The beginning of a new season represents a fresh start for players who may have disappointed relative to expectations the year prior. While there are many stars who hope to shine bright again in 2025, there may be none more interesting than Viktor Hovland.
The 2023 FedEx Cup champion shouldered a world of belief entering 2024 as one of the top players in the game. Fresh off winning the Memorial, BMW Championship, FedEx Cup crown and the Ryder Cup as a member of the European team, the Norwegian’s name was at the top of many lists to win a major championship.
Hovland’s form fell off, however, as he made a decision that he wanted to see something different from his golf ball while in the air. Introducing some draw-bias elements to his swing, Hovland’s old way of playing golf abandoned him and has left him searching for answers ever since.
“[Struggling] certainly makes me cherish how I used to play golf for the first, say, four years of my career,” Hovland said. “It’s been very effortless. Just kind of standing over the ball and knowing that, ‘OK, the ball is going to start somewhere there end and up over there somewhere.’ That’s a pretty stress-free way of playing golf.
“Obviously, I’ve always tried to push myself, and even when it was really good, I kept on pushing it and maybe setting too high expectations because maybe didn’t realize how good it was or I thought it could continue to get better and better and better. For the most part of my career, every decision that I’ve made to change something up in order to play better, it has worked.
“But you know, last year and some change, I’ve just gotten into some bad habits, and there’s been a couple key moves that I used to make in my old golf swing that I’m currently not doing. And I’ve got to get back to making that movement in order to play my best golf. That’s just kind of where we’re at.”
While the 27-year-old’s 2024 campaign was considered a disappointment by some, Hovland sees the bigger picture. Despite not having his game for most of the year, he was able to muster something together during a few of golf’s biggest weeks.
Hovland nearly won the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club and almost did the same at the St. Jude Championship during the first week of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. His place in the last two postseason tournaments was in jeopardy at the onset of the PGA Tour’s playoffs, but he played his way into them and finished inside the top 15 of the season-long race. All this during a year where Hovland decidedly did not have his best.
“A lot of people have it maybe misconstrued a little bit that I made a conscious decision to go down this rabbit hole,” Hovland said. “It’s just [that] your golf swing is an ever-evolving organism, and every week you’re out here playing, you have intentions and feels that would seem relatively innocuous. But you keep those intentions and feels in there, and then might morph into something else. I just didn’t address it. …
“I added a lot of draw pieces in my golf swing because I’d always been a cutter, and I wanted to see the ball not cut as much. And then you add more draw pieces in there, and then suddenly I get sick and tired of it missing left and now I’ll want to cut it — and that compensation was not good for my swing. It’s just a process of, you know, shit happens. Like I didn’t go down there and say, ‘No, this is better.’ I made a poor decision. That’s the game of golf for you. It’s hard to play golf 20 years great.”
Ever the hard worker, Hovland seems to have found the answers he has been searching for. After an extensive search to find a new right-hand man, Hovland is in lockstep with swing coach, TJ Yeaton. The two have charted a new path back to the top of the golf world.
Now, all Hovland has to do is stay on it. That was certainly not the case this week at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, however. Hovland finished his first 36 holes at 4 over, 17 strokes off the lead and tied for 104th in the field.
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