THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2022

Viktor Hovland

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Given how well you hit it this week, is it a fair assessment to say that your short game kind of held you back?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I would say so. Felt like my chipping actually wasn't that bad this week. It was mainly the first day, make double from a greenside bunker, and that kind of hurt me the whole week. But I feel like I chipped it okay most of the tournament up until 12 on the back nine here and kind of rambled off a little bit.

Yeah, I hit a lot of good chips, but there's still those couple of chips that hurt me too much each tournament, and obviously my putting this week was -- yeah, I couldn't make anything this week.

Q. What do you attribute the chipping struggles to? Is it technique? Is it nerves?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I think it's a little bit of both. I frankly don't practice it enough. Then when I'm put in those situations, it's not like -- it's such a short stroke or you have kind of time to control things when you're chipping instead of when you're hitting a drive, it's just one, two, and then it just goes. Whereas in chipping, the little small differences become -- if you hit it just behind the ball, it changes the outcome a lot.

I think it's a little bit of both, but I've had weeks where I chip it great and then I have confidence throughout the week, and I chip it awesome. But then other weeks if I haven't hit many chip shots the whole week and then suddenly I have one that's a little awkward, I think I have a tendency of maybe guiding it a little too much.

Q. The situation on 16 kind of making the social media rounds right now. What did you and Joel see that Daniel wasn't agreeing with?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, so obviously I was in kind of more of the left side of the fairway, Berger hitting from the right side, and Joel was kind of in the middle. But as soon as Daniel hit it in the air, he said, oh, water ball, and then I was watching the whole flight, and it was just short right of the green in the water on 16.

From my perspective, obviously I was a little further left than Daniel, in my opinion I did not think the ball started very far left of the pin. It looked like it kind of started at the pin and then cut towards the end because the wind was also a little bit off the left.

He obviously thought that he started it way left of the pin and then he kind of cut hard at the end, but that's not what Joel and I saw. I'm not going to put words in Joel's mouth, but he was closer to Daniel's line, and we both saw the same thing, that it kind of started pretty close to the pin and then cut to the right at the end, therefore not really crossing all the way up there close to the green. We thought it was closer to the grass bunker there, just past it, and yeah, we had a little discussion about it.

Q. Why did you feel it was so important to stand your ground? You could just have shrugged it off?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it's not a fun conversation. Daniel's game is great, and I have massive respect for him as a player. But at the end of the day, we've got to protect the field and protect all the other guys. It's not a fun conversation, but when you strongly believe in something, you kind of have to stand your ground.

Q. Have you ever been in a situation where you saw something like that and the other player was so opposed as Daniel seemed to be? He seemed to feel like you guys were wrong and he was right.

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yes, I have had an encounter of those before, yep.

Q. Do you think he ultimately played from the right spot where he dropped?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: It ended up being somewhat of a compromise. He dropped a little bit further up than Joel and I kind of thought, but we ended up making a compromise, and that's where he hit it from.

Q. Did you have a chat about it afterwards?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I mean, not really. We try to keep it professional. It's not like we're trying to dog on Daniel and trying to screw him over. It's just, that's what we believe, and he obviously felt strongly the other way. It's just what it is. I'm not accusing him of anything.

The golf ball is in the air for a couple seconds, so it's tough to exactly pinpoint where it crossed and not. But Joel and I saw it in one way and he saw it differently.