Viktor Hovland has dealt with very public issues involving his swing, leading some to question whether he's dealing with mental or physical issues in his game.
Hovland hopes to put that question to bed this week when he competes at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio.
The 27-year-old Norwegian has seven victories on the PGA Tour since turning pro in 2019, and that includes The Valspar Championship in late March as well as the 2023 Memorial in a playoff against Denny McCarthy.
Hovland, however, has finished outside the top 20 in three of his last four events – including The Masters (T21), Truist Championship (T54) and PGA Championship (T28).
On Tuesday, Hovland shifted gears in his preparation for taking on Muirfield Village Golf Club.
"Yeah, it's really cool. I've played here a few times now and every time I was looking forward to trying to conquer the golf course because it's so hard, and up until 2023 I felt like I had played a lot of good golf but just didn't quite get the finishes that I wanted," Hovland said.
"So it was really nice to finally get a win there in 2023. First win in the United States, and it was kind of the first win on a really big-boy golf course and a great field. So that was a big week for me."
That said, Hovland contends that it won't be easy given the challenges the course presents.
"I enjoy the challenge, but that's more so like after the round," he said.
"During the round it's just so stressful, especially when it's blowing. I played 18 holes yesterday and it was kind of a weird wind, a lot of crosswinds, and on those tee shots it gets very difficult to hold the fairways. The rough is probably as thick as I've ever seen it, so if you're not good off the tee, you're just going to be grinding for pars all day. Yeah, it's just a really tough golf course."
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL ISSUES
Which then lends itself to the age-old question: Is Hovland dealing with mental or physical issues on the golf course?
"It is all mental and it is all physical, but you both have to – you have to do 'em both at the same time," he said.
"But at the end of the day if your technique or the physics of your golf swing are not matching up and the ball's going everywhere, it doesn't matter how you think. You've got to correct some issues in order to see the ball go where you want it to.
"And then I think the mental part becomes more and more important as your game starts to become better, when you're really close to posting a really good score, maybe you're just kind of letting a couple bad swings really upset you or you're maybe not that confident yet.
"So that's where I feel like the mental side of it. If you can kind of push that and just believe, even though the results aren't quite there yet, I think that's where it's really important. But at the end of the day you can't think your way around to a 65 out there at Muirfield. You're going to have to hit the shots and if you don't have 'em, then, well, you got to work on it."