Viktor Hovland found himself at Valhalla, and his 1st major championship might not be far behind

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The shadows were growing long Wednesday evening at Valhalla Golf Club when Viktor Hovland strolled onto the driving range. A plate of food in his hand, he sat next to his caddie for nearly 30 minutes, most of it in silence. Of the 156 players in the field, he was one of two still left at the course.

Hovland has been lost for months, fighting his golf swing in full view. So he showed up in Louisville searching for something. Under the fading light Wednesday, with less than 15 hours to his first-round tee time, he found it.

Hovland shot his second 66 of the week Saturday at Valhalla, surging into a tie for fourth place, two shots back of co-leaders Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele.

havland 3.JPG — Viktor Hovland hits the ball during the third round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. on May 18, 2024.

Once the best amateur golfer in the world and a six-time PGA Tour winner, Hovland has played this week like a young superstar full of confidence and charisma, not someone who admitted Friday the game "hasn't been all too easy" this year.

"To play better and get the results I want, I have to make some technical changes," he said after his opening-round 68. "Now, it's just a matter of how technical those changes need to be. But if you're hitting it poorly, you're not just going to figure it out by doing the same stuff. You have to change some stuff."

Hovland won three times last summer, including the final two events of the season to win the 2023 FedEx Cup. But in the offseason, he parted ways with his longtime coach, Joe Mayo, a mysterious move from someone playing the best golf of his career.

And immediately, something was wrong. Hovland doesn't have a top-10 finish all year. Last month at The Masters, he shot 71-81 to miss the cut in Augusta for the first time. He seemed destined to take off into superstardom in 2024, and, instead, he had the worst spring of his young career.

Six months after playing the best golf in the world, golf was driving Hovland crazy. The game has a funny way of forgetting what you did yesterday, making you find it in the dirt every morning. And Hovland didn't know what to do.

So, last week, he gave Mayo a call.

"He knows my swing really well," Hovland said Friday. "He's really, really smart and just has a way of looking at my swing and kind of knowing what it is right away. Felt like I got some really good answers, was able to apply some of the feels right away, and I saw improvement right away."

It's that easy, apparently, because Hovland was his old self from the first tee Thursday. He birdied three of his first four holes on the way to a first-round 68. Two 66s followed, and Hovland is right back where he feels like he belongs.

IMAGES | Round 3 of the PGA Championship at Valhalla

"I'm surprised in the sense of just how far away I felt last week," he said after his round Saturday. "But I'm not surprised in the way that ... I never doubted my abilities. It was just kind of my machinery was not working very well. But as soon as I get the machine kind of somewhere on track, I can play."

Valhalla has little defense for what these golfers can do this week. The wind is down, the air is warm, and several days of rain have softened the greens. Its length requires power and precision, though, and Hovland has that this week. Months of frustration may have ended with one phone call, and Hovland suddenly feels like he's out of the wilderness, a day away from hoisting a major championship trophy for the first time.

"I already saw it was better a few days ago, right before I was playing the tournament," Hovland said Saturday. "I thought 'We can maybe do some damage this week.'"

On the range Wednesday night, he finally put the pieces back together. The machine is humming, and Hovland believes it's once again headed toward greatness.

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