"He's obviously making it work"- Viktor Hovland tips his cap to Hideki Matsuyama on taking 5 shot lead at FedEx St. Jude
Viktor Hovland praised Hideki Matsuyama, who played remarkably well on Saturday, August 17, to secure a comfortable five-shot lead at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Hovland described it as a super impressive performance, especially considering the challenge of wind and firmer greens.
Matsuyama shot another 64 on Saturday, extending his lead to five strokes. He recorded five birdies and one eagle while bogeying just one hole. Hovland also carded a 4-under 66, finishing at 11-under, six strokes behind.
During the post-round interview, Hovland shared his thoughts on Matsuyama's third-round performance.
"It's super impressive stuff," he said. "It was not easy out there today. It was the same amount of wind and it feels like greens are or Fairways are starting to firm up a little bit, harder to hit the fairways and with some of those pin locations being tucked pretty close to the edges. It's hard to be pretty aggressive into some of those flags.
He's obviously making it work," he added. "And I try to play just reasonable and not safe but just good strategy the whole way I didn't make that many putts. If I would have got my putter going like I did yesterday probably probably would have been a very similar score. So just got to try to get the most out of my game tomorrow and we'll see what happens."
When will Viktor Hovland tee off at the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday?
Viktor Hovland is paired with Scottie Scheffler for the fourth round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship. The pair will begin play on Sunday, August 18, at 1:30 pm ET.
Viktor Hovland entered the FedEx Cup playoffs ranked 57th in the standings but has now jumped to 20th in the projected standings. Although he is the defending FedEx Cup champion, he is competing here after an underwhelming season.
For the uninitiated, Hovland has not made a top-ten finish this year apart from a third-place finish at the PGA Championship.
"Off the tee and into the greens, it was very good," Hovland said while reflecting on his round. "I put myself in nice positions off the tee and hit a lot of greens, gave myself a lot of looks. I would have liked to have put a ball a little bit closer, but it was very solid from start to finish."
Viktor Hovland added that he started to make more good swings, and the ball began behaving the way he expected it to.
Although the FedEx St. Jude Championship title might seem out of reach, the confidence gained here will help him in his title defense in the next two weeks.