Farmers Insurance: Viktor Hovland blows golden opportunity
Patrick Reed was heading into the 9th hole sitting at -12. Sitting alongside his name on the leaderboard was just one other, Viktor Hovland.
Reed would go ahead and birdie the 9th hole, taking the lead for the final time and never giving it back en route to his 9th career win on the PGA Tour.
Viktor Hovland, on the other hand, would fall apart on the back nine at the Farmers Insurance Open.
It all started on the 13th hole par-5, although not in the way that you would think. After pushing his second shot short and right, he would hit a beautiful approach from around 70 yards, knocking it within five feet. He would miss the birdie opportunity though, and make par. IT isn’t often that you can say that a par is the start of someone’s downfall for a round, but that was exactly the case for Viktor Hovland on Sunday.
He would then blast his second shot approach on the 14th 60+ feet past the green, catching it a lot cleaner out of the fairway bunker than he thought he was going to. He would then chunk it, before chipping onto the green and making his putt for a bogey.
He got into trouble off the tee on the next hole, and had to punch back onto the fairway. He still had a shot at par staring down a 22 footer, but was unable to do so, and was now at back-to-back bogeys.
Fast forward to the 17th hole, and Hovland was looking at a long birdie putt from around 32 feet. Well, he ended up carding a score that started with B, it just wasn’t the one that he wanted after three-putting, and carding his 3rd bogey in four holes.
Instead of taking charge down the stretch to put pressure on Reed, Hovland fell apart. He had a chance to sit at -13 just like Reed was at the time. The back nine isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. If Hovland could’ve made his five-footer and played par golf the rest of the round (not a hard ask with how good he was playing), there would’ve been a lot of pressure on Reed.
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Instead, Reed got to the tough part of the course with a multi-shot lead, and little to no pressure. Viktor Hovland would finish the day at -1, and -9 for the tournament, still good enough to T-2nd for the weekend. Even though it wasn’t what he wanted, it will be a good learning experience for the young Hovland.