It has been 19 months since Viktor Hovland registered a win. Even after joining forces with Grant Waite, this season has seen the title drought continue, with his swing woes still persisting. The Norwegian golfer started with T36 and T22 at the Sentry and at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But things got worse as he missed the cut thrice in a row, starting with the Genesis Invitational. Hopefully, things look up at the Valspar Championship, where Hovland carded a 67 in his second round and is comfortably sitting at T2. But as Hovland holds his breath for results amid the winless streak, his humility and dedication continue to shine through—one of the many reasons fans continue to admire him.
The 27-year-old started with “Yeah, it sucks. You have an ability that you can almost sometimes take for granted. You just wake up every day and you stand over the ball, and you just expect the ball to start in that direction and go that direction and end up somewhere close to the hole. Then it starts to not do that, it’s pretty frustrating. You start thinking things you’ve never thought before. And this game becomes infinitely more challenging and it’s already really challenging.” So where exactly did things go so wrong?
It all started after his breakout 2023 season, in which he had a total of three victories, including back-to-back FedExCup Playoffs events at the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship. However, the golfer went on to add more “draw pieces” to his swing after the 2023 season. But things didn’t go as planned, after introducing more draw elements he somewhat started losing control over his swing.
As it happened, he had a very tough 2024 season. Although there were some highlighting performances like the PGA Championship and the Jude Championship where he finished 3rd and T2. Overall, it wasn’t a good year for him. Witnessing the loss of control because of drawing pieces Hovland admitted to the PGA Tour: “I made a poor decision. That’s the game of golf for you. It’s hard to play golf 20 years great.”
“You start thinking things you’ve never thought before. And this game becomes infinitely more challenging — and it’s already really challenging.”
Viktor Hovland talking about losing his golf swing is pretty haunting. But I admire his relentlessness pic.twitter.com/tiNLhoEMPS
— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) March 21, 2025
Despite the struggles he remains positive and firm about it. At the Valspar Championship, the golfer talked about accepting disappointment with grace: “So it is really humbling and, you know, kind of handling those moments, I mean, I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned there. And now that hopefully I can regain my ability and see those shots again, hopefully I can be in a better spot where I can handle that situation better.”
As he remains hopeful, the win at the Valspar Championship might grant him a boost. Plus, Hovland’s positivity and charisma got fans all over rooting for him fans. As his words went viral, the community started showering the golfer with a lot of love.
Viktor Hovland remains the fan-favorite golfer
At this point Hovland has tried everything to gain his original form back. Despite that, his battle with his swing demon continues and this fan admires that and says “Love this honesty from Viktor. Helps all of us who try to be our best to see a guy like this battling these demons during swing changes.“ The golfer not only reunited with Grant Waite during the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks ago after parting ways with Joe Mayo in December last year but also experimented with different putters and golf shoes. Thanks to his continuous resilience, he seems to be doing better at the Valspar Championship as one fan noted: “Lost his swing…checks…in 3rd place rn haha.”
Last year Hovland finished 3rd at the PGA Championship, which was his second-best finish of the season. This fan took that into account and added “Swing was absolute mustard had 0 control of his ball flight or path, just split again from his swing coach and still almost won a major that weekend lol.“ The 27-year-old was having a tough 2024 season as he had no control over his swing and even missed the cut at the Masters last year. However, as he reunited with Joe Mayo just a week before the PGA Championship he was an inch away from winning the title. Considering that this fan is positive and further added: “If he can ever get 80% of his swing back he will compete for majors again.”
Viktor Hovland is currently at T2 at the Valspar Championship and things might get better as we move forward. Despite that, he is not taking his current position for granted and aspires to get better. The fan liked this attitude of the golfer and said “He might come back as one of the greatest ball strikers ever with that mentality.“ Interestingly, even when the interviewer asked Hovland, “Are you being too hard on yourself ?”, the golfer had a straight response. He said “I am hard on myself, yeah. But that’s also why I’m good. If I wasn’t hard on myself I probably wouldn’t be out here.”
While some fans talked about specifics, a lot of fans had nothing but appreciation with supportive comments like: “Honestly well said“, “Golf is a better game with Viktor Hovland in it,“ with a heart emoji. Meanwhile, one fan joked about his honesty saying “you should be de-throttled for sharing such horror stories! hahah,“ as there aren’t many players who are as open as Viktor Hovland.
Do you think Viktor Hovland can bounce back strong this season? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!
The post ‘Love This’: Viktor Hovland’s Brutal Honesty Amid ‘Frustrating’ PGA Tour Days Wins Fans’s Hearts appeared first on EssentiallySports.
