When Viktor Hovland pulled out of the WM Phoenix Open on Monday, February 5, he got all the attention in the golf world. People began to wonder if Hovland was really on his way to LIV Golf after he made his choice.
Hovland’s departure, on the other hand, seems to have a less dramatic reason. Eurosport Norge TV golf reporter Marius Thorp said on his X account (which used to be Twitter) that Hovland pulled out of the Phoenix event to work on his game.
Marius Thorp made a post on X:
“Confirmed that Viktor [Hovland] will take a week of training in Florida before returning to competition in the Genesis Invitational.”
“Didn’t feel comfortable with tournament play as it stands now and wanted to figure out the swing and find an ideal feel before heading to LA!”
Last weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Viktor Hovland had a bad round. He tied for 58th place with a score of 3 under, 14 strokes behind the winner.
Hovland had 13 birdies and 10 bogeys over the three days at Pebble Beach, where the event was cut short to 54 holes because of bad weather. He only had one round below par.
What does Viktor Hovland have coming up on the PGA Tour?
Based on Marius Thorp’s story, Viktor Hovland will be back in competition at The Genesis Invitational. The Los Angeles event will be the third Signature Event of the season. It will take place the week after the WM Phoenix Open.
Hovland will be at The Genesis Invitational for the fourth time. The Norwegian has done well in all three of his previous starts, finishing in the top twenty each time.
In 2022, he came in fourth place at the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, which was his best finish. A year ago, he placed fifth in his first race at the event. He finished T20 in the year 2023.
In the 12 rounds Hovland has played in The Genesis Invitational, he has finished half of them and scored in the 60s. He has set two records at the event: 64 (18 holes) and 270 (72 holes).
The PGA Tour’s first event of the 2024 season was at The Sentry… After 21 holes, he tied for 22nd place, eight strokes behind the winner, Chris Kirk.
During the autumn, the Norwegian didn’t play much at the top level. He played in the (fake) Hero World Challenge in December and came in 10th. He came in second place at the DP World Tour Championship in November before that.
As well as playing in the Open, Hovland was an important part of Europe’s win in the Ryder Cup. Hovland won the individual match against Collin Morikawa at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, giving him 3.5 points overall.
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