Viktor Hovland Challenging Rory McIlroy at Arnold Palmer

Newcomer Viktor Hovland has already shown he is not afraid to challenge the biggest names in golf by beating Rory McIlroy in Dubai this past January. Of course, McIlroy gave him some help by hitting into the water on the final hole and making an unfortunate double bogey. Regardless, Hovland won, for his fifth professional victory.

Now, he’s charging again at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, posting a second-round 66 to finish at 9-under par.  But McIlroy is also on the prowl and so far shows no signs of giving up this week. He sits two shots back of Hovland going into the weekend.

“This is a cool place,” the smiling Norwegian said about Bay Hill Club & Lodge after round two. “I played here as an amateur, and I had a great experience making the cut. Just felt like this was kind of the moment where I felt like I belonged a little bit or I got confidence enough to at least believe that I could play the PGA TOUR.”

In fact, it was Hovland’s first cut made in a PGA Tour event. He would have been invited here as an amateur because of his stellar career. The Arnold Palmer Invitational has a history of inviting excellent amateurs to play.  Part of the reason is that Palmer won the 1954 U.S. Amateur and once said that winning it gave him the confidence to turn professional.

Viktor also won the U.S. Amateur.  His victory was in 2018 and in the process, he broke the low amateur score of Jack Nicklaus by two strokes.  That victory got him into the 2019 Masters, where he was the low amateur and finished 32nd, and the 2019 U.S. Open, where he was low amateur and finished 12th.   He turned professional after that week.

Since those days, Hovland has become a cash machine, winning three times on the PGA Tour and twice on the European Tour.

He also picked up an off-season trophy last December in Tiger Woods’ event, the Hero World Challenge, where he beat Scottie Scheffler.

What benefits Hovland in his chase for a victory this week is that he already has good vibes about the Bay Hill golf course and the tournament in general.

His second-round included just 23 putts, which surprised him when he was told.

“I just really saw the lines really well and able to start it online,” he said modestly.  “Sometimes when you see a couple go in early, it’s easy to keep that feel going throughout the day.”

Hovland birdied the tough par 3 17th, which was playing 238 yards.

“It was a perfect number for my 5-iron. I hit it really well and trickled up there to ten feet,” he said about making the 2.

Viktor would have been at least another shot better except for his play at the 13th where he made his only bogey of the round.

“I wanted to kind of lay back a little bit, so I hit a 4-iron off the tee, and I just pushed it. It ended up in the side slope in the first cut,” he said.

The slope was going to make his next shot go left. There was water between him and the green.

“Guess I should have hit a 9, now just looking back at it, because I missed it left and had no shot from there,” he recalled.  “It’s pretty uncomfortable aiming it in the water on the right trusting it. So that was one of the few poor swings of the day.”

The cliff notes version of how Hovland learned to play golf is that his father was transferred from a job in Norway to St. Louis, Missouri, for a year, and during that time, he took up golf.  Before going home, Viktor’s father bought a set of junior clubs for his son.

Now, how the Hovlands played much golf in a country where the average high is between 54 and 70 degrees in July and where the “snowy period” lasts from the last part of October 23rd to April 23rd is beyond most of us.  However, in summer, they do have some really long days.  June 19th typically has a sunrise just before 4 A.M. and sunset at about 11 P.M..  If you are a golf gorilla, you can easily play 72 holes of golf a day in that climate, if your hands and back hold up.

To date, Hovland has overcome a golf-challenged climate and a great deal of competition to achieve success on the PGA Tour and European Tour. Some players never win at all.  He’s done it five times and doesn’t look like he’s going to give up any time soon.