Only one variation, this week, in the world Top 10 of men’s golf. Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick, ‘runner-up’ in Rome in the 79th edition of the Italian Golf Open, returned to 10th place overtaking Norwegian Viktor Hovland, now 11th.
Ranking, Top 10
The number 1 is always the American Scottie Scheffler, who precedes the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy and the Australian Cameron Smith. The exploit at the Italian Open allowed the Scotsman Robert MacIntyre not only to return to the top 100, but to move from position number 110 to position number 68, earning 42.
Among the Azzurri, Francesco Molinari is 141 / o. While Guido Migliozzi went from 172 / a to 168 / a piazza. Hovland started playing golf at the age of eleven, after his father Harald had started while he lived and worked as an engineer in St.
Louis in the USA. Five years later, as a 16-year-old in 2014, Viktor Hovland became Norwegian champion. From 2016 to 2019, he played college golf for Oklahoma State University with, among others, Kristoffer Ventura. In August 2018, he won the US Amateur Championship, after beating the American Devon Bling 6&5 in the final.[6] A few weeks earlier, he had participated in the Miklagard Golf team that won the team national championship.
Thanks to the victory in the American amateur championship, he was qualified for the Masters tournament in 2019. Here he made the cut, as the first Norwegian in the Masters and only the second Norwegian men’s golfer in a major tournament.[8] He finished the tournament as the top amateur in a tie for 32nd with 285 strokes, three shots under par, the best result by an amateur aged 58.[9] He was also qualified for the US Open Championship 2019, where he finished as the best amateur in joint twelfth place.
He set a new amateur record with 280 strokes, two strokes better than Jack Nicklaus’ old record from 1960. After the 2019 US Open, Hovland turned professional. He played the last five regular tournaments on the PGA Tour in the 2018/2019 season thanks to sponsor invitations, but failed to make the top 125 who automatically qualified for the 2019/2020 season.
He therefore participated in the playoffs on the Korn Ferry tour, where he qualified for the PGA tour in two tournaments. Hovland delivered a very strong debut season on the PGA Tour with one victory (Puerto Rico Open in February), three top ten finishes and nine in the top 25 in a total of 20 tournaments.
He qualified for The Tour Championship and finished the season tied for 20th in the FedEx Cup with a total of $1,982,275 in prize money. Hovland finished No. 33 in the PGA Championship, the season’s only major tournament.
At the 2020 European Tour, Hovland finished 27th in the Race to Dubai rankings after third place in the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai in December. The 2020/2021 season opened with shared twelfth place in the US Open. His second career win on the PGA Tour came in the Mayakoba Golf Classic in December.
Hovland finished 2020 as No. 14 in the world rankings and third in the FedEx Cup. In February 2021, Hovland was named player of the month on the European Tour after a second place in the WGC–Workday Championship and sixth place in the Saudi International.
In June 2021, Hovland once again made history by becoming the first male Norwegian golfer to win a tournament on the European Tour when he won the BMW International Open 2021.[13] In November, Hovland defended his title in Mayakoba, and in December he won his fifth tournament as a professional in the Hero World Challenge. Victory number six came at the Dubai Desert Classic in January 2022 after he beat Richard Bland in a replay.
