MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The defending FedExCup champion was outstanding in two playoff events last year and now he’s searching for that same magic but isn’t sure when he’ll find it.
Viktor Hovland believes he will get over a tough stretch in a year in which he failed to make the cut in three of four majors and is committed to returning to form, even if it means playoff series in three tournaments will go on without him.
A year ago, it would have been hard to imagine the 26-year-old Hovland playing in the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week at TPC Southwind because he had neither a world-class win nor a solid performance in the Ryder Cup playoffs — and was in danger of not making the playoffs.
Since then, his form has been slumping. He fired his coach and then rehired him. He nearly dropped out of the PGA Championship, finishing third. Now, he's having a poor showing at the Olympic Golf Championship, where he tied for 30th.
It’s a simple question with no simple answer: What happened?
“I don’t want to be too technical in my game, but basically I’m playing pretty well,” Hovland said Tuesday ahead of the $20 million tournament that begins Thursday. “There are things in my swing that make me better, that allow me to predict certain ball flights, that I go home and try to do certain things, not necessarily because I want to change my game.
“I know my shot pattern is pretty good. But I was frustrated because I wasn't slicing the ball like I would have liked. My ball started to hook a little bit, which is good. I was still hitting it pretty well. But visually at times, I would have liked to see a slice.
“And then in the offseason, I consciously tried to slice the ball more, and when I did that, I ruined the relationship in my swing, and it made it hard for me to control the impact plane. So now I'm just learning from it. I know why it happened. I know exactly what happened because I've measured myself, and now it's just a process of getting back to where I was.
“But at least I knew I had all the data and facts to fix this problem.”
It remains puzzling why Hovland would attempt to repair something that, from the outside, appeared to need no repair.
Then there was the issue of him leaving coach Joe Mayo, only to have him back just before the PGA Championship, where he finished third – but he has struggled ever since.
A third-place finish at the Valhalla Championship was his only top-10 finish, and he tied for 15th at the Memorial Tournament — a tournament he won a year earlier.
Even a strong weekend at the Olympic Championships — the Norwegian golfer shot 75 in the second round and 67-68 thereafter — didn’t do much to boost his prospects.
“It was just a weekend, and I made a couple putts,” he said of the tournament Scottie Scheffler won. “I missed the ball on the right side, but I was able to hit it well. I was hitting it pretty much the same the first few rounds, but that golf course is very punishing off the tee and getting into the greens, bad shots are punished. But if you hit it well, you can shoot low.
“I just missed opportunities in the wrong spots because I didn't have a lot of control over the flight of the ball. So I just kind of let it go in the second round. And then I made a lot of putts over the weekend and was able to get good scores, which is always a good thing, but the quality of the shots wasn't great. I'm still a little upset about that.
“But I've been in the States for a week now and I've had a great time with Joe and I feel like we're on the right track. At least I feel like that's where the optimism comes from, finally having a good week, being able to practice every day and get into a good rhythm.”
Last year, Hovland tied for 13th at the FedEx St. Jude Championship before winning the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.
He played top-notch golf for BMW at Olympia Fields, shooting 65-61 over the weekend and then a week later shooting 63 in the final round at East Lake to tie the lowest score of 72 holes and win the FedEx Cup.
He finished fifth at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour and runner-up at the DP World Tour Championship. During that time, he went 3-0-1 in European Ryder Cup events.
He is currently seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking and 56th in the FedEx Cup standings, not even guaranteed to advance to next week's BMW Championship, a tournament for the top 50 players.
“I’m not sure how long it’s going to take for me to play my best golf,” Hovland said. “It could be this week, it could be next week. But at least now I’m on a path of improvement. I’m on a path of improvement.
“Before, it was like this, you weren't playing well, but you didn't know why and how to fix it. It was very challenging mentally. But at least now we're — I might have played badly this week, but at least I feel like I'm improving, and that's all that matters to me.”
