BLAZING A TRAIL.

Viktor Hovland only turned pro just over two years ago, buthe is fast becoming one of Europe’s brightest stars

- BRIAN WACKER

Summer days in Norway, where Viktor Hovland was born and raised, are glorious and long. Humidity is non-existent and the sunlight can stretch onwards of 19 hours. Winter, of course, is the opposite. Darkness occupies all but a handful of hours each day, never mind that the average temperature hovers near freezing. On those afternoons, Hovland did what a lot of teenagers in Oslo do and immersed himself in movies and music. That is, when he wasn’t also obsessing over endless hours of golf instruction via YouTube and social media. This wasn’t your grandpa’s way of learning the ancient game. While its Scandinavian neighbour Sweden has produced a long line of world-class players for decades, Norway’s output has been far less fruitful. Apart from 15-time LPGA winner Suzann Pettersen, it doesn’t have much to brag about. On the men’s side, Henrik Bjornstad, who turned pro in 1997, was the first Norwegian to make it to the PGA Tour and he retired in 2010. His lone victory as a professional came at the 2005 Vestfold Open on something called the P4 Tour. Then there’s Hovland.

At just 24 years old, he has already made history as the first Norwegian to win on the PGA Tour and European Tour, having done so at the Puerto Rico Open in February of 2020 and again ten months later at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, before adding the BMW International Open in Germany earlier this summer. He also played in this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo – where he tied for 14th – and became the first male player from his country to reach the top ten in the Official World Golf Ranking, as well as the first Norwegian competitor in the Ryder Cup.

Early memories