2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational: Top 10 power rankings at Bay Hill
His first trip to Bay Hill netted him T-42nd (74-73-72-77) in 2020.
It’s hard to find anyone playing better golf than Viktor Hovland over the last four months.
A win on the PGA Tour at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in November was the first of three worldwide wins since then. He added one in an unofficial PGA Tour win at the Hero World Challenge and another on the DP World Tour at the Dubai Desert Classic.
They all came in unique fashion as his win at Mayakoba was a runaway, the Hero was by one in regulation and Dubai came in a playoff of young (Hovland) vs. old (Richard Bland).
Hovland’s been busy in 2022. His last time out came against a great field at the Genesis Invitational. If Joaquin Niemann didn’t blitz everyone, Hovland would have been right in the mix to win at Riviera. Instead, he settled for T-4th.
The Norwegian finds himself in Florida where he looks to make his third straight cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that T-42nd (74-73-72-77) and T-49th (69-68-77-78) aren’t what you would expect out of a talent like him.
In his defense, Hovland’s first two trips to Bay Hill each fell on his third week in a row competing. Now, he’s fresh off a week of rest and ready to ramp up toward the Players Championship and Masters.
His opening rounds at the API last year had him in the mix going to the weekend. His ball-striking numbers were around field average. He was scrambling and putting well. Those are the weaknesses in his game and they did not sustain through the weekend.
I envision some better course management and better ball striking to make this go-round less of a Jekyll and Hyde affair.
It doesn’t hurt that this week’s field is relatively weak, either. Hovland is part of the cream that should rise to the top.
“…if you get off to a bad start out here, you try to push and maybe take some lines that you probably shouldn’t,” Hovland was transcribed by ASAP Sports in 2021, “so one thing is just being disciplined and just sticking to your game plan, because there’s a lot of water out there and the rough is thick, so you just kind of got to play smart.”