Viktor Hovland

Hovland Takes the ’23 FedEx Cup

August 27, 2023 by Terry Lyons

ATLANTA – Viktor Hovland of Norway earned his sixth PGA TOUR victory in his 98th start at the age of 25 years, 11 months, 9 days and became only the fourth player in history to win the BMW Championship and FedExCup in the same season, joining Tiger Woods (2007, 2009), Billy Horschel (2014) and Patrick Cantlay (2021). He became the eighth player to win consecutive FedEx Cup Playoffs events.

For his efforts the past two weeks and for the regular season work before, Hovland pocketed $18,000,000 and won the FedEx Cup.

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With apologies to Lionel Messi of Argentina, it is safe to say the best 1500 and 5000m runner (Jakob Ingebrigtsen), the best futbol player (Erling Haaland) and the best pro golfer (Viktor Hovland) all hail from Norway.

Hovland’s 68-64-66-63 (-19) – and (-8 start) = (-27) five stroke victory over Xander Schauffele (-22) marked the largest margin of victory in the FedEx Cup starting strokes era. The difference was the FedEx Cup starting strokes – (-8) to (-3).

In his first TOUR Championship start, Wyndham Clark finished solo-third, the best performance among the five first-time participants in the field and the best finish of a player making their TOUR Championship debut since Schauffele won in 2017.

With a fourth-place finish, three-time FedEx Cup Champion Rory McIlroy (2016, 2019, 2022) earned his 10th consecutive Top 10 finish on TOUR, the longest streak of his career.

TOUR Championship | Final Round Highlights

TOUR Championship | Final Standings

1 Viktor Hovland $18,000,000

2 Xander Schauffele $6,500,000

3 Wyndham Clark $5,000,000

4 Rory McIlroy $4,000,000

5 Patrick Cantlay $3,000,000

T6 Tommy Fleetwood $2,000,000

T6 Scottie Scheffler $2,000,000

T6 Collin Morikawa $2,000,000

Full Leaderboard: (link)

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @FedExChamp @TourChampionship

Hovland Takes The Memorial

June 4, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

DUBLIN, Ohio – Viktor Hovland defeated Denny McCarthy in a playoff to win the 2023 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, earning his fourth career PGA Tour title. Hovland has won on Tour in each of the last four seasons (only other players to do so are Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm)

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Runner-up Denny McCarthy earned the best finish of his Tour career, moving inside the Top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings (No. 26) and the Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking (career-high No. 35).

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler carded a 5-under (67), three strokes better than any other player in the final round, to finish solo third place. Scheffler’s Strokes Gained: Tee to Green total of 20.692 is the second-highest mark in a 72-hole event in the ShotLink era behind only Vijay Singh at the 2004 Deutsche Bank Championship (21.140).

Tournament 54-hole co-leader Rory McIlroy (T-7) carded a painful 3-over (75), his highest final-round score on Tour since the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

Andrew Putnam (T-5), Adam Schenk (T-7) and Lee Hodges (T-12) qualify for the 2023 Open Championship as the top-three finishers at the Memorial Tournament not otherwise exempt.

The Memorial | Final Leaderboard

Viktor Hovland 71-71-69-70—281 (-7)*

Denny McCarthy 71-72-68-70—281 (-7)

Scottie Scheffler 74-73-68-67—282 (-6)

Si Woo Kim 71-68-71-73—283 (-5)

Andrew Putnam 71-72-71-70—284 (-4)

Jordan Spieth 69-72-72-71—284 (-4)

Playoff: Hovland def. McCarthy with a par-4 on the first extra hole (No. 18)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

McIlroy, Hovland Share Open Lead

July 17, 2022 by PGA Tour Brunch

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – At 16-under, Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy share the lead heading into the final round of The Open Championship of 2022. Among Open Championships contested at St. Andrews, Hovland and McIlroy’s opening 54-hole score (200) is second only to Nick Faldo’s (199) total in 1990.

McIlroy is in search of his fifth major championship victory and first since winning the 2014 PGA Championship. He is 9-for-15 in converting a 54-hole lead/co-lead to victory, including a 4-for-5 mark in majors.

Hovland is seeking his fourth PGA Tour victory and is 2-for-2 in converting a 54-hole lead/co-lead to victory. With a victory, he would become Norway’s first major championship winner.

With a win, McIlroy would collect his 22nd victory and move to T-28 on the PGA Tour’s all-time wins list.

Reigning Masters Tournament winner Scottie Scheffler (T-5) and U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick (T-8) are among six major championship winners in the Top 12 players on the 54-hole leaderboard.

First-round leader Cameron Young (T-3) trails by four strokes in bid to become the 11th player to win The Open Championship in debut appearance. The most recent was Collin Morikawa last year).

Second-round leader Cameron Smith (T-3) trails by four following a third-round 1-over (73). He’s hoping to join Jack Nicklaus (1978) as the only players to win THE PLAYERS Championship and The Open Championship in the same year.