Victor Hovland gave a simple and wandering explanation lost

It is seductive when you see a second regular 67 round and Hovland linked to the Valsspar’s lead to the Valsspar Championship to declare that Norway’s greatest golf talent has returned. This, of course, would be very good. Just a tour. We are just halfway. And in Golf there is no “back”, however. Not the opposite. Not disintegration. There is just to understand what else is. So we will offer this simple truth instead: for Victor Hovland, Friday was a good day.

The second round of the Norwegian star consisted of five birds against just one single fraud. In Innisbrook Copper course, Four-Nine 67 is a special round; When he signed his card, he was tied up for the lead in five under the money and he sat down T2 near the end of the game. He also guaranteed that Hovland would make the weekend at a cutting event for the first time in 2025. Trending Up, right?

“Not to lower herself, but for it to be stable at that level it has to hit it a little better and it should be a little more predictable,” Hovland said after the round.

Oh.

It is important to remember here that golf is a meaningless and extremely cruel game. If the boy in second place is unhappy, what do 150 do after him think?! But Hovland was not unclear or pessimistic – he was simply honest. 27-year-old Ryder Cup star, who balances somewhat sincere and mysterious, spoke to the media for a few minutes after the round. He looked, as he is for 12 months or more, as a mechanic who is rebuilding a car while driving it. But he also offered us a look under the hood; Valid mirror for one of the most interesting sports figures.

“Yes, she inhales,” he started on Friday, characteristically directly when asked about his rolling journey last year-plus.

If you think it is strange to be sharp when you are T2, just remember that Hovland was not satisfied at its peak, or; He felt like he was opening his game together at the end of 2023, when he won the Tour championship in a week attack after winning the BMW championship and a few weeks after winning the Memorial that summer, plus the PGA championship. He was the hottest player in the world, but something inside him finally knew he had to be better. This began an arrangement of everything: changes in oscillations, training changes, more rhythm changes, more training changes. Despite some bright points in 2024 – the third in the Championship PGA, T2 in FedEx St. Jude – his game has fallen less from his high standard, and he has fallen from no. 3 in the world in no. 19. Although not for lack of effort.

This season began with a broken toe, another training change and a series of suspected results: he enters this week from the lost cuts on Riviera, Bay Hill and his players, and his 80-68 at TPC Sawgrass suggested a golf game.

Which brings us to Hovland on Friday. What is all THAT I have been like?

“You have a skill you can almost sometimes get as good,” he said. “You just wake up every day and stay over the ball, and just wait for the ball to start in that direction and go in that direction and end up somewhere near the hole. When it starts to do it, it’s very disappointing. You start thinking things you’ve never thought of before. And this game becomes endlessly challenging – and it’s really really challenging.”

Woof. This is simple but it is heavy. One day he hit him where he is watching. And then at one point you look up and are going elsewhere. A game that has been difficult for everyone else, but easy for you is suddenly difficult for you. This is what is the golf for Elite, after all. Is swinging, looking up and seeing it on your line. Everything else comes from there.

Hovland, for his loan, makes no excuses. (You can argue that he would actually benefit from at least some.) He would better be commanded by his game, no doubt – but he is clearly comfortable being deep in the process.

“Really really humble and kind of treatment of those moments, I mean, I think there are many lessons to teach there,” he said.

A reporter emphasized – and he is hardly the first to think – that buzz sounds like it is difficult for himself. Isn’t he in excellent position on the tour?

“I’m hard for myself, yes. But that’s why I’m good,” he replied. “If I wasn’t hard for myself, I probably won’t be here. And yes, I know that even with terrible mechanics I can still get here and shoot some nice results. But it can also lead to 80 shots to players. Because it’s right, I have no control over what I’m doing.”

This is a topic: Hovland is looking for control. He wants a rhythm he can depend on. He was disappointing for his success in his round, because his result looked better because he made a bunch of shocks because he feels squeezing everything from his game because he played poorly in practical rounds because he hit “very bad shots” in pro-am. He is obsessed with something he can hold under pressure and over time. He beats that drum again and again.

“You just want something that is consistent. And if your technique is good, you will play a lot of good golf in the future. That’s how it works,” he said.

And he does it a little – something that is durable – sounds simple and logical. Only it is only once to reach the specifics, it becomes clear how difficult it really is. To withdraw and ask yourself if this is possible. Hovland has re-registered Grant Waite as his shaky coach; Both are working together in a adjustment. The biggest problem, he says, is that he cannot trust his instincts.

“It is complicated because you can no longer rely on your feelings, you have to turn the engineer things a little and start from scratch,” he said. “But we’re progressing.”

This, more than good shots or good results, looks like the most positive hovland stick. Progress. Above all, thinking hovland.

“At the end of the day like, yes, it’s great to be at the top of the manager’s table now, and having a chance to go on the weekend. But I really care only about the things I’m working on,” he said. “And if the ball is behaving and doing the things I want to do, I’ll play a lot of great golf in the future.”

Long -view strategy is essential for survival in a sport that can kick and kick you and kick you again. The only weakness is if you forget to appreciate the small victories along the way. While Hovland is following the big golf in the future, it can simply be stumbled on a big golf in the present. His commitment to the follow -up – and his candidacy explaining it – means that many golf fans are desperately hoping that he does.

And in the same way he will have something more to learn.

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