Viktor Hovland has been a mainstay on the PGA Tour since he turned pro way back in 2019.
Hovland has won seven times on the PGA Tour and despite his patchy recent form, he is unquestionably one of the best players in the world.
In general, Hovland is fairly happy about his game heading into the new PGA Tour season, but as always, there is still much room for improvement.
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The 28-year-old has really struggled over the past two years, although he did win the Valspar Championship in March 2025.
Hovland played a key role for Europe at the Ryder Cup, in spite of a troublesome neck injury.
And he’ll be heading into the new season full of optimism.
The man from Norway will be coming up against Brooks Koepka at the WM Phoenix Open this week, while a reunion with Patrick Reed awaits in seven months’ time.
Viktor Hovland’s reaction when Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed were given PGA Tour redemption
Koepka and Reed both left LIV Golf over the past five weeks and the two players have been provided with paths back to the PGA Tour.
Many PGA Tour players have welcomed Koepka back with open arms while some have criticised Brian Rolapp and co. for allowing LIV golfers a route back.
Hovland was asked to give his opinion on Koepka and Reed deciding to leave LIV, and being given a path back to the PGA Tour.
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“I mean, just for my personal standpoint I would say I enjoy playing against those guys,“ Hovland admitted.
“I think obviously Patrick Reed being a major champion and great player and Brooks a five-time major champion, that’s a great addition to the PGA TOUR. They’re great players and I want to compete against the greatest players out there.
“I think it just makes the product, the fields better. However, it does kind of put the TOUR in a tricky position now. You’ve said one thing for a long time and now we’re changing things. What precedent are you setting then to the future players now if I can go to a rival tour, get paid, and now seemingly come back again without the biggest consequences.
“I don’t really have an opinion on that to be honest. That’s something the TOUR has to figure out. I’m sure there is a lot of people not going to be super happy about that, but at the end of the day I just want to compete against the best players in the world.
“I’m in a place where I have to figure stuff out in my own game, and that’s basically where I’m focusing on. I don’t really want to focus on what the TOUR should be doing right now.“
Does Viktor Hovland regret not joining LIV?
Hovland was directly asked whether he is now reconsidering any of the decisions he made previously regarding a potential move from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf.
And he made it very clear how he hasn’t let all of the talk regarding LIV players returning to the PGA Tour affect him at all.
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“Not really,“ Hovland said.
“I just see the news and I go, oh, that’s interesting, and then I just go about my day.
“I got stuff to do, things to figure out, so that’s about the amount of calories I’m spending on reacting to things like that.“
What a great attitude that is and going through life like that will undoubtedly serve the Norwegian very well indeed.
Viktor Hovland still deserves huge praise for remaining with the PGA Tour when many others jumped ship.
It would have been so easy for him to feel bitter about that but he has taken the high road. Well done Viktor!
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