A presumably tired Viktor Hovland has decided not to play this week’s PGA Tour event after another near miss in a major championship.
A presumably exhausted Viktor Hovland has decided to withdraw from this week’s PGA Tour event after coming up excruciatingly short in his bid to land a first major title.
Hovland three-putted the final green at Valhalla Golf Club last Sunday to ultimately finish solo third at the second men’s major of the year.
Had he drained the birdie putt he would’ve joined Bryson DeChambeau as the clubhouse leader and waited nervously to see if Xander Schauffele had the stones to make a clutch putt when it mattered most.
Unfortunately for Hovland the closing bogey meant he couldn’t head to the range and warm-up for a potential playoff at the PGA Championship.
Hovland told reporters he was pleased to have found his game again in the immediate aftermath of his latest major disappointment.
But he has decided to pull out of this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge.
The official PGA Tour communications team confirmed the news on Sunday evening and he has been replaced in the field by Wesley Bryan.
World number one Scottie Scheffler is still in the field for the event that will be played at Colonial Country Club despite a chaotic week that saw him arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer over a traffic incident outside Valhalla.
The latest reports suggested charges against the two-time Masters champion will be dropped after it emerged there was no body cam footage of his shocking arrest.
As for Hovland, his next PGA Tour event is likely to be the RBC Canadian Open next month.
Viktor Hovland
Viktor Hovland
Hovland admits how dire his game was
It’s been a brutal stretch for Hovland but the reigning FedEx Cup champion appears to have finally found his game again after six months in the wilderness.
He has re-hired his golf coach Joe Mayo and their time together appears to have immediately paid dividends.
Hovland has not wanted to speak too much about what was going on between the ears but last week he made a stark admission after his third round.
Things were so bad for Hovland that he contemplated not even playing the major.
“I was almost considering pulling out of this event just because I wasn’t playing good at all,” he told Sirius XM PGA Tour radio.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Hovland added after letting his guard down.
Despite his struggles, there is one man who has never lost faith and that is his Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald.
Donald told reporters: “He’s a little bit of a perfectionist in golf and always searching to get better. (He) went through a couple teachers that probably weren’t the right fit for him.
“He’s so talented, I wasn’t too worried about him. I think it was just a matter of time to find the right feelings in his swing.
“He’s such a great ball striker and we saw one of the best players who is been in the game for the last couple of years
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