2024 Sentry Tournament of Champions: Top 10 power rankings at Kapalua

Viktor Hovland was the best player in the world over the final few months of 2023. He wasn’t far off that pace for the whole year, really.

The Norwegian continues to make leaps in his career. He greatly improved his short game and putting to supplement his elite ball striking.

It paid off with a win at the Memorial Tournament. Hovland didn’t pick off his first major championship, but he posted a T-2nd, T-7th, and two top-20s to inspire hope for the future. His performances at majors were fairly uninspiring pre-2023.

Now, he’s got me ready to put down some cold, hard cash that he’ll win one of the big four events this year.

Defeating a great field at the Sentry Tournament of Champions would be a nice dry run for when he plays similarly sloped fairways a few months from now in Augusta.

Hovland is making his third appearance at Kapalua. He took T-31st (69-68-68-76) in 2021 and improved T-18th (67-72-70-66) in 2023. Hovland was in contention for a top-10 in his debut before a costly final round.

He’s proven he knows how to close now.

The Oklahoma State alum is up to five career PGA Tour victories after his latest triumph at the Tour Championship. That gave Hovland $18 million reasons to smile.

It was his second win in the FedEx Cup Playoffs and third of the season.

Hovland’s kept busy since, going 3-1-1 for the winning European Ryder Cup team, taking T-2nd at the DP World Tour Championship, and settling for 10th at the Hero World Challenge where his quest for a three-peat fell shy.