Hovland reveals training secrets that lead him to success at Riviera.

On a sunny day in Pacific Palisades, California, Viktor Hovland, the talented 28-year-old Norwegian golfer, demonstrated that he is not afraid to experiment with unconventional methods to enhance his performance on the PGA Tour. With a promising start at the Riviera Country Club, where he recorded an impressive round of 2 under par 69, Hovland not only excelled in terms of results but also surprised by leading the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, accumulating over three strokes on his competitors.

“Today was really good. The numbers speak for themselves, but the feeling of what it’s like to play well was much closer than I expected,” Hovland said, reflecting on his performance. He is on an unrelenting quest for a turnaround in his game, particularly off the tee, and is sparing no effort to regain his confidence with the driver. At the WM Phoenix Open, he even sent his caddie, Shay Knight, to a Wal-Mart to buy used pool floats for children, which became part of a curious exercise he conducted at the TPC Scottsdale practice range. “I think it was a good idea,” he joked, adding that he considered himself a genius for coming up with that approach.

At the prestigious AT&T Pebble Beach competition, Hovland worked tirelessly with different drivers for nearly two hours after an inconsistent day on the tee. His average driving distance at Riviera is impressive, ranking second since 2003 with an average of 303.4 yards, just behind Cameron Young. To enhance his distance and fine-tune his approach game, which has ranked fourth on the Tour since 2020, he introduced a new exercise using a resistance band. “You might have seen the band exercise I was testing. It still serves the same purpose, but I feel it helped me find something tangible that I could take to the course,” Hovland explained.

The golfer revealed that the goal of the exercise was to increase the width on the downswing, preventing his arms from getting too close to his body. “The floaters were meant to create space on the downswing. It was hard to feel that without them, but the band really forces your body to push against the tension and, when you remove it, it’s like saying, ‘Wow, this is what I should feel.’ Although we’re not completely there yet, it was a big step in the right direction,” Hovland highlighted optimistically.

After a T-10 finish at the WM Phoenix Open and a drop to T-58 last week at Pebble Beach, Hovland has primarily been using a Ping 440K driver, alternating between shafts of different lengths this season with mixed results. “Finding the feel on the practice range is one thing, but replicating it in a tournament, especially with the cold and rainy weather in the morning, and now with winds up to 30 miles per hour, is really challenging, especially at Riviera,” he concluded.

With his determination and innovation, Hovland is not only navigating the challenging waters of professional golf but also redefining the way athletes approach the pursuit of excellence. What lies ahead for this young talent? The world of golf will surely be watching his next moves.