Palm Harbor, Fla. — Viktor Hovland won the Valspar Championship on Sunday, but we don’t know how that happened.
His swing is so incredible that Hofland has passed five coaches since winning the FedEx Cup in 2023. He’s been going for eight months without a 36-hole cut against Full Field and wasn’t even sure he’d play this week.
And he delivered world-class shots one after another. No. 16, from 186 yards to 7-iron above the bunker to 5 feet, was not impressive.
With five behind three shots, he passed Justin Thomas and got a one-shot victory at 4-under 67, bringing together three birdies.
“It’s been a lot of struggle over the past year and a half so it’s really great for me to come back and win this tournament,” Hofland said. “I wasn’t expecting much from a game leading this week, indicating that this game is pretty crazy.
“I didn’t know if I would show up, but I’m happy I did it.”
He wasn’t happy that his game had returned in an orderly manner. There are still too many incorrect shots, but he feels the club is out of position and has to find a fix along the way.
However, he found a swing that worked in Innisbrook’s toughest stretch.
“To be honest, I didn’t believe I could do that this week,” Hofland said.
It looked dark even after Hovland and Thomas finally separated from the pack in the final round.
Hofland was three shots as Thomas opened his amazing run with a hole in a par 5 14th place and a 12-foot birdie putt. He hit a seven-iron with a pushed pin on the 16th hole (the toughest hole on the Copperhead course), making him 5 feet for a birdie tied up for the lead.
He then set a deadly aim on a par 3-12-foot par 3-12-foot backpin for birdies, becoming a two-shot cushion when Thomas was late and upset.
Thomas got a little easier in Hofland. He made four birdies on the back nine with a five-hole stretch, three ahead when he walked from the 15th green. However, he had no choice but to choose a driver on the 16th, knock it on the tree and tip out onto the fairway. Thomas had to go up and down the bunker to escape with Bogie.
Hofland caught him on the 16th along with Birdie, and Thomas drove left on the 18th to a bogey. He was under 7 15 holes, but had to settle for the 66.
Hofland played safely on the 18th with a two-shot lead, and his bogeys determined the final margin. He finished 11 under 273 in his seventh career victory, bringing him back to the top ten in the world.
This may have not seen him come.
Hovland spoke openly about his frustration that his best ball strike is responsible. He missed three straight cuts that entered the Valspar Championship, including 80 in the first round of the Player Championship a week ago. Hofland, the last cut against Fullfield, was at the Scotland’s opening last summer.
So, what happened?
“I don’t know,” he said with a laugh as his victory was safe.
Starting with Reed’s three-way share, Jacob Bridgeman had to force the playoffs by drilling holes from the fairway on the 18th. He got caught up in a par and finished third.
“I took a lot of nasty shots, but they just happened to go where I saw,” Hofland said. “For some reason, I was able to hit good shots that I could do more often.”
There were only great shots of stretching. Hovland chose to lay up on the 14th – he went to the greens with two on Saturday to make a bogey – and had to resort to a 12-foot slippery birdie putt to have a chance. It was a big thing to make it.
The pin on the 16th went back to the right, protected in front and to the right by a bunker, and his shot never left the flag. And then there was a shot and birdie putt on the 17th.
Thomas began to wonder what went wrong. He always hit the driver on the 16th and the worse thing he could do was 5.
“We had a lot of opportunities this season, but there weren’t any of that,” he said, and his final victory was the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
“I feel so good there, so I’m very excited about every shot,” he said. “Hell, there’s not much I can do, he birded 16 and 17.
Bud Cauley (66), Billy Horschel (67) and Ryo Histune (68) tied them in fourth place. Horschel delivered the most incredible shots in Innisbrook as his ball settled into the tree at the par-5 fifth hole. He turned the nine irons around, swinging a left-handed man, slamming 117 yards into green, converting birdie putts from just outside 30 feet.