TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 25, 2023

Viktor Hovland

East Lake Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. What's carried over from Sunday potentially? Just how do things feel in your game?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I mean, obviously it feels good, so I just tried to do more of the same and I was able to make some putts on the back nine. So, yeah, it was good.

Q. It's just a matter of confidence or what else physically is going well?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Well, I think it all starts from just the tee. I'm hitting a lot of fairways, driving it really well. If you're constantly in the fairway on this golf course, you can really be aggressive with some of the iron shots in there. Just been able to give myself a lot of looks. On the back nine, I started making some putts.

Q. You talked on Wednesday about not reacting to bad shots and let it impact the rest of your round. What about when you have five birdies in six holes, how do you motivate yourself to keep a run like that?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I mean, that's when you feel good, so then you just try to build on that. You just think back and, oh, I've hit three, four really good iron shots and I've made three, four really good putts in a row. Let's just keep it going. It's kind of -- it's as simple as that. That's the way I'm thinking and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't.

Q. And then Zach Bauchou, he's currently T-5 in Boise. He mentioned after his round that you guys have been texting. Have you been giving him advice or keeping tabs on his progression on the KFT Tour?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Not so much advice. We just keep in touch because we're really good buddies. Last time I caddied for him and he didn't play all that well. We kind of had a heart-to-heart conversation. I was pretty honest with him and what I thought about his game and ever since then he seems to have played well, so I'm really, really happy for him because they're very -- there aren't that many guys that work harder than him. So it's fun it to see that he's playing well.

Q. Did he have any comments on your caddieing?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: No, he didn't, but it was probably -- yeah, I don't think we were on top of our games that day, both of us, so, yeah.

Q. It looked like a bit of a debate going on on the second shot on 18, whether to go for it or not. When you're having a hot day like this, how much is it hard to pull yourself back and not take that risk?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it was a little maddening that that tee shot ended up going in the rough and getting such a bad lie. I hit two good tee shots there the last couple of days and haven't really had a chance to go for it. So that's a little frustrating.

But Shay and I just had a great conversation about, you know, I could try to hit an 8-iron out of there, get it over that left bunker, kind of in the fairway, and try to pitch it up there into that pin. But there's just not that much green to work with there, and there was a chance that that 8-iron wasn't going to come out, and if I leave that in the bunker, now I'm staring at 6.

So we just figured the easiest thing to do was hit a 56 degree just over the water, give myself a number, and left it in a good spot. I just had no idea how that wedge went that far. That's kind of been the trickiest part so far. The ball's just going forever and it's hard -- it's just hard to dial in the distances.

Q. Have you seen Rory's shot from a similar position a couple years ago and did that factor into your decision-making at all?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I told Shay after we walked away, I said, yeah, it's probably better just to do that so we pull a Rory there. I mean, it's just so easy to do. The ball's sitting down and obviously the Bermuda grass, it's a very thin grass, so you feel like with enough club-head speed you can get through it, but you just never know. You catch it a little bit off or there's enough grass there it just goes straight down in the water, and that's the last thing you want to do there.

Q. What did you feel like the shot of the day was for you and why did you feel like it was such an important shot?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I can't really single out one. It was just kind of -- I played really consistently and made some birdies. It wasn't like one spectacular shot. It was just kind of, okay, fairway, green and sometimes I made the putt and sometimes I missed the putt. I guess it was non-eventful in that way. But, yeah, it was just solid all around.