Viktor Hovland says he is struggling. And sometimes golf isn’t so fun

Viktor Hovland is cheerful and outspoken, but you can’t be honest without sometimes sounding happy.

Like Tuesday morning behind the microphone at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, when the PGA Tour’s press officer opened Hovland’s pre-FedEx St. Jude Championship in softball.

Overall thoughts on the season as you head into this week?

“Yeah, it wasn’t my best year,” Hovland said. “I struggled all year. It was a bit of a challenge.”

Hmm. About a minute later, a reporter asked him about the Olympics two weeks ago, where Hovland shot 67 and 68 over the weekend at Le Golf National. It’s noble, isn’t it? Maybe a confidence builder? Maybe a momentum farmer?

“Yeah, it’s not,” Hovland said. “That was just a weekend where I just made a few putts. I missed on the right side and managed to score a good goal. A couple’s first cycles [when he shot 70 and 75] I almost hit it the same way, but that golf course is very punishing, and on the green, it really punishes a bad shot. But if you play well, you can shoot from the ground.

“I just missed in the wrong places because I couldn’t control the way the ball was moving. So the second round I was at the mercy of the randomness of where my ball was going. Then on the weekend, I made a lot of putts and was just able to score well. That’s always good, but the shooting quality was not there. I was still a little upset about that.”

All this gave an opportunity to look at the last year of Hovland, where almost 365 days ago, the 26-year-old Norwegian was beating the whole world. He is tied for seventh at the Masters. Finished second on the PGA. He won the Memorial. It was really going bananas. He won the BMW Championship the week after the FedEx St. Jude from last year. He won the Tour Championship the week after that. He became the king of the Ryder Cup, too.

But somewhere around that time, golf is golf. It’s a curious game. Things turned sour. Hovland and swing coach Joe Mayo mysteriously parted ways. His results changed, at least compared to where they had been. He has missed just three cuts this PGA Tour season in 13 events. But he finished in the top 10 just once (third at the PGA Championship). He is 57 in the Tour’s regular-season standings. He was frustrated.

However, was there ever a moment when Hovland’s frustration could have reached its peak?

Yes and no. He said there have been a few “peaks and valleys”.

“I mean, it’s not that fun to play golf when you don’t know where the ball is going,” Hovland said.

“I take pride in trying to make the best of it, but it gets to a point where you lose that belief – you just see the shot, and that’s not enough. I would try a harder grind. I can try to log in from there. But you do that so many times, so many times during a round or a tournament, it’s too much to overcome, and I feel like it’s a waste of time to play golf when I’m there. I’d rather be off the golf course and work on it, try to figure out why I do those things.

“But hey, that’s how it happens sometimes, and I feel like I’ve learned more about my golf swing, that I didn’t think I could, so there’s always things to learn, and I’m very happy with the grace. that’s where I’m referring to. I’m not sure how long it will take me to play my best golf. It could be this week. It could be next week. But at least now I’m on the road to progress. I’m on my way to development. Although before, one thing plays badly, but you don’t know why and you don’t know how to fix it. That is very challenging conceptually. But at least now we’re — I might play bad this week, but at least I feel like I’m on the road to progress, and that’s kind of news for me.

What was the problem with swinging, in layman’s terms?

“Actually my pattern went down,” Hovland said. “The things I did in my swing that made me good, that made me able to predict the movement of a certain ball, I came home and tried a certain movement, not because I thought I wanted to change my pattern. ; I knew my pattern was really good. But I was sad that I wasn’t cutting the ball as much as I would have liked. My ball flight started to drag a little, that’s okay. I was still hitting it well. But sometimes in my mind I would like to see the cut.

“When the season started I made an effort to try to cut the ball more, and when I did that, I destroyed the relationship that happened in my swing which made it very difficult for me to control the face down. So now it’s kind of my learning on that. I know exactly why it happened. I know exactly what’s going on because I’ve measured myself, and now it’s kind of a process of getting back to where I was.

“But at least I know I have all the information and facts on the table to act on.”

Some of this play went through those answers, didn’t they? Some positivity.

There is hope.

Hovland reunited with Mayo during this year’s PGA. They dig. The answer may be close at hand.

Notably, last year FedEx St. Jude, Hovland and Mayo were grinding away at Southwind after a first round 72, then he continued his march.

“I’m just trying to control the things I can’t control,” Hovland said. “I know I’ve dropped a bit this year. I wasn’t playing as well as I would have liked. I’m still working on the things I need to work on to get back to where I was last year. Then I believe I can do great things again.

“But we have to take care of these things.”

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for planning, writing and promoting news on the golf course. And when he’s not writing about how to hit the golf ball forward and straight, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash down his scores. You can contact him about any of these topics – his news, his game or his beer – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.