European Ryder Cup star is winner again after shaking off 'drowning' feeling

The Norwegian landed his seventh PGA Tour title triumph after coming from three shots behind Justin Thomas with three holes to play to win the Valspar Championship on the Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort in Florida.

The victory came just over a week after Hovland, who’d made no less than five coaching changes in the past 18 months, had shot an 80 in the opening round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

He’d talked earlier in the year at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic about the struggles he was facing and, even in victory, Hovland admitted he still has work to do with current coach Grant Waite to get back to playing without any fears.

However, in joining double winner Rory McIlroy, Sepp Straka, Thomas Detry and Ludvig Aberg on a European list of victors on the PGA Tour this season, the 27-year-old has jumped from 19th to eighth in the world rankings and is well and truly back in the mix for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September.

“Yeah, it feels unbelievable,” he said of being a winner again after signing off with a 67 to pip double PGA champion Thomas by a shot following his last-day 66. “It's been quite the struggle the past year and a half, so for me to come back and win this tournament is quite incredible. Yeah, I was not very hopeful with my game leading into this week and, yeah, just goes to show this game is pretty crazy.

“I just tried to go out there and play my game and I knew I didn't feel super comfortable or confident, but I was really patient and just tried to play really smart.

“I think that's a credit kind of to myself this week is that I almost felt like I played this week like a veteran, like I've been out here for 20 years. Just really plotted my way around the course really nicely. Yeah, it was awesome.”

Hovland wasn’t even sure he was going to play in the Valspar Championship until as late as Tuesday afternoon after shooting one of his worst scores as a professional the previous week.

“Yeah, I mean, shooting 80 is never fun, especially at The Players Championship,” he added. “I missed cuts before and felt like my game has been okay and I still feel like the next week I could win the tournament.

“But the last year and a half my golf game had not been very good and, when the problems remain and linger and you don't become more hopeful, it's like you keep drowning and you're running out of air. Yeah, it's tough to get excited to go and play because you just don't feel like you have the confidence to succeed.”

The win was a timely confidence boost heading into The Masters in just over a fortnight’s time, but the 2023 FedEx Cup winner is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

“Some of the shots that I'm hitting, it's going to make it really difficult for me to be in contention at Augusta if I don't rectify that problem,” he warned. “It's just a different golf course. You're going to hit so many long irons into par-4s and you have to drive it pretty far because the fairways are pretty wide.

“So there's still some things that I need to improve, but luckily we got two weeks and this is certainly nice to kind of have in the back of my mind leading up to Augusta.”