Darren Riel/Golf
ROCHESTER, NY — Much of the attention surrounding Victor Hovland this week has focused on his clothing. But this may have distracted from his actual game.
His clothing sponsor has him dressed in a bright orange polo shirt, then bright orange pants and then more bright orange polo shirts.
Every day, whether it’s a fan, a reporter, or an anchor, someone has said something to him about his clothes.
But throughout the week he downplayed the importance of clothing. When told by GOLF’s Dylan Dethier that golf fans probably don’t have the right to say anything about his operations, he responded with as much color as his wardrobe.
“I don’t give anything away anyway,” he said. He was rude about it in a way that reflected his usual attitude.
But he supported her by playing like he didn’t care. In fact, that was why so many people were seeing his clothes in the first place.
For the third major in a row, he had a chance to win the thing going into the final round. But unlike the Masters tournaments and the 2022 Open, Hovland was in the thick of it all the way to the end.
His closing birdie on the 18th brought him into second place with Scotty Scheffler, but that didn’t start to tell the story. None of his five putts that helped narrow his deficit against Brooks Koepka, who was at one point three, fell to just one as they played the last four holes.
Then he reached the age of 16.
You probably already know what happened by now, but in short:
Launch TV in the cellar. The second inline shot is in the face of the bunker, a repeat of Corey Conners the day before. Free drop. slice. Three more swings, plus a double bogey 6.
When his 16-foot-18 fell, he lost to Koepka by only two throws. He hardly reacted.
When he arrived to record, the smile he always wore around the media disappeared. His bright orange shirt was probably also gray.
Then he stood and waited for the CBS producers to give the go-ahead for Dottie Pepper to tape his post-tour interview. He just wanted the day to end.
Pros do not have to talk to reporters after their rounds, they are allowed to pick and choose their media commitments. After the late interview, he was taken to the player’s interview room. He said this would be his last stop.
He didn’t have time to go back and process what he just went through. No time to think about what he could have done differently. No time to think about his decision on the sixteenth.
But he took solace in one fact. It’s heading.
Prior to last summer’s Open, his best finish in a major tournament was a T12 performance at the 2019 US Open – when he was still an amateur. Now he has two top 5 players and a T7 in Augusta.
“It’s upsetting now, but it’s really great to see that things are moving in the right direction,” he said. “First place is much better than a tie for second, but it’s fun even just to have a chance [win] one of these.”
For a long time, Hovland has been criticized, even at times during his three PGA Tour victories, for a poor short match. But Sunday seemed like a thing of the past.
That’s no small feat at Oak Hill where the greens are defended with everything you can think of from dense, tightly clipped, steep runoff and deep, grass-faced bunkers.
He made one bogey and a double that day and neither of them had anything to do with misrun hits. He was third in the field in hits earned: He turned the green on the last drive, reinforcing what he had said all week, that his shortstop game was also heading in the right direction.
“I didn’t hit every green there and had some bad swings and let myself in some places where I had to rely on my short game,” he said. “I thought I did. If I hadn’t had those up and down, at least I wouldn’t have even gotten a shot up the stretch.”
He did it all while also in contention, in the last group of a major, no less. At the 2022 Open Championship, he was consistent all day, trailing by three in the turn before losing by six.
Sunday was much different. Although he did not retain a share of the lead, he fought back, even as his playing partner, Koepka, had bowled three of the first four holes. Hovland responded by birdieing two in a row and letting Kopka drop a shot in front of him when he drove it into the water on the 6.
Just when it looked like Koepka was ready to seal the deal with a birdie on the 12th, Hovland rallied again with birdies on the 13th and 14th.
“Brooks is a great player, and now he’s got five majors,” Hovland said of the hero. “I mean, that’s a hell of a record right there. It’s not easy going toe-to-toe with a guy like that. He wouldn’t give you anything, and I didn’t really feel like I gave him anything until 16.
“I feel like I belong here, I have to get a little better, and hopefully next time things go my way.”
Fellow players feel he belongs, too. They take note.
“He’s putting himself in his place, isn’t he?” said Rory McIlroy. “Jack Nicklaus has had 18 majors, but he’s finished second 19 times. So it’s all about putting yourself in his shoes and giving yourself chances. The more chances you give yourself, the more likely you are to get in your way.”
This is exactly what Hovland felt as well. Close calls keep telling him he’s on the right track.
“If I continued to care about my work and kept working on what I was doing, I think we’d have one of those soon,” he said. “There’s another one coming soon.”