|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
A MILITARY TRIBUTE AT THE GREENBRIERSeptember 11, 2019Viktor HovlandWhite Sulphur Springs, West Virginia THE MODERATOR: Okay, we would like to welcome Viktor Hovland here to A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier. Viktor, this is your first start as a full member of the PGA Tour. It's been quite an adventure for you, well-documented, getting here to The TOUR. If you could just talk about the process that you went through to get here and what it feels like now to actually be a full member. VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it was a pretty busy summer. Played a lot of golf coming out of school after a national championship, and got a few invitations to play on the PGA Tour. I had an average week the first week but learned a lot. After that, I just kind of continued to play well. Barely missed out on my card through those exemptions, but was fortunate enough to play some good golf in the Korn Ferry finals and now we're here this week in West Virginia now. THE MODERATOR: Do you think it's any different for you having seen your teammate Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa gaining success on the PGA TOUR and winning to get to The TOUR that avenue, and you going coming via the Korn Ferry finals. How much of a difference was that for you do you think, and what sort of difference has it made? VIKTOR HOVLAND: It's hard to say, but it definitely helps seeing them perform so well and knowing that I have played well against them and beaten them a couple times as well. That just gave my a little bit more confidence knowing that, okay, it's a little scary playing on the PGA TOUR playing against the best in the world, but if we're playing good, it's good enough. THE MODERATOR: And just your first impressions of the Greenbrier Resort. Don't know if you've seen the golf course yet. Have you had a practice round yet? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Just got in last night. I played the Big 12s out of here this spring, so what would that be, maybe four months ago, four, five months ago? Honestly I think this is one of the coolest places we played at in college. It's just so unique and the golf club is just in really cool -- it's just a fun place to play and you can do so many other things around here. It's a pretty cool place. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Viktor. Q. Hi, Viktor. We saw you had a nice celebratory round with some of your former college teammates. What have you been doing in the last few weeks? VIKTOR HOVLAND: I've been taking it very easy. It was nice to come back to Stillwater, and especially last weekend we had our yearly fundraiser for the Cowboy Golf Team. It's really fun to see all the former alumni and donors come back and support the program. Yeah, basically we've just been hang out playing some golf and taking it real easy. Q. Could you explain what your schedule will look like? I know you'll play a little on the European Tour. Maybe give us some goals for what you want to accomplish in this fall schedule. VIKTOR HOVLAND: Just kind of looked at some tournaments that are viable for me to play. Kind of taking things as they go. Playing this week, next week I'll be playing at BMW in England, and after that I'll head home to Norway for the first time this year. Spend a week there and just kind of take it a little bit as it goes after that. Don't really have any specific goals coming up this fall. I just try to kind of continue to do what I did this summer and try to continually improve. Hopefully we end up in a pretty good spot after the fall. Q. How are you? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Good. Q. Wonder how you adjusted throughout the summer playing that much golf. I can't imagine you ever played as much as you did this past summer. VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, first few events I would spend a lot of time out at the course, but after I played so much throughout the end of the summer I just literally showed up to the course 20 minutes before my tee time, play 18 holes, and right back to the hotel room. So that's kind of how I adjusted. I don't think that's a very long-term plan, but at least that's how it ended up being in the end. I'll have to try to pace myself a little bit more and figure out a routine. Q. Talk a little bit about not playing the Korn Ferry finals. You could improve your position obviously if you played it; you decided not to. What went into that thinking? VIKTOR HOVLAND: It was just a lot of golf and I felt like I really needed that break. I'm confident enough in my abilities that I knew that I was going to get a pretty decent status going into this year on the PGA TOUR. I thought if I just take care of business, won't really matter in the long run. Q. Just wondering if you've had time to talk to any other PGA TOUR players and pick their brains on advice, whether it's how to travel, where to stay, what tournaments to play in, don't hit on the back pins, or anything like that. Anybody mentoring you? Have you asked anybody for any inside intelligence? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I've been playing a few practice rounds and Charles Howell and he's been great with me. Obviously been out here for 20 years now. You know, it's been really cool to be around him. He's a former Cowboy as well and really cares about you, so it's been nice to talk to him a little bit. Taylor Gooch as well. When it comes to the golf stuff, it's pretty self-explanatory. If the pin is way to the right and wind is blowing hard off the right and you can't be right, you're not going for that pin. But the little things, where to stay and kind of just listen to what their routines are like. Doesn't necessarily mean I need to be doing that, but just hearing the different sides, and then I can think for myself whether that's going to work for me or not. Q. Is there one specific thing that Charles told you that stuck that you made a note of? VIKTOR HOVLAND: He told me be selfish out here. You know, you want to be a nice guy and talk to everyone, but your time is valuable. You got to put your head down and do your business. You know, that's essentially why you're here. Q. You mentioned playing here in the Big 12s in April. What allowed you to play so well there, and did you have it in the back of your mind that if the summer went well for you that you could be back here? VIKTOR HOVLAND: I didn't really think about that, to be honest. That was our conference championship and I don't think -- so I think the last time we won the Big 12s was in 2011 so we were just super focused. We were going to win the Big 12s this year. I happened to play well along with my team and we managed to get the victory as a team. I knew that the winner would get a spot in this tournament this week. I missed out by a shot, but I didn't really think that I would be playing here regardless of missing out just on full status, which is pretty cool just looking back. Q. My first event, too, so I got jitters as well. What would you -- I guess what would your advice be to younger golfers now? I think golf is going to expand. You see all the CTE with football, it's going to become a more popular sport. The younger college kids who think they can come make it on tour and leave early, obviously you see how difficult that can be. What would be your advice there? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I mean, there is no rush. College is a really cool experience and I think back a lot even now. Man, it would be fun to be a senior in college still. So there is no rush. PGA TOUR is going to be out here forever. But I'm pretty happy with my decision. It's just -- I don't know. You got to -- it really helped me that I got to play a few PGA TOUR events before turning pro, because if you haven't done that and you decided to go early, you're just -- I feel like you're starting way behind than everyone else in the field. You literally don't know what to expect. I think if in amateur golf you're well-traveled, played a lot of different tournaments, different schedules, just different courses, different everything, you become a more well-rounded player and that makes that jump easier in my pin. Even though you're still playing the same game, there is a lot more to it. Talking to you guys every week; more people out there watching. It's just so much to handle, which there is no rush. If you can get the valuable experience of playing a few tournaments before turning pro, that's very smart. Q. I've spent a little time around you, so what does a selfish Viktor Hovland look like? Curious. VIKTOR HOVLAND: Good question. I'm still working on that. Q. I know you just got here, so to speak. Do you have any thoughts on the cut being reduced to top 65 versus top 70? And also, I've heard there is talk about the Korn Ferry cutting their Monday qualifying from 12 spots down to 8. You've kind of earned your way here. Any opinions on either of those? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Are they cutting it -- I haven't really heard much. Q. I think supposedly going to add a couple more -- I don't know if this is true -- adding a couple more full exemptions to the other tours, Latin and Canada and China. Those guys would be more exemptions, take those spots out of the Monday qualifiers. VIKTOR HOVLAND: Okay. Yeah, I don't know much about it and don't really know if I have an opinion on it. The best players should get into the field. It's up to whoever is in charge to make sure. Q. 65 versus 70 out here, does it matter? VIKTOR HOVLAND: No, it does matter for sure. You take care of business, that shouldn't matter. Just got to play better. Q. Couple more for you. We always see you happy-go-lucky. That's really your personae. Other people have alluded to it. What's been a struggle you've faced in golf and how have you overcome it? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Recently? Q. Just with turning professional maybe. VIKTOR HOVLAND: I would say I was a little anxious going into my professional career, even though I played really well in college. Obviously I played well this summer as well, but I wasn't really happy with the way I was hitting it. Just going into every week, especially in college golf, you kind of have a little break between tournaments. I would use that break to tinker with my swing. I didn't quite figure it out, so I was a little anxious going into every week. But what I evolved with so much -- or where I got way better this year was with figuring out how to just shoot a score regardless of how I was hitting it. But I realized over time this summer when you just play every single week, your mind just switches off a little bit and you just get into golf mode. Suddenly, the more weeks I played in a row my shots kind of started coming back again, and then the confidence came. But it was just kind of dealing with the expectations in college of, okay, in a month or two I'll be turning pro and I'm going to do this as a living and I don't really feel like my game is quite there. Then you start doubting and all that stuff. So it's just dealing with the expectations, but it worked out well, so... Q. Secondly, is there a kind of freedom you can play with now that you're a PGA TOUR member and you don't have to worry about locking up a card? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I mean, it is nice. Gives you a lot of freedom. You know somewhat where you're going to play and what events you'll get into, so that's a whole lot better than grinding out the Monday qualifiers and doing it that way. So I'm pretty thankful. THE MODERATOR: Before we let you go, just as an international player, what's the reception been like for you in your home country? We've been talking about time management and demands on your time. What's it been like for you? Give us a quick description. VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it's really hard to say when I've not really been back home in nine months now. But just listening to my peers growing up in elementary school or junior high, I haven't heard from them in ages and suddenly they're texting me. Oh, you're playing sweet. Congrats. It's really cool to see you do well. That kind of gives you an idea that it's going around over there. I hope people are starting to play more golf and see what happens. THE MODERATOR: Terrific. We appreciate your time. Good luck. VIKTOR HOVLAND: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|