Norway’s Viktor Hovland proved to be quite the snake charmer in capturing the Valspar Championship near Tampa in Florida’s final PGA TOUR event of the year.
Viktor Hovland
The 27-year-old, who’d been struggling to find his swing, birdied two of his final three holes on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort to finish 11-under par and rally past a surging Justin Thomas for a one-shot victory.
Hovland closed with a 4-under par final 67 for his 7th TOUR win and first since capturing the TOUR Championship in 2023.
He’s had a revolving door of swing coaches, five of them, since last winning at East Lake in Atlanta, and then starring for Europe in the Rome Ryder Cup.
“It feels unbelievable. 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,” he said. “I was not very hopeful with my game leading into this week and, yeah, just goes to show this game is pretty crazy.”
Hovland trailed Thomas by three strokes when he drained a 12-foot birdie on the par-5 14th to make his presence known. On the first of the finishing holes known as the Snake Pit, the par-4 16th, he hit 7-iron to within 5 feet of the flag for birdie and tied the two-time PGA Champion.
He went ahead for good with a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th as Thomas was unable to close after carding four birdies during a five-hole string on the back nine. Bogeys on 16 and 18 left Thomas with a 5-under par 66 Sunday to finish minus 10 for the week.
Thomas struggled with a 4-over 40 on the front nine Thursday, came close to not making the weekend, then powered his way up the leaderboard on moving day with a 6-under par 65, his career best in 29 rounds played at the Valspar Championship.
“I felt like if I made this cut, I was going to have a chance to win the tournament. And I had a really good chance,” Thomas said. “I’ve had plenty of chances this season, but nothing quite like that.”
Thomas, whose last victory was the 2022 PGA at Southern Hills was gracious in defeat.
“Viktor obviously played an unbelievable round as well, birdieing 16 and 17, you know, he played great, he earned it. Yeah, I have a lot of positives to build on. It’s really hard — but really fun — trying to win golf tournaments.” After 54 holes, Hovland was part of a three-way tie. He relied on his putting, iron play, and experience to earn the trophy.
“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 and 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,” Hovland said. “Just really plotted my way around the course really nicely. I hit a bad shot and it didn’t really faze me all at that much. I leaned on my putting, hit a lot of great iron shots, so, yeah, it was awesome.”
