Recap: Hero World Challenge
Viktor Hovland goes back-to-back in the Bahamas.
Go ahead young fella! Viktor Hovland with a final round of 69 to put himself at -16 and winning the Hero World Challenge for the second year in a row. After shooting 69 / 70 in the opening two rounds, Hovland found himself atop the leaderboard. Scoring came at a premium as winds were especially strong through the first two days. Aside from Hovland’s slam dunk eagle on the par 5 no. 6 in round two, he didn’t do anything special. He kept the ball in the fairway, put the ball on and around the green, and simply showed off his impressive putting abilities. (Can’t win unless you’re making putts!)
Round three was an exceptional performance by Hovland, carding 10 birdies and two bogeys. He finished the day with an -8 64. The weather had calmed down and the whole field had taken advantage, average scores falling well below their first two rounds.
Going into round four Hovland was joined by Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Cameron Young who were all chasing the lead. Scheffler holed out for eagle on the par 5 no. 6 like Hovland a few days earlier, and suddenly tied the leader. This didn’t last long as soon after Hovland drained a 15-footer to remain one stroke ahead. There was no looking back and the lead grew to as many as five strokes on the back nine. A little bit of a hiccup on the 72nd hole put Hovland at an even par back nine of 36. Can’t blame the third-year tour pro for having some nerves out there! This marks Hovland’s 7th career win on the PGA tour, and I’m sure we’ll see more of him in the future.
The final leaderboard below:
*V. Hovland(-16)
S. Scheffler(-14)
C. Young(-12)
X. Schauffele(-11)
J. Thomas(-10)
C. Morikawa(-9)
T. Finau(-6)
S. Im( -5)
J. Rahm(-5)
T. Kim(-4)
S. Straka(-4)
S. Burns(-2)
M. Fitzpatrick(-1)
B. Horschel(-1)
Jordan Speith(+1)
C. Conners(+2)
M. Homa(+4)
S. Lowry(+5)
K. Kisner(+6)
T. Fleetwood(+7)
Now, as far as my predictions heading into this week…. What can I say, Fleetwood did not live up to anyones expectations. That’s the beauty of golf, you can be on fire one week and the next lose every ounce of your ability to hit the ball where you need it to go. Lucky for me, Fleetwood found the latter of those two. What I learned this week is that Scottie Scheffler is still a DOG, Xander Schauffele will always be in the mix but can’t get that last push, and that Cameron Young (beautiful swing) is going to be pretty special in the coming years.
Happy Grinding.