Viktor Hovland has had an interesting start to the new year. Not only did he split with his coach Joe Mayo (again), but he broke his toe before The Sentry at Kapalua’s Plantation Course and told Golfweek “It’s a terror walking 18 holes.” Now he returns to the Monterey Peninsula for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the site of his 2018 U.S. Amateur win.
But how’s his game entering the PGA Tour’s second signature event of the season?
“It’s not very good,” Hovland said.
“Yeah, it’s been frustrating. I do feel like I’m making headway and I’m constantly trying to put the piece of the puzzle together. Even if I’m not seeing results from day to day, which is extremely frustrating, I do feel like I’m learning more. Even if kind of that domino doesn’t start to fall today or tomorrow or the next day, I’m hoping the cumulative effect of that knowledge and experience, eventually I’ll get over that hump and we’ll turn things around. Right now it’s pretty frustrating. This game of golf, as I said earlier, it’s very elusive, it’s counterintuitive and it’s very difficult right now.”
The world No. 9 made 16 starts on Tour last season, finishing inside the top 10 just twice: 3rd (PGA Championship) and T-2 (FedEx St. Jude Championship). That campaign was the Norwegian’s encore to a FedEx Cup title and two other wins — the Memorial and BMW Championship — in 2023. To start ’25, Hovland limped his way to a T-36 finish in Hawaii. He did play in the DP World Tour’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic two weeks ago, but missed the cut.
Despite the constant tinkering and less-than-ideal results, Hovland believes the tides will soon turn in his favor.
“But I know there’s a lot of good golf in me that will be there in the future and that I’ve played in the past,” he said. “Things will turn around soon.”
He’ll play alongside Rickie Fowler for the first two days, teeing off at 1:32 p.m. ET on Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Viktor Hovland’s game ‘not very good’ entering Pebble Beach Pro-Am
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