Viktor Hovland spends most of his year shuttling between airports, courtesy cars and counters, the regimented life of a modern Tour pro. That’s why it stood out when, a few summers ago, he put his bag in the trunk of a car in Oslo and drove off. three friends on a 16-hour road trip to Lofoten connection. No submission fee. No prize money. There are no sponsorship obligations. Just a world-class golfer doing what the rest of us do for fun: driving miles with friends to check out a loud, remote course.
Hovland is not your standard superstar. He favors ear-bleeding death metal and hosts podcasts on eclectic topics. And Lofoten Links is not your standard site. It occupies an unlikely position above the Arctic Circle, where the sun barely shows its face in winter but stays almost out all summer. In recent years, the course has become an “it” destination for daydreaming golfers around the globe, in part on the strength of stunning photos of cliff-edged, wave-lapped greens against a backdrop of mountains and coastline that look computer-generated.
On the ground, the drama turns out to be true. Lofoten is off to an exciting start that includes one of the world’s most Instagrammable par-3s, its green jealously guarded by the Norwegian Sea. Each invites a bold line on the water. Mount Hoven overlooks the course and several holes climb up to it, including the uphill 5th and tough par-4 14th.
As otherworldly as the setting may seem, the origins of the course are down to earth. In the early 1990s, British architect Jeremy Turner was invited by Tor Harald, a local farmer with a golf habit, to drill several holes across the family’s land. After Harald’s death, the property passed to his son, Frode Hov, who continued the passion project with Turner. A six-hole curiosity became nine, then more, until a full 18 appeared in 2015. The years since have brought further improvements. At the end of GOLF World Top 100Lofoten jumped 22 spots, climbing to number 66.
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Jacob Seaman
The extra energy after Lofoten has come courtesy of it Cabotglobal developer whose portfolio of marquee properties stretches from Canada to the Caribbean and beyond. Cabot’s investment promises improved accommodation and infrastructure, aimed at embodying Lofoten as a destination.
Getting there takes commitment, though the journey doesn’t have to be as difficult as Hovland made it. Regional flights and ferries can shorten the journey considerably. The reward is the splendor of the setting, the complexity of the challenge, and the memories that linger more than any result. However, if you insist on keeping count, here’s something to hunt for. In his visit, Hovland matched the course record with an even-par 63.
