Norwegian golfer Viktor Hovland entered the “top-ten” of the world golf rankings after his victory at the Hero World Challenge held in New Providence (Bahamas), in which Spanish Jon Rahm finished 11 shots behind and was remains in fifth position in the table.
Viktor Hovland, statements
This week the classification hardly changes in its first places and continues to be led by the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, followed by the American Scottie Scheffler in second position, the Australian Cameron Smith in third, the American Patrick Cantlay in fourth and the Spanish Jon Rahm in fifth place.
. Hovland’s entry, which climbs three places compared to last week and is in ninth position, leaves American Collin Morikawa, now eleventh, out of the top ten and brings Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick down a step, who closes the group of head.
Hovland returns to the top-10 after retaining the title at the Hero World Challenge. The Norwegian, who came out of the select group of the 10 best golfers in the world on September 18, has ranked No. 3 as the best ranking of his career.
The Spanish Pablo Larrazábal and Adri Arnaus improve their position and now occupy positions 77 and 78, respectively, and Adrián Otaegui remains at 95. Viktor Hovland (born 18 September 1997) is a Norwegian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour (and on the European Tour as an affiliate member).
Hovland is ranked as of 31 January 2022 as the world’s third best golfer and is thus the highest ranked golfer in the Nordics in addition to being number two in Europe. In April 2019, he was ranked as the world’s best amateur golfer.
He became the first Norwegian to win a tournament on the PGA Tour when he won the Puerto Rico Open in 2020, and on the European Tour when he won the BMW International Open in 2021. He has a total of three victories on the PGA Tour and two on the European Tour.
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.
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.
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.
