After 90 minutes of truly bizarre golf at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas, Viktor Hovland managed to finally shake some sense back into the final round of the Hero World Challenge and secure an unexpected victory.
Collin Morikawa had a five-stroke lead coming into the final round and appeared as if he was cruising to a win that would secure him not only the $US1 million first-place payday but vault him to World No. 1 for the first time in his career. But then Morikawa hit a wayward approach on the par-4 fourth hole that resulted in a lost ball and an eventual double-bogey 6.
And then on the par-5 ninth hole, he chunked a greenside chip en route to a bogey 6. So the man with rounds of 68-66-64 had a 41 on his opening nine holes to become an also ran.
Enter Hovland, who quietly was three under on his round and 15-under total when he hit a driver long through the green into the back bunker on the 14th. From there, Hovland show an incredible bit of a talent and good timing with this nifty shot.
For the third time this week he’d eagled that hole, and he wasn’t done. After hitting a perfect drive and reaching the green in two on the par-5 15th, Hovland deftly rolled in this putt in for a second straight eagle:
Six off the lead to start the day, Hovland was now two strokes in the lead and on his way to adding a nice win to an already impressive two-win 2021 calendar year.
Hovland shot 66 to finish at 18-under-par, enough for a one-shot win against Scottie Scheffler. Hovland will move up to No.7 on the world rankings.
Here’s the prizemoney payouts for everybody in the field:
Win: $US1,000,000 ($A1.43 MILLION)
2: $375,000
3: $225,000
4: $150,000
5: $135,000
6: $120,000
7: $115,000
8: $113,000
9: $112,000
10: $110,000
11: $109,000
12: $108,000
13: $107,000
14: $106,000
15: $105,000
16: $104,000
17: $103,000
18: $102,000
19: $101,000
20: $100,000
