AUGUSTA, Ga. – Wrist flexion.
Eminem’s “8 Mile.”
UFOs.
This wasn’t your great-grandfather’s Masters press conference.
Horton Smith certainly wasn’t appearing on podcasts in the lead-up to the inaugural tournament at Augusta National back in 1934, let alone an audio medium dedicated to unidentified flying objects and aerial phenomena. But that’s exactly what Viktor Hovland did last week, discussing not only UFOs but whistleblowers, government secrecy, debunkers and a bit of golf.
Hovland saved the speculative details on Tuesday morning inside Augusta National’s interview room, but his inquisitions off the golf course show his willingness to keep an open mind, which he believes will eventually help unlock his full potential on the golf course.
“Even in the golf swing you can get very dogmatic, and you look at things as, Oh, this has to be a truth, this has to be correct, and sometimes the beliefs that you hold the most deeply can obfuscate yourself,” Hovland explained. “When you question things and look at things from different angles, you might get to a deeper truth.
“I think that’s just a fascinating endeavor to engage in, and hopefully it leads you closer to the right direction, but that’s kind of the fun of it.”
For about a year and a half, Hovland has searched far and wide to rediscover the movements and feels that got him to third in the world rankings and perennially in the major-championship conversation. He had slipped to 98th in strokes gained tee to green, missing three of four major cuts last year, including the Masters, where he ejected with a second-round 81, the worst score of his major career by three shots. More recently, he stacked three straight missed cuts before winning the Valspar Championship last month, but even then, he revealed his action, particularly his transition into the downswing, was nowhere near a finished product.
And so, Hovland kept digging, eschewing scouting trips to Augusta National in favor of spending recent weeks in Orlando, Florida, with his latest instructor, Grant Waite, doing things such as reverse-engineering a lead wrist flexion that had gotten way too radial.
Hovland’s improvements on the range with his full swing have allowed him more time on the course, where he’s practiced those tricky short-game shots that Augusta National demands, from the low bump-and-run to the soft flopper. He also asked Ping to send him some new drivers that he had tested in the past when he wasn’t swinging it well; he’s changed into the new G440 for this week.
Though he hasn’t seen Augusta National since last year’s Masters, he is confident, for the first time in a long time, that he feels like he can execute on a major layout that demands proper technique.
“Last week I felt like, man, I can just step on the range and not having to think too much and see the ball come off the face in a good direction, powerful ball flight, and didn’t have to manipulate the face to make it go where I wanted to,” Hovland said. “I could kind of just swing freely. Then every single day has been more or less the same feel, just kind of continuing in the right direction, versus last year it was extremely challenging because I was standing on the range, I was on the course, had no idea where the ball was going, if it was going left or right. And on top of that, it was not very solid, either.”
Hovland’s honesty is refreshing – and not just to those who are tasked with writing about the one-of-a-kind Norwegian. Sure, Hovland sometimes wishes he wasn’t so transparent, but as he once again proved Tuesday, he doesn’t mind being an open book.
“I think if you hold it in, the fear almost becomes bigger instead of when you speak the truth out there, you kind of desensitize it in a way,” Hovland said before offering this analogy from “8 Mile,” the 2002 biopic starring Eminem:
“It’s like before his final rap battle, he kind of disses himself,” Hovland explains. “It’s like: Here I am, what else you got on me?”
“I have beat myself up,” Hovland later added. “I think it’s just like when you know it’s not good enough, I don’t see a problem by saying that it’s bad. It’s just being honest because I know how good it can truly be.
“I mean, it sucks when you’re there and you’re not seeing progress. It can feel a little bit futile. But as long as you’re getting up every day and reevaluating what you’re doing and trying to get better, I think that’s kind of the most important thing. You’re always trying to problem-solve instead of, yeah, it’s frustrating when you’re not getting the results, but there is always a solution. There is always an answer.”
And the truth, one could say, is always out there.
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