2022 Valspar Championship: Top 10 power rankings at Innisbrook
Viktor Hovland handled Innisbrook quite nicely in his first time around the property.
The Norwegian finished T-3rd at the 2021 Valspar Championship with rounds of 69-69-68-65. Hovland was just one back of second place and four behind champion Sam Burns.
He led the field with 22 birdies and didn’t make a double bogey or worse all week. He just gave away a few too many shots to compete with a dominant performance by Burns.
Hovland ranked third in the field in strokes gained tee to green (8.716) and was better than field average in SG putting and around the green, which is a good result for the elite ball striker still finding his touch on and around the greens.
Hovland finished T-9th (71-73-68-69) last week at the Players Championship. It was his third made cut in a row and 10th out of the last 11 tries.
Hovland was in the thick of contention for a while in the final round thanks in part to an ace on the par-3 8th. He went out in a bogey-free 33 but was up and down on the back nine to finish in 36 while champion Cameron Smith and others surged ahead.
It was a familiar recap for Hovland. He hit the ball beautifully, finding 78.57% fairways and 79.17% greens in regulation. On and around the greens was where a lot of good work was undone.
Even though these continue to be his weaknesses, it’s not as if he’s not working hard to address these things. Hovland’s expressing optimism in his short game.
“Felt like my chipping actually wasn’t that bad this week,” Hovland was transcribed by ASAP Sports. “It was mainly the first day, make double from a greenside bunker, and that kind of hurt me the whole week. But I feel like I chipped it okay most of the tournament up until 12 on the back nine here and kind of rambled off a little bit.”
If anyone has the capability of being a workhorse to quickly regroup from a taxing week at TPC Sawgrass, it’s a youngster like Hovland. However, I am a bit concerned about this being his third straight event coming off a Monday finish and contending each of the last two weeks.
The flip side is Hovland’s playing extraordinary golf and he should keep it going until the candle burns out. The former Oklahoma State Cowboy took T-2nd a couple weeks back at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he ended just a shot behind Scottie Scheffler.