PGA TOUR//
Viktor Hovland started strong but had a tough finish in the opening round of the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday.
A month has passed since a frustrated Viktor Hovland stormed out of Augusta after just two rounds and missed the cut on the PGA Tour for the first time in two years.
On Thursday – after weeks of training to get the swing back in place – the Norwegian made a “comeback” on the tour in the Wells Fargo Championship.
It started well. And ended quite painfully.
Boring ending
With three holes to play, Hovland had just sunk a birdie putt on hole 15 to go two under par. The road up to Xander Schauffele (-7) at the top of the leaderboard suddenly didn’t seem so long after all.
That would change in the next few minutes.
For the three finishing holes at Quail Hollow, anything is anything but easy. And when the 26-year-old missed the fairway on 16 (par 4, 528 yards), he ended up with his fourth bogey of the day and fell back to -1.
On hole 17 (par 3, 189 yards) it was “just par” after a shot that deserved something more.
And then it hit hole 18 (par 4, 476 yards) when Hovland again had to go out in the semi-rough from the tee. From there he hit the ball into the water to the left of the green, had to drop into the rough and use two putts when he first reached the short cut.
The double bogey sent the Norwegian down to joint 43rd place (+2) after the first of four days of play in the Wells Fargo Championship.
Missed off the tee
The tournament is Hovland’s seventh of the year. So far, 19th place in The Genesis Invitational in February is his best result. And neither was the long game for last year’s FedExCup winner during the opening round at Quail Hollow.
The shots are normally one of Hovland’s absolute strengths, but on Thursday he hit only 6 of 14 fairways and lost 0.76 strokes to the field from the tee. That placed him as low as 56th in the driving statistics among 66 starters.
It is unusual fare for one of the world’s best hitting machines.
Fortunately, it is not far to the top if the Ekeberg express gets the long game back on track. Behind Schauffele (-7) is the trio Collin Morikawa, Alex Norén and Rory McIlroy at -4, just six strokes ahead of Hovland.
PS! You can follow the tournament live on Eurosport/Discovery+
