PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2023

Viktor Hovland

Oak Hill Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Viktor Hovland at the 105th PGA Championship. We will jump right into some questions.

Q. Viktor, can you just walk us through what happened on 16 there with the relief and the embedded ball?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Just didn't get out of the bunker. Plugged in the lip and tried to get a drop and made a double bogey.

Q. What club were you trying to hit out of the bunker there?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: 9-iron.

Q. Obviously you haven't had any time to process this so far, but how would you assess your play today overall?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Played great. Wish I would have made a couple more putts earlier. Felt like I played really solid golf. I gave myself a lot of looks. When I was out of position, I made some great short game shots and got out of there with a par, but Brooks was hard to catch.

Q. Some of the short game work you've talked exhaustively to us about, did you feel like that really showed under pressure today?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I mean, it was hard. I didn't hit every single green out there and had some bad swings and left myself in some spots where I had to rely on my short game. I thought I did. If I wouldn't have gotten those up and down, at least I wouldn't even have a shot coming down the stretch.

Yeah, that was cool to do.

Q. That's three straight tight finishes in majors. Do you zoom out and say, look, man, it's coming for me, or is there disappointment tinged with sort of with what happened today?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: It sucks right now, but it is really cool to see that things are going the right direction. If I just keep taking care of my business and just keep working on what I've been doing, I think we're going to get one of these soon.

Q. You went toe to toe with Brooks all day, as Dottie told you. What do you think you learned from being able to witness that when you're so close to doing that yourself?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, Brooks is a great player, and now he has five majors. I mean, that's a hell of a record right there. It's not easygoing toe to toe with a guy like that. He is not going to give you anything, and I didn't really feel like I gave him anything either until 16.

So I feel like I belong out here, and I just have got to get a little bit better, and hopefully it goes my way the next time.

Q. Kind of following up on the question before. T-4 in St Andrews; T-2 here. There's a great trend going, no? The other thing is I would assume the best Norwegian in a major. Would do you celebrate that, no?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: No, it's cool. First place is a lot better than tied for second, but it is fun to even just have a chance to been one of these. Just making the cut and finishing 20th, you know, that's -- you haven't played poorly, but you've been a non-factor in the tournament, so to be in the last group, that was my second time and been in contention for three of these. That's pretty cool.

There's another one coming up pretty soon.