Viktor Hovland withdraws from RBC Canadian Open after disappointing 2024 Masters campaign
Before 2024, Viktor Hovland featured in the Masters Tournament four times and never missed the cut. His worst performance was a T32 finish in 2019 when he finished as the lowest amateur in the event. That impressive record ended on Friday, April 12.
Hovland's performance at Augusta National was so disappointing that it led him to withdraw from the next tournament on his schedule, the RBC Heritage. The news was released by the X (formerly Twitter) account PGA Tour Communications, posting the following text:
"Viktor Hovland WD from next week’s RBC Heritage. The field will be finalized after the conclusion of the Masters Tournament."
This decision by Viktor Hovland is all the more striking considering that the RBC Heritage is one of the Signature Events of the season. This implies that the event ranks as one of the highest purses on the calendar, in addition to distributing the most points for the FedEx Cup.
Hovland had the best season of his career in 2023, with three official victories, including the TOUR Championship, which gave him the FedEx Cup title. However, he has not looked comfortable with his game during 2024.
In the current season he has played five events and his best result has been the T19 he achieved at The Genesis Invitational.
In 2023, Viktor Hovland finished T7 at the Masters, the best result of his career at Augusta National. In addition, he finished in the Top 20 of the other three majors, including a second-place finish at the PGA Championship.
A look at Viktor Hovland's performance at The Masters 2024
Hovland had a good first round at the Masters Tournament. More than that, his front nine was actually impressive, with four birdies and no bogeys. However, on the back nine, he started to have problems with his game and got one birdie, two bogeys, and a double bogey to finish the round at 1 under.
Even so, his score put him in a relatively comfortable position on the leaderboard. However, Hovland could not find his best game during the second round and scored 9 over 81.
On Friday, Hovland struggled from the very start, bogeying the first hole and triple-bogeying the second. He then double bogeyed the 4th and bogeyed the fifth, to make the turn at 7 over.
The Norwegian parred the first three holes on the back nine and found his first and only birdie of the round on the 13th, but got back into trouble with a bogey on the 14th and double bogey on the 15th. He finished with a score of 8 over for 36 holes and missed the cut by two strokes.
This is the first missed cut for Hovland in over a year and a half on the PGA Tour (2022 Genesis Scottish Open).