"It is a pretty special jacket": Viktor Hovland hopeful as he begins his quest to win first major at the 2024 Masters
Viktor Hovland said he “doesn’t really let his mind go that far” to think what it would be like to like have a Green Jacket, especially when he sees a sea of them at the Augusta, where he tees up for the fifth time, fourth as a pro, but trying to get better than Tied-seventh last year.
While trying to stay focused, he did add at the Masters 2024 press conference,
“It is a pretty special jacket and just to be affiliated with this place in any way, that's pretty cool. Just being here is pretty special, so I'm trying to enjoy that and certainly have to take care of a lot of stuff until we get there, hopefully, on Sunday.”
Hovland also embraces change in his own game for his quest for Masters 2024 victory
Since he turned pro and made his breakthrough at the Puerto Rico Open, quickly racking up wins in Mayakoba, Worldwide Tech, Memorial, the BMW in play-offs and finally the Tour Championships, a Major looked only a logical step. He had reached a career-high World ranking before the Masters in 2022, but some of his best moments came even after that, including the Tour Championships.
So, it was probably the quest for ‘better than the best’ he had achieved till then, that made him look elsewhere when it came to a ‘coach switch’. He was probably playing his best golf but then moved to Dana Dahlquist for coaching. It surprised many, but Hovland said,
“Yeah, I'm still kind of looking for some opinions out there, but I feel like I'm on a good track right now and we'll see where that takes us. It’s one of those things. Like, I was playing great golf last year, but it's not like I'm trying to change my golf swing. It's just sometimes the game of golf you try to do the same every day, but then things aren't the same every day when you go to the golf course. I took a huge break after last year and when I came back, things were a little bit different and I had to kind of find my way back."
"And even at the end of the last year I still felt like, yeah, I was playing great, but I got a lot out of my game and it didn't necessarily feel sustainable, but it's not like I consciously went in and said, hey, we're going to change everything up.”
He admitted he ‘needed a different voice’. He pondered and said,
“I was always trying to learn, but at the same time, I just felt like I got to basically the pinnacle of what my golf swing was able to do last year, and just when I keep looking back at my swings from 2020, 2021, I just really had more control of the golf ball, in my opinion."
"During the Scottish Open and British Open last year, I was on the range for probably seven, eight hours after every single round just trying to kind of figure it out a little bit. So, honestly, like, I knew I was playing good golf, but it came a little bit of a surprise that I was able to win the FedExCup right after that. But I still felt like that issue kind of had to be discussed and kind of figured out and that's kind of what I'm doing now."
Deep indeed for someone who was playing his best golf, but still wanting to get better. Maybe like Tiger Woods? And why not? Hovland’s career wins also include two from Wood’s events, the Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event on the PGA Tour, but still highly prestigious, considering the quality of the field, which is just 20.
Hovland may have explained it himself saying,
“Most of the time in my career if I've had an issue and I need to work on something, and I did this even in college, I would just get right behind a mirror or something and I'll hit balls, do a lot of slow motion swings, and just really feel the changes and groove the movement and if I can do it at a slower pace, then I'll just keep ramping it up until it feels more comfortable.”
The change he needs most – a win at the Major. It may not be all that far.