Viktor Hovland is a searcher. The Norwegian star is deeply curious about all things—not just golf. His inquisitive soul drives him to constantly tinker with his swing and equipment. Hovland wants to know—not just the what, but the how and the why. And the why behind the why.
Hovland and his enquiring nature ascended as high as No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s since slipped. But could that desire to know more enable Hovland to unravel the mysteries in his own game and those posed by Augusta National this week?
Since 1934, the Masters’ host course has challenged, battered, and bested the world’s top golfers. The faces change. The skill sets vary. The technology advances.
Yet Augusta National and the Masters remain the gold standard because the course demands that your game has all the answers; out here, there’s no shortcut.
For Hovland, Augusta National’s short-game demands presented problems early on. He has only one top 10 in four career starts and missed the cut last year after shooting a second-round 81 while deep in the golfing wilderness.
“Augusta has a way of exposing your weaknesses,” Hovland said. “It’s a course that only a golfer who is in complete control of his game and mind can conquer.”
“It just seems like this whole place is set up in a way where it doesn’t allow you to get away with poor technique,” Hovland remarked on Tuesday in his pre-tournament press conference. “It doesn’t matter what it is. You have to hit the ball a certain distance. You have to be able to hit the ball a certain height. You have to be able to curve the ball somewhat. Around the greens, because it’s longer grass, it’s always mown against you, and if you have subpar technique, it’s really going to punish you—especially when those greens are raised. They’re very slopey. They’re firm and fast. So, if you don’t put spin on the ball, you’re going to struggle. The bunkers, too—there’s a lot of sand in them. The type of grain in the sand means that if you, perhaps at another course, get a bit more behind the ball and lose spin, here it’ll spin even less. At those green complexes, you just can’t survive.
“It forces you to be at your best in every single part of your game to win this championship, and I think that’s the sign of a great tournament—it truly tests the best players.”
At 27, Hovland is still young, and he’s continuing to build a library of knowledge at Augusta. He’s youthful and curious, filled with a freedom of mind and spirit, compelled to wander and search. Perhaps we’ll eventually see a different version of Hovland—one more reserved and less willing to step out onto the branch of the unknown. But not yet.
Instead, Hovland opened up. There was a reference to the film 8 Mile with Eminem. My colleague Nick Piastowski wrote about Hovland’s fascination with UFOs and how that connects to his pursuit of a green jacket.
“I think it’s just interesting when you have an open mind and you question everything,” Hovland said. “Even in the golf swing, you can get very dogmatic and view things as, ‘Oh, this has to be true, this has to be correct,’ and sometimes the beliefs you hold most deeply can obscure the truth. When you question things and look at them from different angles, you might reach a deeper understanding.”
That deep interest in the mysteries of life, the pursuit of the unknowable, offers a window into a golfer whose nature aligns perfectly with what Augusta National demands of its champions—creativity, imagination, fearlessness.
“When you put yourself in a position where you can learn and try things out for yourself, viewing the world as if you’re a scientist—testing things, noting the results, then trying something different to see if it works better,” Hovland said. “I think that’s an exciting way to go through life, rather than being stuck in a mundane routine where you do the same things every day and hope for a better outcome. That’s not really how I’m wired. I like to try new things and see what happens.”
Augusta National poses profound questions to the golfers who walk its fairways and attempt to read its greens. It demands precision and a willingness to look beyond what you already know about the game and yourself. That’s where the answers lie. Enter Hovland, a restless and curious golfing soul, eager to chase Augusta’s mysteries and open himself up to a whole new level of golfing understanding in the process.
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