Viktor Hovland eyes rare PGA TOUR ‘three-peat’

Viktor Hovland has wasted little time assembling a stellar list of accomplishments in his young career. In his return to El Camaleón Golf Course for this week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, the 25-year-old Norwegian can add perhaps his biggest achievement yet.

In the last 40 seasons on the PGA TOUR only three players have won the same tournament in three consecutive years. Tiger Woods has done it at a ridiculous six different events (including two ‘four-peats’), while the last player to pull it off was Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic (2009-11). The other man to do it was Stuart Appleby at the Sentry Tournament of Champions (2004-06).

At El Camaleón, Hovland is the two-time defending champion, and this week will mark the 13th time a player has gone for the three-peat since Stricker’s victory at the John Deere Classic in 2011. Hovland is the first of five players who will have a chance to go for three in a row in the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season, as Sam Burns (Valspar Championship), K.H. Lee (AT&T Byron Nelson), Rory McIlroy (RBC Canadian Open) and Patrick Cantlay (BMW Championship) also successfully defended titles in 2021-22.

Already one of the best ball-strikers in the world, Hovland has flashed enormous talent that is sure to yield only greater on-course dividends in the coming years. Let’s dive into some of the numbers:

*After winning the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, Hovland returned to Pebble the following summer for the U.S. Open, where he shot a 72-hole total score of 280, breaking the amateur record set by Jack Nicklaus (282) at Cherry Hills in 1960. Hovland’s 67 that Sunday was the lowest final-round score at the U.S. Open by an amateur since Deane Beman shot 67 at Oakmont in 1962.

*Hovland has proven elite both off the tee and with his irons, a rare and potent combination. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, his first full PGA TOUR campaign, only three qualified players have averaged at least half-a-stroke gained per round both off-the-tee and on approach shots: Rory McIlroy, Corey Conners and Hovland. Overall, he’s averaged 1.13 Strokes Gained: Ball Striking per round in that span, 7th best on TOUR.

*The consistency in Hovland’s approach game is rare for such a young player. He has gained strokes with his approach play in nearly 70% of his career rounds on the PGA TOUR (69.8%, to be exact). And in more than half of those rounds, he’s hit at least 72% of his greens in regulation. For context, the TOUR average last season for greens hit was just 65.6%.

*Longer approach shots are where Hovland is truly elite. In each of the last two seasons, he’s led the PGA TOUR in average proximity to the hole from 200-225 yards. Last season, he hit his approach shots from that range to an average distance of 33 feet, 2 inches – a full nine feet better than the TOUR average. From 175-225 yards, his average proximity from the fairway the last two seasons is 30 feet, 9 inches. That’s the best on TOUR in that span by a whopping 17 inches, and about six feet better than the TOUR average.

*Hovland’s dominance at El Camaleón the last two years has come mostly due to that great tee-to-green play: His 116 greens in regulation hit the last two years (80.6%) is seven more than any other player. But last year Hovland was excellent on and around the greens, too, ranking inside the top five in both scrambling percentage and putting average. Hovland has played the par 5s in 20 under par over the last two years, the best in that span.

*Hovland has seen some dramatic improvements on the greens since his first full season on TOUR. In 2019-20, he ranked 115th among qualified players in Strokes Gained: Putting per round. That ranking soared up to 25th last season. From 10 to 15 feet, he’s made a similar leap, going from 98th in make percentage two years ago to 5th in 2022.

*Hovland’s win at the 2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba was his third career PGA TOUR title. At 24, he became one of just six international players in the last 40 years to win three or more times on the PGA TOUR before the age of 25. Should Hovland win again this week, he would be the youngest in the modern era to win the same event three consecutive years – about four months younger than Tiger Woods was when he did it for the first time at the 2001 Memorial Tournament.

*One of the only knocks against Hovland has been his record in the game’s biggest events. But he addressed that in 2022 with top-10 finishes at THE PLAYERS (T-9) and The Open Championship (T-4), where he recorded his best career finish at a major. After just six rounds in the 60s at major championships from the 2020 PGA Championship through this year’s U.S. Open, Hovland had three such rounds at The Open at St Andrews.

While Hovland will have to wait for another chance to win one of the game’s biggest trophies, he can make a significant dent in the TOUR record books with another win this week in Mexico.