Viktor Hovland’s plans for Olympic gold medal sum up PGA Tour star

Viktor Hovland has revealed showing off an Olympic medal is an opportunity he would look forward to, with the European Ryder Cup star in action at Le Golf National this week. Hovland will represent his native Norway at the Olympic Games in Paris, and will kick off his tournament in Thursday’s opening round. Ahead of the event, the PGA Tour star appeared in front of the world’s media to have his say on the chance to compete for his nation on the Olympic stage.

Asked what the first thing he would do with a medal when arriving back if he was to be succesful in France, he told reporters: “Well, I’m planning on going from hereto the States.

“So the medal would probably have to wait for a little bit until I go back home, sometime in the fall. Yeah, it would be cool to wear it proudly and walk down the street everywhere I go in a super obnoxious way but it would be great.” A win this week would be his first of the year for Hovland, having failed to build on last season’s FedEx Cup win.

If he is to get his hands on gold though, he will have to master a course he is yet to play in his career in Le Golf National. “I haven’t been here before,” he added. I actually didn’t watch too much of the Ryder Cup when it was here. I know at least whent hey played it was set up very narrow.

“Thick rough and I know every year The French Open it tends to play that way. But it’s a little bit later in the year. So it might be a little softer than it is now. I think just hitting a bunch of fairways is a prerequisite because a know a lot of the greens, they have water around them.

“If you’re coming in from the rough, it’s very challenging to get it close to the pin.I think hitting fairways is paramount, and obviously got todo the rest well. But if you’re not hitting the fairways, I think that’s going to be really, really tough.” Having announced himself as one of the very best in 2023, the 2024 campaign has been slightly tricker for Hovland.

Having been crowned the leading PGA Tour player a year ago, he has just one top-10 finish this season coming with a third-place finish at the PGA Championship in May. Since then, Hovland has missed the cut at both the US Open and The Open Championship, following a tough test at Royal Troon earlier this month.

Either side of his missed cut at Pinehurst No. 2 in June, there were some positive signs for the PGA Tour star. Whilst his tied-46th finish at the Scottish Open prior to the trip to Troon failed to to see the Norwegian compete, Hovland showed glimmers of his old self with top-20 finishes at both the Memorial and Travelers Championship.