Viktor Hovland has made a drastic change ahead of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, working with a new coach to change patterns and movements in his swing. #GolfChannel #LiveFromThePlayers #ViktorHovland
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Viktor Hovland brings new swing movements to TPC Sawgrass | Live From The Players | Golf Channel
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now havin has more pressing issues when
it comes to his golf game now he rose to
prominence last year under the guidance
of Joe Mayo as a swing instructor well
mayo and havin have parted ways and now
havin is working with Grant weight who
you see there in the black showing video
to havin they are changing patterns in
his swing changing movements in his
swing but it has been a challenging
transition to say the least look at the
numbers of Victor H so far in 2024 if
you compare them to last season off the
te he no better he’s dropped there his
approach game significantly worse right
now around the green which he improved
last year his short game which helped
him win so many times on the PGA tour
and that’s where he is ranked 173rd on
tour right now his putting is close to
where it was last year now as I
mentioned hlin is trying to change some
movements into his swing but now that we
are in Championship season the players
here this week the Masters right around
the corner four weeks from now the
question is how quickly can havin apply
these new movements into successful
finishes on the PGA tour I mean this one
Todd is bizarre because he finished uh
with eight threes on the back nine in
the penultimate playoff event in Chicago
and shot a 61 to win and then backs it
up with 63 Sunday in Atlanta you go
changing your patterns uh how much risk
is there here I think it’s very
dangerous first I want to say look I I’m
a big fan of Grant weight I was friends
with Grant weight when we played the
tour who was his new coach I think Grant
weight is a really smart guy knows a lot
about the golf swing works really really
hard at getting it right uh and if grant
were setting up here right now I’d say
look I I don’t think you play your best
golf doing what they’re doing right now
because it looks to me like they’re
they’re working on things that takes a
lot of energy and a lot of attention
away from the where where you play your
best golf you play your best golf in a
state of people who stud this
unconscious confidence where you’re not
having to think about all the things
that are hard to do that you work so
hard on them that they’re no longer hard
to do and that’s the that’s the place
where magic comes from the the next
worst place to play from and a lot of us
professional golfers I spent 15 years
here playing in this spot where you’re
consciously competent you’re thinking
about things that you’re doing right but
you’re trying to get right that’s not
where you play your best golf and when I
watch what’s going on in the last two
three four weeks at Victor hins out
because he’s playing some decent golf
just not playing the Great Golf that he
was playing at the end of last year
there’s a lot of this like I can tell
like right there you see him moving his
heel towards the target trying to keep
closed in transition right here
obviously there’s Grant weight and
they’re doing a lot of video work now
they do this after the round I’ve seen
them do it before the round they were
doing it during the round and pro AMS uh
you know it it’s like all hands on deck
there Grant weight’s talking to him
about you know how to change the club
angle I I can’t can’t read lips but you
can only guess by the way he’s moving
his wrists and his hands that that’s
what he’s talking to him about uh all
golfers are looking for that place to
get better now you look at ball striking
wise last year and it’s hard to improve
upon at the Tour Championship he led and
uh Strokes a off of the te he was Fifth
and strokes G approach here he is today
and look this is the part that that does
worry me uh because you know what what
their modeling there if you look at his
left hand is you know a bod left wrist a
lot of flexion in that left wrist that’s
what they’re modeling right there the
best players in the world may have a
little flexed impact but they then go
into extension uh you know I know for a
fact that Victor hin felt like at the
end of last year his center of gravity
was getting too far left that’s not that
unusual for somebody who’s spending an
inordinate amount of time pitching and
chipping and trying to get so far left
to get the center of gravity in front of
the golf ball it has a way of creeping
into your golf swing so I know Grant uh
I’m pretty darn sure that that’s what
Grant’s trying to work with him on and
I’m not saying the stuff that they’re
working on is not right I’m just saying
that is not where your best golf comes
from there’s a difference between
playing golf swing and playing golf uh
and that’s what I just alluded to so I
I’d love to see them do this work off of
the golf course and then when you get to
the golf course it’s like let’s see you
go through the shots get back into
playing golf because I think you would
agree that’s where the best golf comes
from yeah I mean this is a very very
unusual um change of direction from a
guy who’s just coming off the back of a
breakout year uh number four in the
world good performances in the majors
last year good performance here where he
came third um you know a very very good
Rider cup and you look like that’s a
breakout year this guy’s right on the
paths now potentially a world number one
you’d have to think that the way he
played last year particularly in the big
events he was trending as they say and
and for him after a breakout year to Jen
change direction and change coach it’s
highly unusual you normally see changes
when guys are going through luls not
when they’re coming off the back of a of
a big year so I I agree with brandle
it’s a dangerous spot that he’s in um
you know he’s got a template he doesn’t
swing the club in the perfect way
textbook way but it’s highly effective
um and and the two stats that are Miles
off off the pace this year compared to
last year are his approach play his iron
play H and his ability to chip um you
know he’s lost looked like he made a lot
of ground certainly from kind of when he
changed his direction to went into I’m
going to call it this reverse pivot way
that he was chipping last year and you
know he he was excellent in in terms of
how he chipped from the PGA Championship
in May until the end of the season but
that statistic has gone way back to
where it was before that again combined
with some really really poor arm play so
he’s in a dangerous spot and you know
we’re sitting up here with gray hair on
our head brandle we’ve seen this so many
times not just mistakes that we’ve both
made but that we’ve seen so many of our
contempories make mistakes of going down
the wrong path and all I can so say is
that I hope he knows what he’s doing and
that he’s not messing too much with uh
with what made him so effective and so
brilliant last year you think about it
uh you know we just we don’t talk about
players that are doing exactly this and
lose their game and fall off the tour we
don’t talk about them because they’re
not around anymore we we do talk about
players that changed their game and
improve but I would argue that there’s
far far far more players that have
messed around with their game and lost
it you remember David Gosset yeah David
Gosset won the US amiter W on the PGA
tour started messing around with his
golf game
I mean lost his golf game worked with a
really technical golf coach lost his
golf game Parker mlin Parker MC glin uh
now teaching great great short game
coach but he will he will flat out tell
you the story about he wins one week
right behind him the next week as a very
technical coach went down that rabbit
hole completely lost his golf game never
came back from it Yanni sen you know
winning majors in the bunches two years
later she can barely play you know
scoring average 69 and change next thing
you know it’s almost 74 and change now
she’s off the tour and unranked we don’t
talk about them because they no longer
play but this that’s the danger anybody
successfully do it I I mean obviously
tiger comes to mind look marer changed
his golf wi completely uh and went on to
have a marvelous career uh FDO Nick falo
but what I would say Podrick padrick
Harrington of course what I would say
about Marco Mir I’d say this about Nick
falo I to some extent less less about
padrick but I’d say that they were
coming from I don’t know I love
P what I was going to say real quick you
didn’t see him as a 17y old I did you
show me a swing what I would say is that
Marco Mera Nick falo they were coming
from a place of
Doubt trying to get better so it’s very
rare when somebody has climbed the
highest mountain or close to the highest
mountain and then scuttles it to get
better now tiger famously did that but
it cost him two years each time he did
it all to arrive at the exact same place
and an athlete’s greatest gift outside
of their talent is time and tiger I
would argue the reason he didn’t topple
Jack Nicholas’s record is because of the
changes he made to his golf swing two
different times in his prime you know I
I’ll just finish very quickly on this
with a with an analogy that I use when
I’m doing clinics to younger kids um you
know and and I I don’t know where I got
it from but I I think it’s a good
analogy that people may resonate with
people um and you know we all have DNA
as golfers we all have things that come
easy to us and we’re different in
stature um and and certain things that
come away like I’m a flat plane swinger
I’m a one plane swinger that’s you know
I can’t get the the the hands up high
like a Justin Thomas that’s what I am
and you know the analogy I use when I’m
giving clinics to kids it’s like it’s
like climbing a tree you know and you
got to you got to stay to your stick to
your DNA and just get better and better
better at climbing up the middle of the
tree and mistake that so many of us make
and we’re all prone to it is that we
start climbing branches and we don’t
start climbing in in in a direct route
to the top of that tree and I look back
and the one guy that that I really
admire who did that better than anybody
excuse me um along my timeline was was
Colin Montgomery um he never seemed to
go up branches he never tried to be
something he wasn’t he just perfected
and got better and better and better at
that kind of sloppy fade that initially
it was and turned into a very tight fade
and a hell of a player he became would
you think of uh what Victor said when I
asked uh for an explanation why he was
going down this road he he said among
other things I’m a cur ious
guy well like I said curiosity killed
the cat that’s yeah look curiosity is
not a bad thing I I said this last week
I said you know artists and scientists
have one thing in common they’re they’re
both very curious I would say every
single tour tour player out here is
curious uh you know Tiger Woods is
curious I I you know the story goes I
heard this from Fred Funk is Fred Funk
who who won here is the straightest
hitter uh ever somewhere in 9798 when
Tiger Woods was changing his swing he
was walking past Fred funk in the locker
room and he said I’m coming after you
I’m coming after you the Tiger Woods
even after winning the Masters by 12
shots went came to the because they
didn’t have YouTube then he came to the
Golf Channel took a yellow pad into a
room and wrote down 125 different things
that he wanted to change about his golf
swing now imagine winning the Masters by
12 and thinking I can do better than
that it did cost him two years but on
the flip side of that he came back and
played the greatest golf in the history
of the game the history of the game he
came back now that was I would argue a
swing of his own making because he chose
the things to change and Butch was his
eyeballs and helped him uh but equally
bizarre is in 2002 after playing the
greatest golf in the history of the game
four majors in a row the players wining
by 15 he changed that golf swing and
cost him 2003 2004 he played fine but he
didn’t play like Tiger Woods as strange
as this is I would bet on Victor hin
because he’s smart he’s a great athlete
and I think he burns to be great if this
doesn’t work out with Grant weight I
think he’ll adjust and and move forward
look he’s had seven teachers in the
brief period of time here I you know
maybe he ends up with Grant weight for a
period of time but I think this is a
pass through uh because he just moves
from teacher to teacher I have a good
friend of mine by by the name of Luke
Wald who who has worked with Victor hin
uh we’ve seen he he jumps around he’s
curious he’s he’s on to a new
thing we’ll see how he plays this week
Paulie mentioned he was good here last
were that uh third place finish up next
one of the stories of 2024 Nick Dunlap
becoming the first amateur in 303 years
to win on tour Kira k Dixon with more as
Dunlap makes his players
debut
12 Comments
Brandel makes a 15 minute piece out of this. but Viktor looks hurt. he showed up to the driving range at AT&T with his right wrist taped up. played badly. took the following week off. and now here again today, in these very clips, he has once again taped up his right wrist. i think that he is just trying to compete this week without being in pain all of the time.
Wow what are doing Victor ? Someone say something.
This might be dumbest thing I have seen. Why Viktor? Break out year he dominated. Tiger leaving Butch .
Bye Bye Viktor
He's lost in the woods. Go to LIV and play 6700yd munis
Tiger would have those women sent to his room
The commentary doesnt address real vs feel… He could just be exaggerating a "feel" to get to a certain place in his swing….. (shrug)
And look at what Ricky Fowler just did… gone to Butch, changed swing and improved dramatically…
Tiger did the same thing after 2000 — why change anything when you are near perfection ?
I am under the impression that Grant Waite and Joe Mayo are partners; nes pas?!
Swing changes are the hardest things to accomplish especially when you have been swinging one way for years, it always gets worse before it gets better. It's the main reason amateurs have a hard time taking lessons, they can't expect the bad before better.
I rather listen to KJP than Brandel
Hey Viktor, if it aint broke, don't fix it!