2023 Tour Championship: Top 10 power rankings at East Lake

Someone needed to get a fire extinguisher out to cool off Viktor Hovland at the BMW Championship.

A course-record 61 on Sunday at the BMW Championship propelled him to victory and sets him up in the best position of his career to try to win the FedEx Cup.

Hovland was electric last week at Olympia Fields, particularly on that final day when he made 10 birdies en route to a two-shot victory over Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Finishing at 17-under for the week wasn’t too shabby for a man who lost strokes around the greens.

"“To win by doing that at this golf course, that means that you’ve hit the ball really well and putted it really well, and that’s what I’ve done this week,” Hovland was transcribed by ASAP Sports."

The former Oklahoma State Cowboy ranked second in the field in strokes gained off-the-tee (4.759), was third in SG tee-to-green (8.32), fourth in SG approach-to-green (4.357), and fifth in SG putting (6.132). That combination will make up for a poor chip or two.

That makes it two wins for the Norwegian this season and five for his career. The two in 2022-23 have been doozies with the BMW following up his designated event victory earlier this summer at the Memorial Tournament.

Hovland extended his top-30 streak to nine.

The 25-year-old is making his fourth appearance at East Lake. He’s finished on the top half of the official net leaderboard twice and top half of the unofficial gross leaderboard thrice.

Hovland finished T-5th net in 2021.

"“You got to really put the ball in the fairway here,” Hovland was transcribed by ASAP Sports in 2021. “The fairways are pretty narrow and the rough is pretty thick because the ball just sits down in the, all the way down, and you can’t really attack the pins. It’s all about trying to make pars from the rough and when you hit the fairways you can really be aggressive.”"

I don’t see Hovland pulling a Lucas Glover and winning in back-to-back weeks, but he’ll at least finish ahead of Scottie Scheffler for the second consecutive week.