Execute Around-the-Green Like FedEx Cup Champ Viktor Hovland

The world’s top-players are magicians (playing-) from all-over the golf course; and especially when they’re around-the-green.

But, this season’s FedEx Cup Champion and 2023 Tour Championship/BMW Championship winner, Viktor Hovland, wasn’t like most (of the other-) full-status Tour-players prior to the Nordic golfer’s arrival as a top-100 player from around-the-green during (2023 or-) his fourth full-season on Tour.

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During his first full-season on Tour in 2019-‘20, Hovland’s short-game ranked 168th out-of about 200 Tour-players according to “Strokes-Gained: Around-the-Green”. Over the course of his next-two seasons (2020-2022), Hovland experienced inconsistent-play around-the-green as his “SG:ATG-ranking” initially climbed to 124 before it fell out of kilter yet-again during the 2021-22 season.

Entering his 2022-23 season, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy was a multiple-time Tour-winner who had also achieved status as a top-10 player (and-) despite his dismal performance around-the-green; one so-bad that his chipping/pitching represented the 191st worst (or best-) ranking on-Tour in “SG:ATG”.

Amazingly, the winner of the 2018 U.S. Amateur (contested-) at Pebble Beach was (then-) able to excel at the highest-level of the sport while overcoming his chipping/pitching- limitations thanks to his world-class skills off-the-tee, into-the-green, and on-the-green. Still, you can only last so-long at the top of the game if your chipping/pitching/bunker-game isn’t sharp; and Hovland’s wasn’t (- before 2022-23).

With his 16 million-dollar payday coming-off the backs of his five-shot margin-of-victory over (the-) Tour Championship(‘s field which included-) runner-up Xander Schauffele and company at East Lake, Viktor is well-aware that his game is clicking on all cylinders or in-his-words “everything came together for two-weeks”.

By winning back-to-back playoff-events, Hovland imprinted his name into the record books forever and the current-state of his game adds credence to this wide-held belief that says golf is a game won nearest the hole.

Similar to Matthew Wolff’s powerful/unique-swing in its shut-position at-the-top and how he counters that with increased side-bend on-the-downswing/at-impact, Viktor creates an immense amount of power/speed during his move (and-) in a way that defies traditional swing-methodology and is only made-possible thru his massive shoulder/hip-turn.

Luckily for Viktor, his swing isn’t quite as funky as that of fellow-Cowboy Matthew Wolff; but it still possesses its quirks. More than anything else; including his swing’s physical-characteristics/advantages, Viktor views his entire-game in a positive light and refuses to shy away from working on his weaknesses.

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Like Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods, and Jack Nicklaus, Viktor is a right-hand man. With that being said, the unique-complexities within Hovland’s full-swing fail to translate well to his (smaller-) chipping/pitching-swing/motion. To-be specific, Hovland’s full-swing requires (more-) compensations during the course of it which, in turn, allows his unique-setup/powerful-move possible and, thus, repeatable in-nature.

Although Hovland is a superior-athlete whose full-swing possesses an incredible amount of width/speed (of-) which holds-up under duress, his earlier-struggles with his chipping/pitching functioned as the result of reasons/inputs that aren’t much different from those that place an unnecessary-cap on the average-amateur’s green-side capabilities.

Not unlike the setup of your typical amateur, Viktor setups with his shoulders aligned open/pointed further-left than his feet and/or hips are. Mainly, Viktor began exercising more control over his chipping/pitching when he started enhancing the usage of his body. During the natural process of increasing his body’s usage within his chipping/pitching motion, Viktor witnessed the length of his chipping/pitching-motion shorten.

In its early-stages of development, Viktor had serious trust-problems that manifested themselves in ugly ways in (2021-22) tournament-action. Fast-forward to this past (2022-23) season, and it’s obvious that Viktor’s hard-work is paying off in a big-way.

Many of the game’s best-instructors empower their students by emphasizing the importance of patience. If you’re making sizable mechanical/technical-changes to any type-of swing and you’re also not getting-worse before you ultimately improve, then you’re probably not putting enough (or the right type/amount of-) work into it. Parallel to that, Viktor’s improvement-process around-the-green took a course (of-) which required patience and was marked by a drop in performance before it began turning in the other direction.

Although we’re making a small-swing when we chip/pitch, there’s a hardly definable range (of-) which applies to its length. As you’re pinpointing how-far/thru the-length of your (own; unique-) chipping/pitching-motion ought to-be, it’s best to proceed by maintaining the same-swing albeit in a shorter-motion.

If you make a deep/big (shoulder/hip-) turn that’s also similar to Viktor’s turn, then embrace that same-move/feeling when you’re playing from around-the-green. In other words, don’t try to be someone you’re not by electing to alter the unique-characteristics of your swing. Proportionate to that, don’t try to make a big-turn when you chip if you don’t make one (already-) on your full-swings.

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For a few years there, Viktor’s scrambling-shots too-oft took the form of chunk, de-cels from just-off the putting-surface. During (the course of-) his down-swing, Viktor would stop rotating his body (more-) away-&-back towards the target which, then, caused an early-release of his hands and, with that, a flawed-bottoming of his club-head at-impact.

Lacking confidence around-the-green is never fun; especially when you’re in-contention on Sunday of Tour-events. As we saw during the final-round at Bay Hill in 2022 and 2023, Viktor finished in disappointing fashion via his tie for second and his tie for tenth, respectively, after posting over-par Sunday-rounds of 74-&-75 while battling against the sorry-state of his bunker-game within both events. However, the improvements that Hovland ultimately made in-the-bunker over the course of his 2022-23 campaign were not slim by any measure.

For the entire-season, Hovland was able to get up-&-down from the bunker 58.25 percent of the time. Over the course of past-seasons, the Norwegian’s up-&-in bunker-rate never eclipsed the 91st best-mark on-Tour; or approximately 51-52 percent, and it even sunk as low as about-45 percent; or the 150th worst-mark. After pulling-off 60 sandy’s on his 103 sandy-attempts in 2022-23, Hovland’s mark of 58.25 percent is good-for the 19th best-ranking in sand-saves on-Tour.

As Hovland implied thru his comments during his post-Tour Championship (-winning) press-conference, success is a choice. Specifically, Norway’s winner of ten professional-tournaments since turning-pro in June-2019 didn’t waste-time before modestly thanking his team and mentioning the hard-work he’s put-in to-refining/improving his game.

Not so long ago, I resorted to the one-eye-closed technique when watching Viktor play his bunker-shots; much like I did on Will Zalatoris’ putts-inside-3-feet; which was without-a-doubt the kind of strategy that only the spineless-viewer at-home would feel is necessary to-employ.

Unlike us average-folk, these guys on-Tour have a ton of guts. The strides that Viktor’s made over this past season speak volumes about his high-character. More than anything, the current-resident of Stillwater, Oklahoma isn’t about to change his ways for anyone; regardless of circumstance.

Approaching the 2023 Ryder Cup, we mustn’t forget that Hovland is going to-be in prime-form and may even supplant the likes of Rory/Rahm as Team-Europe’s leading-player/voice in Italy at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.

Moreover, don’t be surprised if Hovland continues to-work hard on rotating away/toward the target around-the-green and, in 2024, his game reaches the precipice of major-championship glory.

Cover Image via Twitter