Hovland’s search for his swing has another setback

KAPALUA, Hawaii — Viktor Hovland will have been away from competition for 122 days when he tees it up at The Sentry on Thursday. It’s the longest break of his professional career, and the Norwegian star was excited to get going.

And then he flew to Hawaii and didn’t make it through one night without a freak injury.

Hovland slammed the pinkie toe on his right foot into the bed frame during the middle of the night, leading to an image he posted to Instagram of a clean break.

He managed to look on the bright side.

“It’s the best one to break,” he said, referring to his golf swing.

Hovland said it took 24 hours for him to get from Norway to Kapalua and he was so exhausted that he fell asleep in bed with his clothes still on.

“I got up in the middle of the night and was going to turn down the lights and get ready for bed and I stubbed it on the bed frame,” he said. “It happens.”

He walked with a noticeable limp while chipping and putting on Monday at the Plantation course but said it already was feeling better. He was taping it and taking painkillers.

“I think the walk is going to be the toughest part this week,” Hovland said of a Kapalua course that has the steepest terrain on tour. “The swing is feeling better and better.”

The golf break was by design. Hovland said he needed time away from the game to let a nagging wrist injury heal and to clear his head as he tries to dial in his swing.

He parted with swing coach Joe Mayo, reunited and then decided recently to go his own way. Hovland won the FedEx Cup in 2023 and then had a poor year by his standards. Even without having confidence in how he was hitting, he finished third at the PGA Championship and was runner-up at the first FedEx Cup playoff event.

Hovland still made it to the Tour Championship and remained in the top 10 in the world ranking at No. 8.

“From a feel standpoint, it was as bad as it could have felt,” he said. “It’s cool to look back that I almost won a major, almost won a playoff event, got to the Tour Championship. I think I’ve got to take that with me a little more and tell myself it’s better than what it feels like.”

During his four months away, he said, he worked on his game and tried to relax. Hovland says he felt as though he was making progress and his swing at least is on the right track. But it wasn’t a case of tearing down his entire swing and starting over.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said. “But you do have to look at it from the basics. You have to question everything. If you try to work on stuff and it’s not changing the picture the way you want it to, you have to look at the basics. That’s when things tends to go awry when you play bad. You have a couple of fundamental changes, you compensate on top of that and then your mind can spin.”

Of his coach, he said only that he’s not working with Mayo. Hovland said he is using another coach as a consultant, though he did not say who that was.

The objective ultimately is go it alone.

“I’ve come to understand quite a bit myself,” he said. “I can trust my intuition, but it’s good to have other people you can run things by. Hopefully in the future I can own my game, own my swing. That’s how it was when I came out there. I had one shot and I played that. And it was good. So we’ll see.”

Executive pay

PGA Tour players are marking more than ever, with Scottie Scheffler leading the way with just over $62 million this year in earnings and bonuses.

PGA Tour executives aren’t doing too badly, either.

According to the 2023 tax return, Commissioner Jay Monahan had a total compensation of just over $23 million. Ron Price, the chief operating officer who is retiring after a 30-year career with the tour, pulled in $13 million for 2023.

But it runs deeper than the top two leaders of the tour.

According to the return, four other executives or top employees had total compensation of $2 million or more, and a total of 14 received at least $1.2 million.

Executive compensation was 6.5% of total expenses, up from 3.5% of total expenses in 2022. Total revenue according to the filing dropped by $69.2 million in 2023.

Harman’s outlook

Brian Harman hit a high note when he won the British Open at Hoylake in a command performance for his first major championship.

His best golf didn’t follow. Harman had a close call as runner-up at The Players Championship but few other chances. His season ended when he narrowly missed out on getting to the Tour Championship.

Harman didn’t see it as putting too much pressure on himself. It was his putting.

“I did a great thing,” he said of his Open victory. “And I was proud of that. My year (in 2024) was based on trying to do great things. I play golf for me, to figure out how good I can get. I love the feeling of being in contention and pulling it off, and I wanted to do that more. The pressure I felt was all internal.”

He was trying out a new putter when he arrived at Kapalua.

“It ended up being a frustrating end of the year because I couldn’t get my putter to cooperate,” he said. “It was a double-edged thing. It was a result of some really good ball striking — probably by my best ball-striking year with my irons — and that puts pressure on your putter.”

Divots

Tom Hoge had a big offseason. He was inducted into the TCU Athletics Hall of Fame in November, and his wife gave birth to their first child in December. They named their son Thomas Bennett. … Michael Greller, the caddie for Jordan Spieth, made it back to Kapalua. He is filling in this week for Max Homa, whose caddie, Joe Greiner, is home in California for a personal matter. … Gary Player says if he could play only one round of golf, he would go to Pine Valley. He says he has been a member for about 10 years. … The TMRW Golf League that starts next week has a two-year deal with Sky Sports to show the indoor matches in the U.K. and Ireland, Germany, Italy and New Zealand.

Stat of the week

The 60-man field at The Sentry has 10 players not yet eligible for the Masters.

Final word

“Once somebody sets the bar, it gives someone the ability to see it. Every record can be broken.” — Padraig Harrington.