MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 3, 2023

Viktor Hovland

Quick Quotes

Q. Viktor, how did the course play out there for you today?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: It's always in great shape, of course. The greens were a little slow, but they're still very firm. So they can easily just ramp the greens up and it's ready for Thursday. It will be interesting to see kind of how much rain we get this week.

Q. How does your game feel coming into this week?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Really good actually. I've had a good week at home. Felt like I actually played well at the Match Play. I just couldn't make any putts.

I spent some extra time around the greens and on the greens. Yeah, I feel like my game's in very good shape.

Q. What was maybe the focus of that work on and around the greens?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I've just kind of kept continuing to gain confidence around the greens. Got some weapons around the green here now. The bunker's not an auto bogey. I feel like I can spin it in the bunkers even though the sand is a little bit fluffy. Short-sided is no problem.

And I got some tools where I can kind of bounce it into the slope and it still checks. Before, I was out here, I could bounce it into the slope, but it would have no spin. So that's a big game changer now.

On the greens, I just had too many thoughts over the ball. Instead of only focusing about the speed, I was thinking about the line and the stroke. It was just a little bit of a chaos.

Q. Why do you think it maybe took you a while to find that short game that you say you kind of found right now?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: It's constantly a process. I think I just understand the short game a lot better. I was too caught up in figuring out what I wanted to do with my hands and wrists where that wasn't really the issue. I was tilting back a bit too much.

Once I saw what the best players are doing and how they chip well and I just tried to do the same, and it was kind of like an Eureka moment.

Q. Speaking of process, where are you in the process of knowing this golf course and feeling comfortable on it?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I'd say every single time I'm out here I understand the golf course better and better. It's a hard golf course, but you can make it a lot easier for yourself if you know what holes and what pins to push, which ones you just kind of want to hit in the middle of the green.

Sometimes you can't even, if you're behind a tree or something, just play for an angle, and you can give yourself a pretty decent chip at it. If your chipping is good, you can take advantage of that and make some really key pars, where most of the time you're making bogeys.

That's kind of how you've got to pick your battles out here.