Don’t ask Viktor Hovland about European football. He attended his home country Norway’s World Cup win against Senegal at the Meadowlands in the beginning of the week, but he’s hardly interested enough to keenly break down Erling Haaland’s performance.
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Don’t inquire either about this rowing phenomenon that’s taken over the Norwegian fan base – first in the World Cup and now at the Travelers Championship – with supporters donning red-and-white jerseys and pulling their “oars.” On Saturday, they worked in unison behind the 18th green after Hovland drained a birdie putt to take a solo one-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round at TPC River Highlands.
Asked to explain the “rowing thing” on Saturday, Hovland offered with a smile, “I mean, we’re Vikings, so it’s kind of in our DNA.”
Yet he also admitted he’d never seen such displays until this World Cup. “So, yeah, it took us 1,000 years to figure it out,” he quipped.
How do Norwegians celebrate Viktor Hovland's moving day lead at Travelers? ROW! 🗣️🚣🏻 pic.twitter.com/CFTuIIliIt
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) June 27, 2026
For those who believe in kismet or karma, this just might be Hovland and Norway’s week. The football team has advanced out of the group stage and plays Ivory Coast on Tuesday, and the golfer is in his best position to win in 15 months, having captured the Valspar Championship in March 2025.
In that one, Hovland overcame a three-shot deficit to beat Justin Thomas by a stroke. In the Travelers, a $US20 million signature event, he’ll play in the final group for the first time since the biggest day of his golfing life, when he won the 2023 Tour Championship by firing a closing 63.
All well and good, but he’ll also be staring into the eyes, for a second straight round, of playing partner and World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, who suffered something of a wrestling reversal when he bogeyed the 18th hole in shooting 67 on Saturday and Hovland birdied it to score 64 and get to 20 under.
“It was really fun. Just had a great time,” Hovland, 28, said of the third-round experience. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in this position. To go head-to-head against the best player in the world and pull off some great shots, it was just a lot of fun.”
It was Hovland who got off to the better start with birdies on three of the first four holes. Both bogeyed the 10th, but Scheffler eventually answered with four birdies over five holes on the back. Hovland ultimately bested him with four more birdies of his own.
Hovland, who stands 30th in the World Ranking, has had a bit of an odd year so far. His best finishes had come in the spring, when he had back-to-back T-13s in two larger-scale events, the Arnold Palmer and Players Championship. Then there were a handful of middling finishes, and he missed the cut in both the PGA Championship and last week’s U.S. Open. But between those, Hovland found form in a solo third in the RBC Canadian Open.
He’s encouraged by the results, but also remains very focused on his “process.”
“As soon as I find a certain feel that I can trust and it produces a pretty reliable shot shape, I know that I’m going to be able to score pretty well from there,” Hovland said. “So if I happen to shoot two under or six under or nine-under, it’s like that’s not the most important thing, in a way. It’s like as soon as I see the shots that I’m trying to hit and execute, that’s what gives me the confidence.”
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Scheffler, 30, has certainly done his tweaking of late, including midweek with his grip when he got himself into the leaderboard mix at Shinnecock Hills before fading late for a T-4. The one constant in his head in doing anything to win, and the Texan is hungry, with his last victory coming in the season-opening American Express. Seven top-four finishes have followed, including a playoff loss to Matt Fitzpatrick in the RBC Heritage.
The two at the top have separated themselves a bit from pack, with Patrick Cantlay (64) and Akshay Bhatia 67) as the closest challengers at five behind Hovland. But this is also a tournament course that already has given up Scheffler’s second-round 60 and 25 other scores of 64 or better.
That’s why Scheffler said on Saturday, “It’s a little early in the tournament. This is a golf course where you can see some numbers be shot. You know, guys can shoot pretty low.”
