wasn’t until February that those heads made it into the Ping WRX dept. At this point Kenton knew he had at least a shot.

Check out the embedded video for the rest of the story.

I did get a chance to chat with Kenton a bit more on some of the other variables, and this is what he had to say:

JW: Has Viktor always been flat on the lie angle of his driver?

KO: Viktor has primarily played the flat dot setting in his drivers since going to longer length 45 3/4. The flatter lie angle allows Viktor to hit the center of the face more often and it ensures a proper start line. This also matches what we see with the rest of his bag from a lie angle POV. 

JW: From a numbers standpoint, what got significantly better? 

KO: The biggest initial takeaway from his Ping G440 testing was what he described in his interview at the Masters Tuesday.  The 440 allowed all his little misses on the face to have almost the same launch and spin. So instead of his toe miss dropping below 2000 and his heel strike going above 3000 spin, they have stayed much closer to his solid strikes, which range from about 2200-2500. 

JW: Speeder TR to Ventus Black Velo+? What’s the story there?

KO: From our initial testing in October to when we got the 7.5* degree heads in, our entire Tour group got a lot of time to work with 440. Fujikura Velo+ Black TX is a shaft that we felt was not only very close to his gamer shaft but tested very well with other players in 440.  We included it in the stuff we sent to Orlando last week for testing and he loved it right away.  

Viktor Hovland’s new Ping G440 LST

PING G440 LST Custom Driver

The G440 driver family (MAX, LST, SFT) is optimized to deliver more ball speed through multiple advancements, including PING’s deepest CG in a driver to date and a shallower, thinner face, while continuing to ensure the game-changing forgiveness expected from a PING driver. The G440 LST (Low Spin) design appeals to players with faster swing speeds, providing lower spin and more control in 9° and 10.5° lofts with the three-position back weight. HIGHLY FORGIVING Lighter head weight allows for heavier back weight.  FASTER FACE  Shallow, thinner, face increases ball speed for more distance, higher launch.  SOUND DESIGN New shaping, carbon crown and internal ribs produce muted impact experience.  FREE-HOSEL DESIGN Saves weight to lower CG, increase forgiveness. Allows for more heel-side face flexing for consistent ball speed across face. 

$619.00 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore

Loft: 7.5@7.25 w/ 3g heel, 35g backweight

Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black Velo+ 6-TX (Tipped 1″)

Fujikura Ventus Black Wood Shaft (Previous Gen)

  The Fujikura Ventus Black utilizes a Tour-inspired profile and the first to include Fujikura’s VeloCore Technology in an accelerated taper, ultra stiff tip profile. Maximum energy transfer from the tip section boosts the clubhead’s performance and a straight taper design enhances loading and feel. You can purchase the Fujikura Ventus Black in the following models: 6, 7, and 8. You can buy the Fujikura Ventus Black with the adaptor sleeve of choice built to your requires specifications. JOCKEY TIP: The Fujikura Ventus Black is ideal for the player looking for a low launch, low spin shaft that was designed to significantly tighten shot dispersion and maximize ball speed especially on off-center shots.

$350.00 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Length: 45 3/4″

Sleeve: Flat dot setting

Swing Weight: D5

Grip: Golf Pride MCC 58R Blue/Black

Looking for the right clubs for your own game? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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The post 3 storylines heading into the BMW PGA Championship final round appeared first on Golf.

The post 3 storylines heading into the BMW PGA Championship final round appeared first on Golf.

After an eventful week featuring the continued bickering between the PGA Tour-DP World Tour and LIV Golf, and the death of a monarch, it’s a Scandinavian duo who find them themselves atop the leaderboard heading into the final round of the shortened BMW PGA Championship.

Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen and Norway’s Viktor Hovland are tied at 12-under after Saturday’s second round of the DP World Tour’s flagship event and lead by one over three golfers, including Rory McIlroy.

The event was shortened to 54 holes after play was suspended Thursday and canceled Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Here are three storylines we’re watching heading into the third and final round:

Scandinavian success

Hovland opened the tournament with a 64 Thursday, before play was suspended, and was tied for the lead when the second round began Saturday morning. A 68 has him tied with Kjeldsen, whose scores were flipped with Hovland, opening with 68 and then climbing up the leaderboard with a 64 Saturday.

His 8-under round was the second-best of the day, only bettered by Min Woo Lee’s 62, and he even bogeyed the first. He quickly made up ground, picking up four strokes in four holes, on four through seven, and then making five birdies on the inward nine.

“I made a few more putts today,” Kjeldsen said. “I putted decent on Thursday, but I putted well today, so there was the four shots.”

He nearly made one more putt, after leaving himself 10 feet for eagle at Wentworth’s par-5 finishing hole. But his putt just stayed high.

“It’s a game like that, isn’t it?” Kjeldsen asked. “If you only focus on the ones you miss, you’re going to have a pretty miserable time so it’s better to spend time thinking about the ones you make. I certainly try to do that.”

Hovland, meanwhile went 32 holes, this week before making his first bogey, which came on the 15th hole Saturday.

How did he rebound? Birdies at 16 and 18 to finish off his day and stay tied with Kjeldsen.

The world No. 9 credited his consistent play to his iron play, as he’s also ranked ninth this week in greens in regulation.

“My irons have been really good this week,” he said. “I think I’ve only missed a handful of greens in total for the two rounds, and that obviously alleviates a lot of pressure.”

While neither player is British, Kjeldsen has spent a lot of time over his life in the UK.

With no play taking place Friday and the tournament only being played over 54 holes following the Queen’s death, the Dane spoke to the uniqueness of the past two days.

“It was very special,” he said. “Obviously being a foreigner, but having lived here, it’s quite overwhelm to go actually feel what the queen has meant to the British people, so I was sort of taken back by that. She was obviously incredibly loved and did a great job. It was a special moment.”

LIV golfers lurking

Before the suspension of play Thursday, headlines this week were dominated by the drama that has come with the meeting of LIV Golfers and other pros. Several have held their own.

On the leaderboard, LIV golfers Talor Gooch and Adrian Otaegui find themselves firmly in the hunt, just two back of the leaders at 10-under-par.

Joining Gooch and Otaegui in contention is Justin Harding, two shots further back, at 8-under.

McIlroy one back

The PGA Tour’s biggest proponent, meanwhile, is just a shot back, at 11-under. McIlroy tied his lowest round at Wentworth on Saturday with a bogey-free 65 to vault into a share of third.

Should he come back to claim one of the DP World Tour’s biggest titles, he could set himself up to be just the second player to win both the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup and the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai. Henrik Stenson pulled off the feat in 2013. McIlroy is on top of the Race to Dubai standings this season, but Viktor Hovland could overtake him with a win.

McIlroy has found himself at the forefront of the LIV vs. PGA Tour debate, and has been one of the most outspoken critic of the Saudi-backed league. He said winning at Wentworth would help make his season even more special then it already has been.

“We lose a lot more than we win, so every win is big,” McIlroy said. “But with everything that’s going on around our game, everything that’s happened in this country over the last couple days, it would certainly be up there as one of most memorable.  But it would be hard to put in context where it would sit alongside the other achievements that I’ve had.”

He also took the chance to point out the irony in circumstances of the shortened event. LIV Golf, you see, plays 54 holes.

“I’m excited about tomorrow,” McIlroy said. “I haven’t played one of these events, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it feels.“

“54 holes?” a reporter asked what he was referring too.

“Yeah, exactly,” McIlroy responded.

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The post Viktor Hovland drove 22 hours and set a course record in the Arctic Circle appeared first on Golf.

The post Viktor Hovland drove 22 hours and set a course record in the Arctic Circle appeared first on Golf.

Lofoten Links is the stuff of dreams.

The golf course is situated 95 miles above the Arctic Circle in a remote area of northern Norway. In the winter, the sun barely rises. In the summer, it never sets. And in those few glorious months, there’s a 24-hour-a-day opportunity for one-of-a-kind golf.

The scenery is ridiculous. Lofoten is craggy, rocky, rugged. It hangs over the edge of the Norwegian Sea. It’s the sort of place that golf adventurers travel across the world to play, paying between $50 and $150 for the chance to play under the midnight sun. Occasionally, professional golfers do the same.

Enter Viktor Hovland.

Fresh off a T4 finish at the Open Championship in late July, Hovland headed home to Norway. Then he headed north.

“Yeah, it was amazing,” Hovland said at this week’s BMW Championship, when asked about the trek he made with three golfing buddies. “I had never been further north in Norway than Trondheim, which is about a six-hour car ride from Oslo, where I’m from, and we drove 22 hours straight up north.”

That got them to the Lofoten Islands, specifically Gimsøya, and even more specifically the farmstead named after its owner, Frode J. Hov, also the course’s founder and owner. Hov, meet Hovland. No wonder he felt at home.

“It’s amazing how they can build a golf course in such a remote area and still have the golf course be really good I thought,” Hovland said. “It was in great condition, and we didn’t have the best of weather, but just to have a golf course there in the middle of nowhere, it’s pretty special.”

Only one problem: Hovland didn’t have his golf clubs. They hadn’t arrived from the Open yet, and Lofoten is a demanding course off the tee; flat grassy stretches aren’t overly abundant in this craggy part of the world. On a windy, chilly first day, that meant a proper challenge.

“So I used my buddy’s clubs, and the first day it was blowing 35, and the fairways are pretty narrow, so as soon as you miss the fairways it’s just a re-tee,” Hovland said. “So I think I shot 83.”

Things were calmer the next day. A video of Hovland on the first tee shows a hint of blue sky, and he roped one over the edge of the sea, covering the rocky beach and flying it onto the green. According to the folks at Lofoten, he made the putt for eagle. It was on. He birdied 2, 8, 11, 13, 15 and 17, logging six birdies plus that eagle and 11 pars for a round of 8-under 63.

Hovland described the round as “quiet, perfect conditions.” That meant he was lucky. And good.

It’s not the first time Hovland has proven himself a local legend. After his tee time booking went viral last summer, several hundred Norwegians showed up to watch Hovland play with fellow pro Andreas Halvorsen, surprising the unsuspecting groups who teed off just before them. He’s beloved in his home country. Sports Illustrated put it this way: Hovland is already by far the best golfer Norway has produced. No one is in second place.

Nor is this Hovland’s first road trip. Early in golf’s post-pandemic return, Hovland drove…everywhere. From Fort Worth to Hilton Head. From Hilton Head to Hartford. From Hartford to Detroit. From Detroit to Columbus. He listened to heavy metal the entire way.

Hovland’s journey is admirable and enviable for obvious reasons. How many pros would use their off week to take a mega-road trip to remote Norway with three buddies? It’s the sort of venture that would poll near 0% on the PGA Tour but near 100% for fans at home — so it’s fun to see Hovland do the golf-nerd thing.

I just would have made someone else in charge of music.

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The post More structure, less curve: How Viktor Hovland went from good to great appeared first on Golf.

The post More structure, less curve: How Viktor Hovland went from good to great appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Play Smart, a column to help you play smarter, better golf from Game Improvement Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen (who you can follow on Twitter right here).

By this time on Sunday afternoon, we may be witnessing the highest point of Viktor Hovland’s career so far. But you can’t fully appreciate the good without remembering the bad. And for Hovland, the lowest ebb of his career lives long in the memory.

It came during his first semester at Oklahoma State, when he made the trip across the pond only to find himself playing with the best college golfers in the country.

“I was really struggling,” Hovland said earlier this year, at the Players Championship. “I was hitting hitting really low slices off the tee. I couldn’t hit a 3-wood off the deck, I couldn’t get it airborne, it was so frustrating because I would watch my peers and they would just hit these high draws off of the ground onto the green on par-5s.”

The humble Hovland is probably selling himself slightly short. As all good competitors do, he made the tools he had work: He qualified for three college events that fall, finished in the top 20 of each, and shot three rounds in the 60s along the way.

Still, Hovland wasn’t where he wanted to be, and he knew it. Even when he turned pro in 2019, he saw areas he needed to improve. That drive to get better pushed him down a path that eventually led to meeting GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jeff Smith.

The pair joined forces in early 2020, and they’ve been on a rocket ship ever since: Hovland has won three times on the PGA Tour since then, twice more in Europe, made his first Ryder Cup team and risen as high to third in the OWGR.

Now, he’ll head into Sunday at St Andrews tied Rory McIlroy at 16 under, and eyeing his first major championship.

Together, Hovland and Smith have accomplished that rarest of feats in sports: Making a player who was already unquestionably good even better.

Here’s how they did it.

1. Controlling the curve

Viktor Hovland had always been a golf swing nerd, and had worked closely with Denny Lucas, along with a variety of others. It meant that by the time Hovland landed firmly in Smith’s stable, his swing was already in good shape. The task, Smith says, wasn’t overhauling. It was tweaking and refining what he already had.

“We haven’t made any drastic changes to his swing,” Smith says.

But they did address a lingering issue in Hovland’s game: His natural left-to-right shot shape that would occasionally curve too severely, which stemmed from his technique.

“His tendency was to aim too far right, shift his lead arm out in transition and hit big pull-fades,” Smith says. “We’ve worked to neutralize that move so he can work the ball both ways and hit more of a straight ball as his stock shot.”

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A post shared by Jeff Smith (@radargolfpro)

2. More practice structure

Making those small, technical tweaks in his full swing allowed Hovland more versatility. His good shots flew straighter, and he had greater command when the time came to hit different shots.

That’s when Smith’s task became helping Hovland implement it. Doing that meant providing more structure to what, and how, Hovland would practice. Hovland’s routine had been so fluid before, there were times he wouldn’t even practice chipping or bunker shots before his round.

Under Smith, who strongly believes in the benefits of structured practice, that was about to change.

“There was an opportunity to get better with wedges, so we began doing Trackman wedge combines on Tuesdays [at tournaments],” he says.

“During practice rounds, we’d identify high Green In Regulation holes, and low Green In Regulation holes,” Smith adds.

“On high GIR holes, we’d play competitive putting games and drills around the potential hole locations. On low GIR holes, we’d play up-and-down games on those holes.”

Add to that some changes in his putting — we’ll get to those — and Hovland was suddenly practicing smarter; more intentionally and focused. He’d soon reap the benefits of his new approach.

3. Working on the wedges

In golf and life, you can’t take the good without the bad.

Hovland’s golf swing technique features a strong trail hand grip, and he holds off the clubface during his release. It means Hovland’s clubface doesn’t rotate as much as other players (Ping actually measured this, and found Hovland has one of the lowest clubface closure rates of any golfer they ever measured). More than anything else, it’s what gives him such remarkable powerful consistency from tee-to-green.

But those technical elements in his golf swing also show up in shorter shots around the green. While delofting and keeping the clubface very stable through impact has transformed him into an elite ball striker, those same elements will occasionally cause him to bring the leading edge more into play around the greens. It means he’ll tend to catch the ball heavy or thin with his wedges, especially from unforgiving lies like the dry turf at the Old Course this week.

Excelling around the greens for Hovland requires learning, and perfecting, an opposite technique than what feels natural to him.

“Around the greens we spent countless hours refining his chipping and bunker action,” Smith says. “We’ve worked to get the club face in a less closed position so he can play with more loft and spin, and utilize the bounce of his club”

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A post shared by Jeff Smith (@radargolfpro)

4. Trying something new

Viktor Hovland’s wedge may remain a work in progress, and his elite ball striking the clear strength of his game. But in some ways, his recent success has been fueled by his improved putting. Hovland has been quietly piecing together the best putting season of his career, thanks in large part to adopting the AimPoint green-reading method, suggested by Smith at the start of the year.

“He has always had a good stroke,” Smith adds. “He’s become one of the best green readers in the world.”

That, too, found its way into Hovland’s practice structure. During his putting warmups, Smith says Hovland will “calibrate” his putting by hitting 12 putts from all around the hole: four putts from each of five, seven, and nine feet. Hovland will read each putt using AimPoint, and then check the read using a level.

“It’s really given me a system,” Hovland said earlier this year. “It’s a system that doesn’t work every time, but it at least gives me a framework that’s a lot tighter.”

Rises like Hovland’s don’t happen accidentally. They’re the product of working smarter, harder, and with more discipline.

Doing the boring stuff behind the scenes, and getting a little better each day along the way. That’s how a good player like Hovland gets even better. And on Sunday, he may have a new trophy to show for it.

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The post After stunning meltdown, Viktor Hovland won’t play U.S. Open on weekend appeared first on Golf.

The post After stunning meltdown, Viktor Hovland won’t play U.S. Open on weekend appeared first on Golf.

BROOKLINE, Mass. — Airmailed irons. A shot that spun off the green. A three-putt. Chips that were lacking. Some misfortune. Not one thing led to Viktor Hovland’s nine-over-for-11-holes finishing kick on Friday at the U.S. Open. The struggles didn’t discriminate. 

In the end, Hovland missed the weekend at The Country Club, after an even-par 70 in the first round, and a 77 in the second. You just never saw that coming. If you do the simple math, he was two-under through 25 holes, and he was sitting in seventh and playing to keep an impressive streak going — Hovland had never missed a cut at a major championship in 10 starts.

Then he teed off on 17. 

News

“This has just been a disastrous run,” announcer Shane Bacon said on broadcast. 

Indeed. 

364-yard, par-4 17th. Bogey. Hovland drops to one-under. 

The drive is good, down the right side of the fairway on the dogleg left. The setup for the second shot is good; Hovland is 100 yards out and has a wedge in his hand. Things look good for a second, his ball landing about 15 feet from the hole — until it spins off the green. 

“Big mistake with a wedge in his hand,” analyst Trevor Immelman said on the broadcast.

449-yard, par-4 18th. Bogey. Hovland drops to even.  

Some bad luck here. Hovland hits his tee shot left, and it’s heading toward a fairway bunker, only to finish maybe a yard short of it and settle into the deep fescue. He muscles out his second shot, only for his ball to wind up toward the top of a greenside bunker. 

496-yard, par-4 1st. Bogey. Hovland drops to one-over. 

Another nice drive, 317 yards down the left side of the fairway on the dogleg left. But from 165 out, Hovland hits a short iron over the green. 

Instruction

217-yard, par-3 2nd. Bogey. Hovland drops to two-over. 

Hovland begs his iron to “go, go hard.” It doesn’t, he’s 54 feet away, and he three-putts. 

496-yard, par-4 3rd. Bogey. Hovland drops to three-over. 

Hovland’s again in the fairway after a nice tee shot, and he again airmails his iron, the ball dropping on the back left portion of the green, where it trickles off. “Yikes, that’s not where you want to hit it, though,” analyst John Wood says on the broadcast. His third shot is a below-average chip. 

490-yard, par-4 4th. Bogey. Hovland drops to four-over. 

This one stings. Hovland is deep down the fairway, has a nice angle in — and dumps a wedge into a greenside bunker. At four-over, he’s now below what would be the cutline. 

165-yard, par-3 6th. Bogey. Hovland drops to five-over. 

Hovland is right off the tee, hits a chip that leaves him 15 feet for par and can’t convert. This is maybe a good spot to list some of the stats from the second round — Hovland was 134th in Strokes Gained: Approach; 134th in SG: Around the Green; and 122nd in SG: Putting.

News

547-yard, par-5 8th. Bogey. Hovland drops to six-over. 

This one is an all-around struggle. Hovland misses the fairway to the right off the tee. He hits left of the green and into the tall stuff on his second shot. He advances his third shot a few feet. He pitches his fourth shot over the green. It’s here where Bacon calls it all “a disastrous run.”

421-yard, par-4 9th. Bogey. Hovland drops to seven-over.  

Hovland, with a fairway metal, misses the fairway right with his tee shot, hits over the green and into a greenside bunker with his second shot, and he bogeys one more time. 

That’s 11 holes, nine bogeys, two pars and no birdies. 

And no weekend. 

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The post Viktor Hovland’s short-game struggles explained in revealing new light appeared first on Golf.

The post Viktor Hovland’s short-game struggles explained in revealing new light appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Play Smart, a game-improvement column that drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Game Improvement Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen (who you can follow on Twitter right here).

How could your biggest strength also create your biggest weakness?

It’s the kind of maddening, fascinating question only the game if golf is capable of posing, and a problem one that World No. 4 Viktor Hovland is currently trying to solve.

“I suck at chipping,” he said in 2020. “I definitely need to work on my short game.”

It’s been an ongoing work in progress, and it’s getting better every day. Hovland has established himself as a one of the best players in the world even since that admission, and this week, Hovland’s coach, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jeff Smith (who you can and should follow on Instagram right here) shared some fascinating insight about the process.

Smith describes Hovland’s challenges in a nutshell:

“Many people wonder, how could an absolute world class player like Viktor Hovland possibly struggle with the short game?,” he says “The pattern and match-ups in his swing that make him an elite-level ball striker, make it more challenging to produce consistent results around the greens.”

Hovland’s golf swing features many of elements that modern day golf instructors adore. Specifically, a flexed lead wrist (think Dustin Johnson), and minimal clubface rotation through the ball. There’s no one or perfect way of swinging a golf club, but Hovland’s new school move works phenomenally well for him: He currently ranks 12th in SG: Driving and 3rd in SG: Approach this season.

But those same elements pop up in the shorter swings required around the green, and it can make life difficult. Whereas in his closed clubface-and-hold swing, which relies on lots of body rotation and very little wrist action, works masterfully from tee-to-green, it can bring the leading edge more into play around the greens. It leads to a tendency for Viktor to chunk chips, when things go really wrong.

Shots around the green call for the clubface to be more open, along with more active wrists to bring the club’s bounce into play. They’re opposite to the movements that makes Viktor so great from tee-to-green, and requires him to make adjustments to his technique that don’t always feel natural.

But that’s what the dynamic coach-player duo are working on. Making small adjustments that will help Hovland’s performance and boost his confidence while perceiving Hovland’s golf swing “DNA,” Smith writes.

It’s a good reminder for the rest of us: That the tendencies you have in your golf swing will often show up in other areas of your game — for better or worse. It also goes to show that pros work on their technique too, and that it’s not always easy. Especially when the same things that help you play better in one area, can make life difficult in another.

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The post Viktor Hovland’s secret to Augusta’s 12th hole? He calls it the ‘Oklahoma shot’ appeared first on Golf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — It took two different players hitting three shots into the water on the 12th hole for Viktor Hovland to call upon his secret weapon.

“I have a good Oklahoma shot,” he says. “I saw Jordan spin one up in the air and hit it in the water. Xander kind of did the same thing.” 

Hovland’s Oklahoma Shot is effectively an more severe knockdown shot. Whereas for a traditional knockdown he pairs a ball back in his stance with an abbreviated follow through, for his Oklahoma Shot, he adds two extra components: A stronger grip, and much more forward shaft lean. He’ll try to keep his right shoulder even lower through the shot, too. It all allows him to “manufacture” a ball flight that’s lower and less spinning than a traditional knockdown.

“I show a couple more knuckles on my left hand and really lean the shaft hard,” he says. “It basically doesn’t put any spin on the ball. It just goes straight through the wind.”

Hovland said he taught himself the shot in college. Freshman year he learned he needed to add that shot to his arsenal, and by sophomore year he had perfected it.

“I was really good at hitting it low,” he said.

He’s hit the Oklahoma Shot just twice this week, both on the 12th hole. On Thursday his shot ended less than a foot from the hole for a tap in birdie. On Friday, he was the only player in his group to avoid the creek, leaving his ball 20 feet past the hole for a stress free par.

The two shots meant Hovland picked up a stroke-and-a-half over the field, which averaged the hole in 6.5 strokes over the two days. By day’s end on Friday, he had made the cut on the number. His play on those two holes — along with his ability to call on a shot few others have perfected — ultimately proved decisive.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

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After three days of play at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, we’ve reached the final round of play at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Below, find everything you need to know about tournament money, including purse, payout information and winner’s share.

2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational final round preview

Viktor Hovland enters Sunday’s final round a handful of strokes off the lead, but there’s no doubting he’s the most dangerous player within striking distance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The 24-year-old Norwegian pro enters Sunday’s final round just one stroke off the lead set by Talor Gooch and Billy Horschel, but that comes after a see-sawing Saturday that saw him once holding a four-stroke lead.

On Sunday, Hovland will look to claim his fourth PGA Tour win and second professional win in 2022 (next to the Dubai Desert Classic in February). But to do so, he’ll have to ward off a group of big names led by Rory McIlroy. The four-time major champ sits three strokes back of Hovland and four off the lead heading into Sunday.

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Gary Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champ, enters Sunday’s final round in 5th, three strokes off the lead. And Scottie Scheffler — fresh off his first-ever PGA Tour win — enters in 4th, just two strokes back of the leaders.

Below is everything you need to know about the Arnold Palmer Invitational’s $12 million purse, including payout info and winner’s share; you can catch the action all afternoon on NBC.

Arnold Palmer Invitational payout info, winner’s share

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The post The 1 thing that would make pros abandon the PGA Tour for the Saudi league, according to a rising star appeared first on Golf.

The post The 1 thing that would make pros abandon the PGA Tour for the Saudi league, according to a rising star appeared first on Golf.

The winds are swirling in the world of professional golf. With the rumored upstart Saudi golf league threatening an imminent storm on the PGA Tour’s shores, division among players is starting to bubble up to the surface, and star pros are starting to take sides.

So far this week we’ve heard from six-time major champion Phil Mickelson, whose no-holds-barred criticism of the PGA Tour — as well as revelations about his close ties to the Saudi league reported by Alan Shipnuck — catalyzed other pros to speak. It seems Adam Scott and Lee Westwood are on Phil’s side. Perhaps Joaquin Niemann, too.

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Other pros have come out strongly in favor of the PGA Tour, such as Justin Thomas, who pilloried Mickelson’s remarks as “egotistical,” Collin Morikawa who mocked the proposed new league, and Pat Perez. They joined previous PGA Tour backers Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Tiger Woods, the last of whom shared his own thoughts on the controversy on Wednesday.

Presumably many of those players siding with the Tour have been offered huge sums of money to join the Saudi league and turned them down, so the guaranteed cash is clearly not a motivating factor for them. But that reality begs one important question as we await the official announcement and schism among pros: what would it take for a player who backs the PGA Tour to switch sides and join the Saudi league?

Rising star Viktor Hovland provided some insight into that tricky question on Friday at the Genesis Invitational. Following his second-round 64, Hovland faced reporters and predictably fielded questions about the Saudi league. He made it clear from the start that he’s on Team PGA Tour. For now.

“Yeah, it’s obviously a lot going on and I just started out playing professional golf. If I I had my wish, I would just keep playing the PGA Tour. But we’ll see what happens.” Hovland said. He added later, “Obviously money is good, it’s nice to make money, but that’s not what gets me up every day in the morning… A tournament like this at a course that — Riviera and all the past winners, it’s a really cool history. Just to be a part of that, that means something to me, being a PGA Tour winner. And yeah, winning these historical events, I think that’s very cool.”

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Hovland’s response was not without caveat, which invited the next logical question: what would change his mind?

“I mean, if everyone else goes, I’m kind of –,” Hovland said before a reporter cut in. Then he continued, “I just want to play against the best players in the world. Everyone goes over there, kind of leaves me with no choice, but I would like to play the PGA.”

This is likely the thought that has kept PGA Tour officials up at night frequently over the past two years. The key to the new league’s success — and the biggest threat to the PGA Tour — has always been attracting the best players and biggest stars in the game. If they jump ship, then many other players will have their hands forced, no matter where they’d prefer to play.

But so far, the evidence suggests the new Greg Norman-led league has had little luck doing that, as Hovland noted on Friday.

“Hunches doesn’t really matter too much, it’s about what people do, but it seemed like a lot of good players are voicing their support for the PGA Tour, so that’s certainly going to be a tall task for other leagues if the best players don’t want to go.”

For now, the biggest stars (Tiger, Rory, Rahm, Thomas, Spieth) and the best young players (Morikawa, Hovland) are sticking with the PGA Tour. But anything can happen over the next few weeks, months and years. Hovland said it best on Friday, “we’ll see what happens.”

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The scorecard reads pars, so, in the end, the route to get there was really neither a success, nor a failure, but just a couple of fours. But oh, the place where Viktor Hovland’s ball went after his tee shots on the 15th at Riviera. 

How best to describe the play that saw the young star turn his entire body to about a 1 o’clock angle on the tee box during the first and second rounds of the Genesis Invitational? Advantageous? Perhaps, and that was his thinking — the 15th played as the tournament’s hardest hole on Thursday, with a tree-lined driving window, and fairway bunkers to the left, and by taking it down the adjacent 17th fairway, Hovland opened things up a bit. Of course, knowing that the only time a player’s ball usually ends up that way is through an unintentional hook or slice made Hovland’s plan of attack seem, well, strange.  

And when Hovland hit right of the 17th fairway on Friday, it seemed even more so. Consider: His playing partners were not only more than 150 or so yards to the left of him on their second shots, they were also closer — Hovland was 175 out, while Rory McIlroy was 156 and Hideki Matsuyama 137. 

“It takes some courage to take a crazy line like that,” analyst Mark Wilson, also a former player, said on the PGA Tour Live broadcast. “And when you do it, you better pull it off. And if you go ahead and hit it farther to the side of the dogleg than you were intending to, wow, it can be a mess. And then you got to say hi to some other groups that come through. Just could be awkward.” 

“Really not an advantage at all unless he just really hates the tee shot here on 15, but I don’t understand why with his ball shape — that he likes to fade it a little bit left to right — all he has to do is, even if he hits it in the left-hand rough, he actually has a decent angle to this hole location today,” analyst Daniel Chopra, also a former player, said on the broadcast. “So I really am struggling to understand the logic behind this play. And like I said, I just don’t think there’s going to be another player in the field who’s going to go that route today because it doesn’t make the hole any shorter. If anything, it makes it a good 20 yards longer by playing it down 17. All you’re getting is a better angle to a left hole location.”

From there, Hovland navigated his ball onto the green, dropping it over the pin, and two-putted for par. On Thursday, he hit the fairway — the 17th fairway — hit his second shot short of the green, chipped on and one-putted. Notable, too, during the first round was Thomas Pieters and Aaron Wise also played 15 via 17. 

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“That is weird. I’ve never seen anyone go — I mean, it’s an adjacent fairway,” analyst Frank Nobilo said on the Golf Channel broadcast.

“I talked to the marshal that’s marshaling the landing area for 17, and he said that Hovland was the third player today that’s done that. And I’ve never seen it,” analyst Curt Byrum said.  

“It’s a new way to play a classic golf course,” Nobilo said. 

Hovland’s thinking? After his round on Friday, Hovland said he also went right on 15 during the 2017 U.S. Amateur, the move takes away some trouble and it “just fits my eye.” When it hits the fairway.  

“Yeah, it was a bad shot today,” he said. 

Of course, the unconventional is nothing new in golf, and it also brought to mind a similar play from Lon Hinkle, who, on the 8th hole at Inverness at the 1979 U.S. Open, hit his tee shot left and onto the nearby 17th fairway, on his way to making birdie. Memorably, the USGA planted a tree on 8 to try to block the shot, though Hinkle tried it again. 

And the tree was named the “Hinkle Tree” going forward. (In 2020, it was uprooted by a storm.)

“I wonder if we’ll see a Viktor Hovland tree erected here to the right of 15th tee going into the weekend,” Wilson said on PGA Tour Live. 

“I don’t think they’re going to worry about it after the shot that Hovland hit,” announcer Lisa Cornwell said. 

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