Viktor Hovland Press Conference | 2025 PGA Championship Pre-Tournament

Watch Viktor Hovland’s pre-tournament press conference ahead of the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.

Subscribe to keep up with the latest from the PGA Championship: https://bit.ly/PGAChampionshipYT  

Contested each May, the PGA Championship is the second major championship in golf’s annual rotation and perennially features the strongest field in the men’s game based on the Official World Golf Rankings. Known for dramatic finishes and notable champions, the Wanamaker Trophy—which has been awarded to the winner since 1916—is inscribed with names such as Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. 
 
The 2025 PGA Championship is set to take place between 8-11 May at Quail Hollow Club. The reigning champion is Xander Schauffele. 

Website: https://pgachampionship.com/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pgachampionship 
X: https://twitter.com/pgachampionship 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/pgachampionship/

All right, we’re here at the 107th PGA Championship with Victor Hofflin. We’re actually going to start with some questions in Norwegian. Juan, so Victor, it looks like this is the this time of the year when people start realizing again how good you are. No, and when the season starts getting better, no. Tell me about your cycle and how you come to this this week. No. So, [Music] Yeah, So last year it was kind of the first time that all the big changes you’re working on started like giving fruit. No, I mean and working for you at the PGA here. No. And and you finish strong. Yeah. So is that is that all consolidated all these changes working on or you still working on some things? [Music] for the techn [Music] [Music] ended [Music] up and and the last thing is kind of your memories of playing in Gual Hollowo PGA tour and other events here and how different do you think it will play this week as a PGA championship? No. [Music] foreign. So driving [Music] Thank you. All right, now back to English. We’ll start with Alex on 12 and then number two. Hey, Victor. Uh, you mentioned with all the swing changes you’ve been going through. After the win at Valpar, you were impressed you could get it to the wire, maybe even a little bit surprised you were able to win under those circumstances. This week, would you have that same level of surprise if you were to win this week? Yeah, there’ll definitely be some some of that left in there because I’m still not entirely happy with where I’m at. Um, what I’m happy about is the progress that I’ve made since, you know, right before the Valbar and even since the Valpar. I think I’m definitely trending in the right direction, but there’s still just some stuff left in there that just doesn’t allow me to to to play to the level that I that I want to play with um play at. But um you know at the Valpar I proved to myself with even worse ball striking that I can still be competitive and I think uh the tournament here last year uh was also another um proof of that. So yeah, I do beat myself down with kind of where I’m at technically and and uh it’s just uh it’s not fun when you’re out there trying to predict a certain golf shot and the ball does the opposite. But even despite that, I I don’t doubt my abilities to get the ball in the hole. So, um we’ll uh yeah, we’ll see what happens this week. Uh Victor, when you have a move or position in your swing that you know is the one you want to be in, but it just feels weird. Like, how do you what’s the process for like rewiring those feels? Like, how do you make it feel a little better and eventually good? Yeah, it’s a tough one. Uh, feel is just so subjective and I feels change all the time. You know, I can still rely on the same feels right now as I used to, but the feels now have changed. So, I kind of I think I wire my brain to new feels. If I see that the ball is doing what I want it to do, if I’m seeing objectively good results, it’s easy to get over the weirdness of how it feels. So, I I do kind of try to separate what I feel and what the ball is objectively doing because that’s ultimately what we’re doing. We’re trying to play play good golf and and um yeah, so just trying to divorce that but at the same time relying on some of that because that is a fuel fuel game. If you can’t uh equate your feels to a good shot, then that’s that’s also no good. So, and is it just kind of like a reps thing? like you just see enough good results with a weird feel that it just starts matching up eventually or some of it is reps, but it’s you you have to get to the to the root cause of something and I’ve just had a move in my golf swing for for the past five, six years that’s just been so effortless. Um, and it’s been very easy to predict and now suddenly the last couple years it’s it hasn’t been a been doing that. So, I have to continue to kind of figure out what exactly is the mechanism or the way to train that old move back in there so I can predict where the ball’s going to go again. So, it’s it’s not necessarily a reps thing because you’re just ingraining the movement that you already have even deeper. So, you kind of have to um you know, deconstruct it in a way. All right, we’ll go to Jim on three. Victor, did did you just register today? And if so, where have you been since you left the tournament last week? Yeah, I still haven’t registered, so I’m about to do that after after this press conference. Yeah, I’ve just been practicing. All right, we’ll go to number 10. Hey, Victor. Uh, we’ve seen you grinding late out there a couple nights. Just want to know how you’re feeling. What’s one aspect that you’re really trying to focus on this week going into it? Yeah, this week is obviously it’s a big driving week. The course is so long, fairways are wet, you’re going to have to drive it long and straight. And driving is usually the best part of my game. But recently, it’s been it’s been tough for me. Um, you know, I try to go back to my old reliant uh fade off the tee. And when I do that, because of just how the club is moving, it’s just not allowing me to do that. And I’m hitting a lot of double crosses, missing a lot to the left, which for me is I can kind of deal with an overcut, but when the ball is is drawing to the left, and sometimes when it’s not doing that, it’s starting right and going right, that’s tough place for me to be. So, I just got to get to the bottom of that. And uh if I can get the ball consistently in the fairway off the tea, I even though I don’t feel amazing, my iron play has been pretty solid this year, so I can I can still get the ball in the hole. All right, we’ll go to one eight. So let’s try in English now. So yeah, so about the changes and and I think I feel like the story is when do you stop doing changes? Are you always working on some small or bigger changes? No. I mean you’re always changing something whether you’re doing it consciously or unconsciously. Um you know I I think I’ve just been a little bit more vocal about it. So people ask me all the time it’s like why are you always changing? Like you can ask any guy on the field here, what are you working on this week? And they’re they’re going to have a an answer for you. Uh obviously I would like the changes to be less complicated, but when I’m not in the place where I need to be, you have to make changes to get to the place where you want to be. And then you change less things. I think I’ve been a little bit too flippant maybe in the past of exploring too many areas in trying to get better, but as I’ve alluded to in the past is that the most or uh the majority of times I’ve done that, I’ve actually gotten better. And I I do I am almost addicted in a way to try to get better because it’s worked out so well for me in my career. But um in this place where I’m at that there’s just a couple key pieces that are preventing me from playing my best golf. So I’m not content with playing the way that I am right now. So I have to make changes. That’s just just how it goes. Yeah. And one one other thing is last year you got really close. No. And so what was what would be that extra thing that you would need to get to the top? No. That didn’t work last year. Yeah. I mean you can frame it like that. I frame kind of last year as a huge positive because I think uh although I shouldn’t have probably admitted that either, but I I almost didn’t play last year and I almost won the tournament. So, it’s like I look at that as a huge win. I almost won a major champion uh championship without feeling good about my game at all. So, I don’t look at that as like, man, I’m lacking a bunch of stuff. I mean, if I can get the rudimentary part of the game uh back to where it should be, I don’t doubt my abilities to win a golf tournament. And uh so that’s why I’m focusing solely on getting back to where I’ve where I’ve been before because I’m a lot more mature. I’m a lot more experienced and I have more tools in my arsenal now to to compete at these uh big events. Thank you. All right, we’ll go back down here to three. Hey, Hofflin, I have a couple for you. In terms of making changes, is there a point or a feeling that you’ll get that will take playing the week of a green light to a red light? Say that one more time. Like when when you’re making changes and you’re trying to grab the feel and you’re like, I don’t know if I want to play this week or if I do. Is there a point or a feeling where you say it’s not a green light this week to play? Doesn’t quite work like that. I mean, there’s some tournaments where I mean, major championships are you don’t skip those events, but it gets to a point where like, man, I it just doesn’t feel like you’re able to compete. And if you’re not able to compete, at least for me, I don’t want to I don’t want to be out there and play, you know? I’m just I’m not trying to just grind to barely make the cut. That’s not fun. And I’d rather spend that week to try to get better because um you know to play your best golf you you can’t think about a bunch of mechanics. You have to go out there and let your unconscious swing just do what it’s supposed to do. But if that ball is going all over the place, you know, that’s tough. I’d rather um um be at home and try to figure that out and then when I feel ready, I’ll play a tournament. That’s just kind of how my mind works. And then looking at the course, the final stretch, the green mile, is really difficult. What makes it that way? It’s just it’s just long. Um 16 is it’s just a really long hole. Um but it’s it’s pretty generous off the tea and even the green is pretty big. But 17 is really hard hole with the water all along the left side. And if they have the tea boxes all the way back, I mean, you’re hitting a five or four iron. And even though you got room to the right, there’s a little slope down there. That’s a difficult up and down. And then obviously 18, you can’t hit a right, you can’t hit a left. And even if you hit in the fairway, um, you know, it’s pretty difficult second shot as well. So it just, uh, forces you to hit good shots. Uh, this course doesn’t allow you to to hide. All right. Thank you, Victor. Appreciate it.