Viktor Hovland’s search continues after ‘pretty shocking’ week in France

Viktor Hovland’s PGA Tour season ended last month with a near-miss at the Tour Championship. At East Lake, the Norwegian found something that allowed him to “hit the ball straight” and move into contention. He was in position to win entering the final round, but shot 2 over par as Scottie Scheffler caught and passed him to win the title.

Hovland has been searching for his game for some time. He won each of the past two seasons through a combination of a hot putter and a knack for competing, but that is not what he is looking for now. He is trying to find the Viktor Hovland he used to be — something familiar that has become unfamiliar.

“No,” Hovland said at East Lake when asked whether he thought he would ever find the perfect feeling. “You can say you’re chasing perfection, but you’ll never get there. But it’s not so much that I’m chasing perfection; it’s just that I’m chasing what I’ve done for most of my career. I know how good it is, and I know that statistically it’s not the same. I can feel it’s not the same. It doesn’t look the same. It doesn’t produce the same numbers. So it’s not the same. It’s not like I’m being unreasonable and confabulating things, but I know there’s always a solution, and I’m trying to resolve the problems that I have and get back to a position to where I can play like this week in, week out. That’s the goal.”

The near-miss in Atlanta forced Hovland to confront a “philosophical question”: should he spend the offseason making small swing adjustments or sweeping changes? He said he hoped to take an extended break to straighten things out, specifically his inconsistent ball-striking, which cost him in Atlanta.

“In this game, you might feel like you’re really far away, but you’re never really that far away, maybe as you think,” Hovland said. “But at the same time, because I’ve deviated so far off of my original DNA, I would like to push that closer to my DNA. We’ll see kind of how difficult that is.”

After a few weeks off, Hovland returned at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour. He finished T27 at Wentworth and then posted a T33 at last week’s French Open, blaming what he called “pretty shocking” play off the tee.

After his final round in France, it was clear the search was beginning to wear on him.

“It’s supposed to be fun, and I want to go out there and enjoy myself,” Hovland said Sunday, discussing his disappointment with his game. “But it’s tough when you see some of those shots that go 150 yards left, and then the next shot it goes the other way, and you don’t know what to do about it. That’s pretty frustrating. And I still try to grind as hard as I can, and I do a pretty good job of even just finishing the tournament.”

Hovland loves to tinker. He is a searcher by nature and finds fulfillment in the quest. But eventually, frustration builds when every turn reveals more endless road instead of the destination he seeks.

For Hovland, that destination, whenever he reaches it, is connected to the part of golf that speaks to his soul.

“We would all like to win, that’s why we practice so hard,” Hovland said at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont. “But there’s also like a deep passion in me that I want to hit the shots. Like I want to stand up on the tee and hit the shots that I’m envisioning. When the ball’s not doing that, it bothers me.”

Before leaving East Lake, Hovland was asked what makes Scheffler, the relentless World No. 1, so dominant. His answer was unsurprising: in Hovland’s view, Scheffler has what Hovland is chasing — the reliability he used to be able to rely on himself.

“He knows where the ball’s going,” Hovland said of Scheffler. “I don’t think he’s trying to do too much with it. I think he knows that he’s got an edge on most guys out here. So he doesn’t have to do anything crazy. He can play smart and just kind of pick his spots, stay in it constantly.”

Hovland hoped his desired destination was closer than it appeared. But in France, it became clear that his search to find himself is still nowhere near its conclusion.

Based on the original publication by GOLF.com.