PALM HARBOR, Florida – Going into the 2025 Valspar Championship, Victor Hovland was playing the worst golf of his professional career. He had not won a tournament since the 2023 Tour Championship. This year he missed the cut in his last three tournaments, the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer invitational and The Players. He dropped from No. 3 in the World Golf Ranking to No. 19, his worst ranking in five years.
To say he was an underdog at the Valspar would be an understatement. After a first round score 0f 1-under 70, Hovland was still a 40-1 longshot in Las Vegas and not overly confident.
“The club is just not in a good place for me coming down,” said Hovland. “It’s just not what it used to be.”
Then came one of “the best tests on the PGA Tour”, the Copperhead Golf Course at Innisbrook Resort in Tampa Bay. Especially the final round when he was in an almost match-play battle with two time major winner Justin Thomas. Let’s add to equation that he was 3 down with 5 to play. Then came Victor.
On the par five 14th hole he had a 15 foot birdie putt. Made it. He parred No. 15. Entering the famed “Snake Pit” final three hole finish on Copperhead he was still two down to Justin Thomas, who was one group in front of Hovland. Thomas elected to hit driver on the difficult dog-leg right 16th over water. He yanked it deep into the woods and made bogey.
Hovland elected (wisely) to play an iron off the tee and found the fairway. His approach shot left 194 yards to a back right pin. His seven iron was the shot of the tournament. He nailed it 4’10” from the hole, closer than anyone in the field all day, and with that birdie he was tied with Thomas at the top, at the time.
“I was able to time it extremely good this week,” he said. “I feel like every single shot I hit, I just saved it really well.”
Thomas just missed a 20 foot birdie putt on the par three 17th. Hovland did not. He hit a wonderful tee shot to within 15 feet of the hole and rolled it in with pure confidence to take the lead.
Thomas had a chance on 18, but again he pulled his tee shot left and into “US Open thick” rough. He scrambled for a bogey giving Hovland a two shot lead and that was all she wrote.
Hovland made a ho-hum bogey on the last to claim the victory, the 7th of his PGA Tour career. One that not even he saw coming, but he was proud to have pulled it off.
“I have to change my release pattern (on every shot) to make it work.” he said. “Now incredibly, I did make it work and was able to win. That is something I’m extremely proud of, that I can show up at a PGA Tour event on one of the hardest golf courses we play all year, and still win without my best stuff. So I think that’s really cool, but at the same time, it makes this game a lot more stressful than I think it should be.”
Hovland’s final round 67 for an 11-under par total bested Justin Thomas, who’s final round 65 fell one shot short.
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