Conversations with Champions: Viktor Hovland, 2022 Hero World Challenge winner

“Conversations With Champions presented by Sentry” a weekly series of Golfweek. This week: Viktor Hovland is the winner of 2022 Hero World Challenge.

Viktor Hovland did something Tiger Woods could not do: he won the Hero World Challenge in Bahamas twice consecutively.

His seventh victory worldwide and his first since January was the Albany victory.

Scottie Scheffler is Scottie’s hot dog, and he credits him for his success in putting.

VH: I felt that I made a good start. I hit the ball well, and gave myself opportunities. Scottie [Scheffler] had a great start, which kind of encouraged me to continue. I thought I was three under through five holes, and was leading by just one. Before the day began, I thought that if I get off on a positive note, I could build a strong lead. He played great golf, so hats off to him. In the middle of the round, I kept making pars and urged him to return. It was up and down overall but I was happy to get it over.

Q: What was the distance between the 18-foot drop and the shot? What was your total distance?

VH: I had about 120 meters.

Q. What was going through you at that moment?

VH: Very few positive thoughts. It’s almost like you have a two-shot lead and you are unable to do anything else. You can’t do anything but to hit the water with the second shot. That was it. I was very frustrated. However, I knew he didn’t have a gimme eagle so if I can get up there, I can still make the putt and win this tournament. To force me into a playoff, he must still make a par. It was stressful, however.

Q: Collin Morikawa was denied the world number one spot last year. You did the same to Scottie Scheffler last year. This is something you’re really good at.

VH: This place is great, but I’d like to go back more often.

Q: I was curious about your putting. You spoke of it at the beginning of the week and talked about how hard you have been working on it. This is one area that you weren’t happy with. This week, you putted the lights out on this course with 23 putts (Saturday), 24 putts (Sunday). We are interested in the kind of putts you made. Can you tell us more about them and what happened with your putter this week?

VH: The first two days were frustrating because I didn’t putt well. Although I missed many short putts, it was difficult to putt in the wind of 30 miles an hour. The greens are very fast and grainy so you need to hit them softly. There’s so much that could happen with the wind. It’s been windy, but calm the last two days so I was able to rely more on my feet. It’s easy to gain confidence when you see a few putts go in. It was not like you feel you will make every putt. After the first few days it was more like you could still miss this putt. It makes you feel so uncomfortable. Try to change your mindset.

The putt on last was quite sweet. The putt on 17 was also big. I don’t know why, but I didn’t make many long putts. It was more like I putt a fair amount from 15 to 20 yards. If you hit a lot good approach shots and you want to make them, they are easier than I thought. I started making them more in the last two days.

Q: What has changed over the past five days? You seem to love Hero. You won the Hero Challenge Abu Dhabi, and you are now in two consecutive rows here.

VH: It’s one of those things that is easy to do in practice. I have very high expectations for myself, and when I fail to hit it the way I want it to in practice, it frustrates me. It feels like I am getting more out of it than I really am. When I don’t hit the ball well and the tournament begins, all my frustration and technique just goes away and you just have to enjoy the game. I was able to stay within myself and not try to hit shots I didn’t have. One thing I struggled with was my spinning of the ball. If I hit a full shot, I would have my face turn to shut. This is bad if you want to hit pull cuts all day. What I ended up doing was just chipping everything. Because I know the direction it’s going, I felt like I was going for a Tommy Fleetwood finish. It was actually a great thing in the left-to right winds, because I can just pull the pull up against the wind, and it will return. On the right-to left winds, it is a bit more difficult. I have to either aim it very far right or lean the shaft hard so that the face doesn’t move. This is how I learned how to play golf this week.

VH: Dr. Munjal joked with me that it was my first professional victory at the Abu Dhabi Hero Challenge. He was my partner in Dubai’s pro-am. I won the event twice. I told him that I have done well in the past when he was around.

Q. How would you describe your 2022 year and how does it impact the way you think about it?

VH: It feels great to win. It was a good step in the right direction, even though it felt like I should have won more tournaments. Some tournaments were difficult, others weren’t fair. Too many weeks I felt like I had to just grind it out and get the round done, rather than attacking and feeling like I was going for 7, 8 under. There were too many instances when it was, “OK, if my game is good, maybe I can shoot a few under.” It was a bit frustrating. Although I feel that I have a lot of work ahead, this is a significant step in the right direction.

Q: What a great start to qualifying for the European Ryder Cup. Shane winning, you winning, Jon Rahm winning at Dubai. What is it that you consider most important going into next season? How happy do you think Luke Donald would feel?

VH: There’s still a year before the Ryder Cup. But if the entire team plays well and gets a lot more momentum going into the week I think it’s fantastic. Last year, the American players had an incredible year. They knew going into the tournament that it was their year. We have the chance to push it in the opposite direction, I believe. If more Europeans win, I believe we can change the narrative for next year. It’s true, but it’s also cool to see fellow Europeans succeed.

Q: I heard you say that it was more stressful than I expected, but that you managed stress well. It doesn’t look like you’re looking stressed when you find yourself in such situations. What’s your approach and mindset?

VH: This is a situation I have been in a lot more than when I started on Tour. I believe that the more you are put in it, the better you will handle it. My childhood was a good one. I have a lot of memories. Norway is not a great place to learn golf. You have to be content with what you have. These things build character and make it easier to handle stress than if everything was on a platter.

Q. Viktor, what have you learned about yourself over the past 12 months?

VH: I don’t know. I don’t think like that. I think about it all day. I wonder if I have had a good day. Have I done enough to get me to the next year? Five years? As long as I do the things I need to do, then I feel satisfied and that will bring me to sleep. If they don’t, I need to reevaluate my actions and reassess. Even though I may not have gotten better, or perhaps I’ve learned some things that aren’t so good, I view it as a learning opportunity. As cliché as it sounds, I try to improve every day.

Q. The Hero Cup is coming up next month… Do you see it as an important part of Europe’s preparations for Rome?

VH: Yes. It’s not the same thing, but when I was a junior golfer in Europe, there were always European boys team championships. There are also match play tournaments in which you must play with your teammate. When I went to college, I didn’t do it as much. You don’t play in all the match play and team tournaments, especially when you are a pro golfer. It’s a great opportunity for all the guys to play match play and team together. It’s fantastic, I think.

Q. I’m sorry to hear that you weren’t happy with your putting. The first two days were a lot to do the wind. But, when you consider how statistically you have improved over the past year (you talked about it earlier in week), how rewarding is it to see the payoff?

VH: It’s so rewarding. To sum it all, I felt like I was when I came out. My ball-striking was not as good but I could hit it super straight and I felt like I could shoot 2-3 under every day without making any putts. It was nice in one sense, but I could shoot well over par if I was off. This year, it’s been the reverse. My ball-striking has been off this year and I’ve been putting really good just to shoot a few under par. It’s frustrating at times, but it also relieves some of the pressure. I can rely on my putting ability to keep me in the game, and I don’t need to putt to shoot below par. You won’t hit great shots over 72 holes. I made many poor shots today. But it’s the key putts that keep you in it. This is what has allowed me to stay in contention this year without actually hitting it all that well.

Q. Which was more enjoyable, going from six back or this?

VH: Coming from behind is fun because you are more in attack mode and you feel more relaxed. This was a very stressful week. It was difficult to be in contention and even get — a five-shot lead at turn with nine holes remaining. You can’t mess it up with five shots. But you’ll see just how close it can get on that final hole. You can’t let up, you have to hit the next hole. Boom, it’s a bogey. Scottie suddenly makes a birdie, and he’s right there. It’s tiring and it makes me tired.

Q: Sixth hole was quite interesting. He chipped in, it was interesting where it was put off the tee and how big that putt was. It’s possible to just sort of get through that.

VH: My tee shot was terrible left, just behind the bush. I had to lay up using a pitching wedge. I was way back there and hit an 8-iron out of the rough to a very nasty left pin with wind off the left. I hit a great shot, about 12-15 feet from the hole. I did what I was supposed, but Scottie comes in and changes everything. However, I had a flashback to Rory McIlroy’s bunker shot on No. 10 and I still had a birdie putt from 15 feet. I was able make that putt on top his eagle, so I believe I still had the lead. It was more like it was happening. Instead of thinking “Man, that’s a great shot! He just made eagle!”, but then realizing that this is a putt and I can make it, every shot counts, you just have to refocus. It’s great to be able to make putts from the top.

Q. I saw you using AimPoint to put together a team game plan.

VH: Jeff Smith was my first coach. He came to Karsten Creek, where I practice, and we played a few holes together. He watched me putt some putts out on the course, and I would missread 15-footers by two feet. However, I would still hit good putts. My reading abilities were just terrible. It was on a course that I play every day when I’m at home. I should have known the greens. He had some knowledge with AimPoint so he said “OK, you have to learn this”. The rest of the nine holes, he basically read the greens and told me where to aim. I then just began making things. It was then that it clicked into my head that I needed to master this. It’s not perfect, and I won’t make every putt. But it gives me a framework that I can trust, and it’s usually pretty close. What I do is basically, as you can see on the practice green: I get some tees up and hit some short putts to get my feet calibrated.

Q: Many people associate Norway with winter sports. I’m sure that you aren’t offended. It begs the question: has the reaction to you in Norway changing based on how much you play this game, how many wins you have, and how high you get? It’s become more popular.

VH: It’s a great question. I know that I don’t check social media very often, and I spend most my time in the United States. It’s difficult for me to see what’s happening back home. However, I do receive a lot of text messages, and people seem to be paying attention. One thing that is unique about Norwegians, it’s our patriotic nature. Although we only have five to six million people, it seems that everyone tunes into Magnus Carlsen winning and then they start playing chess or if it is Thor Hushovd in Tour de France everyone just started riding that summer. Or, you know, Erling Haaland doing incredible things with Casper Ruud, who is playing tennis. People love sports, and they cheer for their countrymen when they do well.