Viktor Hovland spoke to the media at the PLAYERS Championship where he was asked about the Pete Dye-designed TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, his confidence in PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, and his outlook for the future of the PGA Tour.
Yeah I like this golf course a lot um I’m a big fan of Pete D golf courses in general and I think this uh course does a really good job of separating the players that are on their game that week and um if you’re a little bit off you
Get penalized there’s a lot of really tough visually um t- shots and small greens and um there’s good opportunities to shoot low scores but at the same time there’s a lot of water and and other things going on so I I love the golf course and play
Gear here the last two years so hopefully um try to build on that I just think he he builds Fair golf courses but off the tea it might not necessarily look like there’s a whole lot of room um but when you get up up there there’s plenty of room so it’s just visually
Intimidating and I like how he uses angles really well particularly on part three holes for example I’m I play Oak Tree National a lot when I’m in okl Oklahoma and there’s a lot of uh greens that are tilted on the sides where you usually have water on the left
Side and if you bail out right now you have a really tough chip from a collection area where the green kind of runs away from you things like that it’s it might only be 170 or 180 or 190 yards um and it’s um enough room on the green to to
Work with but it just tests every single shot um that you have so um I think I think he’s just a genius and I I’ll really like a lot of his golf courses the thing is um like I play golf for a living I don’t know exactly what should
Have been done um because at the end of the day I don’t have all the information and I don’t know that um I I can’t just say okay this is what exactly needs to be done or should have been done but at the same time there there were some
Things that were said that has been walked back on and then things have been very contradictory and as a leader of an organization I will want a person like that to take some ownership and say hey we made a couple of mistakes but this is how we’re going to rectify it instead of
Kind of sweeping it under the rug which I felt like it’s been has been done to to a certain degree so I don’t mind people making mistakes we all make mistakes but I think when you when you make a mistake you got to own up to it
And say hey we’re we’re trying to do better here and this is how we’re going to do it to be honest I haven’t given it too much thought um you know these these Signature Events for example the they’ve been great for the players that are in the
Tournaments I I don’t know if that’s necessarily what the fans what want to watch I don’t know if it’s longterm going to produce a better product or not um you know there’s I hear the arguments for it I hear hear the arguments against it so I I haven’t given it too much
Thought but um it it it yeah it it it certainly I I read uh Lucas Glover’s comments last week where he said you know having the smaller field sizes are not making it more competitive yes you’re getting the best players to play you know the top guys to show up but the
Fields are more competitive when you have bigger field sizes I think that’s just that’s just the fact uh there’s a reason why we’re playing The Players Championship with 144 guys um but at the end of the day I don’t know what the fans want to watch do they want to Wi
Watch these limited fuel sizes or do they want to watch the bigger sizes I I really don’t know um so I yeah I just don’t know what trajectory we’re on um I think a lot of that is depending on the fact of what happens to the live guys do they come back
Eventually I I I don’t think it’s a great Outlook if we keep being divided for you know 10 15 years whatever how however long it’s going to take so there has to be some kind of decision being met in the future
7 Comments
But I thought JM was proud of what he has done. Anyone who thinks the board has the interest of the players in mind, should watch JM interview and than this interview. There is a disconnect.
Hovland and the other 'name' tour players should have demanded Jay's resignation. That's one mistake that was made.
Jay needs to be fired and created this mess with Tim Finchem as they did NOT listen to player concerns like purses, shorts, owning their own product as contractors.
Exactly what mistakes did Jay make? Totally out of the blue gobs of dollars were thrown at LIV players by an unbelievably wealthy Saudi prince who didn't need to make a profit from his clown golf creation. His profit comes from gouging us at the gas pump. What was Jay to do in reaction to that? The man is directing a Tour that needs to make a profit, has to make a profit, and has to support charities. The PGA Tour and LIV are apples and oranges. So get off the bandwagon of criticizing Jay and recognize the fact that an evil prince is happily screwing with the game of golf by throwing tons of money at guys who long ago lost their scruples and their moral backbone. And certainly their cojones. If there's criticism to be had it's with those who sold out their souls to join The Harlem Globetrotters of golf.
He doesn’t get it. Why does he think LIV players want to “come back?” Other than a way to earn a spot in the majors, they don’t want to “come back” to anything PGA Tour.
Viktor what are doing. You had a great year . You are disappearing by changing your swing coach .
Well said Mr Hovland!