Hovland’s The Hero’s Hero After Collin’s Total Collapse

Viktor Hovland termed what transpired Sunday at the Hero World Challenge “A pretty weird day.”

He was spot-on when you consider what happened to 54-hole leader Collin Morikawa early in the afternoon then what took place with Hovland down the stretch at the challenging Albany Resort.

After three fairly ordinary pars to start his day, Morikawa’s five-shot lead was down to four shots — no big deal.  No big deal until his second shot on the par four fourth hole went sailing left and into one of those Albany bushes where balls get lost and players get frustrated.  Morikawa hit a provisional to four-feet — a great bogey save coming, no doubt, but he missed, took double and was down to 16-under.

Then it looked like something out of the Twilight Zone on the par five sixth when Collin’s second turned into a huge, ugly hook that once again settled in the waste area bushes.  He’d walk off with yet another double-bogey in a span of two holes and in less than 30 minutes of playing time, went from five ahead to trailing by two.

The door was open for at least three players and it was Hovland who stepped through it.  Sam Burns made an early run and was 15-under and sitting pin high, just right of the short (290 yard) 14th green with his drive.  But his foray with a fairway wood run-up shot went up, down, up, down, up, down and up, down enough for him to walk off that hole with a triple-bogey seven instead of a birdie and Sam was gone.

It was Hovland taking over with a magical stretch that started with his third eagle of the week at that fateful 14th when he holed out from a bunker left of the green.  He followed that up with a monster (360-yard) drive at the par five 15th and planted his approach inside of 18 feet.  He holed that putt for a second straight eagle to get to 19-under and gained total control of the tournament.

Hovland wasn’t through.  At the long 16th, he hit another gem of an approach just outside three feet and made that to go 20-under.

The “weird day” theme continued as he three-putted the 17th from just 16 feet and caused some tense moments by moving some sand and tiny rocks from in front of his ball.  But those particles were on the green  — no penalty.  He missed the green at 18 and made a second bogey to finish but it was good enough to nip victory-starved Scottie Scheffler by a shot.

Hovland shot 66 and finished as low man at 18-under par despite the bogey-bogey finish and picked up the cool Tiger Trophy and a handy million bucks for the win.

Hovland came from six shots behind Morikawa at the start of the day.  “I didn’t think a win was going to be possible (at the start of the day),” Hovland said after the win.  “I knew if I put up a good score, anything’s possible on this course.”

For Morikawa, he lost out on a chance to jump to No. 1 in the world rankings.  Probably didn’t bother him too much.  He got engaged to Katherine (Kat) Zhu earlier in the week — and no doubt he’s totally No. 1 in her eyes.

Hero World Challenge Final Scores: