Viktor Hovland: PGA Tour in ‘tricky position’ as LIV golfers return

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — First it was Brooks Koepka departing LIV to come back to the PGA Tour via a new Returning Player Program. Then it was Patrick Reed, who doesn’t qualify to return the same way as Koepka, but Reed does have a path back.

Will there be more? Time will tell but for PGA Tour stalwarts like Viktor Hovland, it’s a double-edged sword.

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“Just for my personal standpoint I would say I enjoy playing against those guys. I think obviously Patrick Reed being a major champion and great player and Brooks a five-time major champion, that’s a great addition to the PGA Tour. They’re great players and I want to compete against the greatest players out there,” he said Tuesday ahead of the WM Phoenix Open, which serves as his PGA Tour debut in 2026.. “I think it just makes the product, the fields better.”

After years of debate about just how LIV players might be welcomed back, fans and players now have a bit of clarity. But does it seem contradictory in some ways?

“It does kind of put the Tour in a tricky position now,” Hovland said, continuing his thought. “You’ve said one thing for a long time and now we’re changing things. What precedent are you setting then to the future players now if I can go to a rival tour, get paid and now seemingly come back again without the biggest consequences.”

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Hovland’s name was long in the rumor mill as a potential LIV flip but now that the rival league is losing players back to the PGA Tour. Hovland said above all, he’s just trying to focus on his game.

“I don’t really have an opinion on that to be honest. That’s something the Tour has to figure out. I’m sure there is a lot of people not going to be super happy about that, but at the end of the day I just want to compete against the best players in the world. I’m in a place where I have to figure stuff out in my own game, and that’s basically where I’m focusing on. I don’t really want to focus on what the Tour should be doing right now.”

But did Hovland ever reflect on decisions he made about his career path?

“Not really. I just see the news and I go, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’ and then I just go about my day,” he said. “I got stuff to do, things to figure out, so that’s about the amount of calories I’m spending on reacting to things like that.”

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Hovland is making his season debut in a tournament he hasn’t had much success in. In three previous outings, he has two missed cuts and a tied for 42nd. His last appearance at TPC Scottsdale was 2023.

“Ryder Cup is a big deal and gets pretty rowdy, but this is the tournament outside of the Ryder Cup that just feels like compete chaos, and I think it’s a cool environment to play in and kind of just embrace the chaos a little bit,” he said. “Especially when you pull off a great shot on 16 or something, because you know that if you don’t you’re going to get booed and it’s not going to feel very good. It’s just cool to be in that environment sometimes. I really like the golf course as well, and being in perfect conditions, you know, it’s just kind of a nice place to start the year off and see where your game is at.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Viktor Hovland: PGA Tour in ‘tricky position’ as LIV golfers return