PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Viktor Hovland discovered a swing that labored down the powerful closing stretch at Innisbrook on Sunday, making three late birdies to rally previous Justin Thomas with a 4-under 67 for a one-shot victory within the Valspar Championship.
Hovland has modified coaches 5 occasions since he final received at East Lake to win the FedEx Cup in 2023. He wasn’t solely positive the place his photographs had been going. Frustration was as nice as ever when he arrived at Innisbrook pondering he had no likelihood of successful.
“I actually didn’t imagine I may do it this week,” he mentioned.
It seemed bleak even after Hovland and Thomas lastly separated from the pack throughout a last spherical so tight that 9 gamers had a minimum of a share of the lead in some unspecified time in the future.
Hovland was three photographs behind Thomas when he holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th to start out his superb run. He hit 7-iron at a tucked pin on the sixteenth gap — the hardest gap on the Copperhead course — to five toes for birdie that tied him for the lead.
After which he took lifeless goal to a again pin on the par-3 seventeenth to 12 toes for birdie, which changed into a two-shot cushion when Thomas faltered late.
Thomas made it just a little simpler on Hovland. He made 4 birdies in a five-hole stretch on the again 9 and was forward by three when he walked off the fifteenth inexperienced. However he selected driver on the sixteenth and hit that into the timber, leaving him no alternative however to chip out to the golf green. Thomas needed to get up-and-down from a bunker to flee with bogey.
Hovland caught him together with his birdie on the sixteenth, and Thomas was in hassle on the 18th with a drive into deep tough on the left that led to bogey. He was 7 beneath by 15 holes however needed to accept a 66.
Hovland performed it secure on the 18th with a two-shot lead, and his bogey solely decided the ultimate margin. He completed at 11-under 273 for his seventh profession victory that strikes him again into the highest 10 on the planet.
This one he won’t have seen coming.
Hovland spoke overtly concerning the frustrations of his supreme ball-striking changing into a legal responsibility. He missed three straight cuts coming into the Valspar Championship, together with an 80 within the first spherical of the Gamers Championship every week in the past. Hovland had not made a 36-hole reduce in opposition to a full discipline for the reason that Scottish Open final summer time.
So, what occurred?
“I’ve obtained no concept,” he mentioned with amusing when his victory was safe.
Jacob Bridgeman, who began with a three-way share of the lead, wanted to gap out from the golf green on the 18th to power a playoff. He wound up with a par and completed third.
“I hit lots of disgusting photographs, however they occurred to go the place I seemed,” Hovland mentioned. “In some way I used to be capable of hit the great photographs I can much more typically.”
There have been solely nice photographs down the stretch. Hovland selected to put up on the 14th — he went for the inexperienced in two Saturday and made bogey — and needed to depend on a 12-foot, slippery birdie putt to have any likelihood. That was an enormous one to make it.
The pin on the sixteenth was again proper, protected in entrance and to the precise by a bunker, and his shot by no means left the flag. After which got here the shot and birdie putt on the seventeenth.
Thomas was left to marvel what went flawed. He all the time hits driver on the sixteenth and figured the more serious he may make was 5. He rapidly realized Hovland did loads of good.
“I’ve had loads of probabilities this season, however nothing fairly like that,” mentioned Thomas, whose final victory was the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
“I felt so good on the market, so excited for each shot,” he mentioned. “Hell, there’s not a lot I can do. He birdied 16 and 17. I clearly made it loads simpler. It is actually laborious — however actually enjoyable — attempting to win golf tournaments.”
Bud Cauley (66), Billy Horschel (67) and Ryo Hisatsune (68) tied for fourth. Horschel delivered probably the most unimaginable shot at Innisbrook when his ball settled up in opposition to a tree on the par-5 fifth gap. He inverted a 9-iron and swung left-handed, hitting it 117 yards onto the inexperienced and changing a birdie putt from simply exterior 30 toes.
“The humorous factor was my little boy was about 50 yards in entrance of me simply to the left on the cart path sitting down, and I needed to yell at him to form of get out of the way in which as a result of I did not know precisely the place this factor may go,” Horschel mentioned. “Final thing I have to do is name my spouse and inform her I simply hit my son with a golf ball.
“Pay attention, it was a hit-and-hope shot, and I pulled it off and to make the putt. … I imply, humorous issues occur like that.”
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