GAUGUSTA, GA — Viktor Hovland’s swing from a year ago was a sight to behold. He produced precise, clean strokes that helped him score 65 in the first round of the Masters and kept him in the hunt until the back nine on Sunday.
also assisted him in winning the Tour Championship and the BMW Championship in back-to-back weeks.
However, Hovland, who tinkered nearly obsessively, felt that something wasn’t quite right. And the six-time PGA Tour winner started to question if he had achieved “the pinnacle of what my golf swing was able to do.”
Thus, he made the decision to learn.
Hovland fired his swing coach, Joe Mayo, in an unexpected decision for a player at the pinnacle of the sport. He started asking people for help, including as former professional Grant Waite. This week, while Hovland was returning to Augusta National in pursuit of his first major victory, he was seen training with teacher Dana Dahlquist.
Hovland, who has shown signs of improvement this season, said, “I feel like I’m on a good track now, but I’m still kind of looking for some opinions out there.” At Kapalua in January, the 26-year-old Norwegian tied for 22nd place after shooting three rounds in the 60s. He also shot four rounds below par to finish in the top 20.
He described it as if you’re working on something and it doesn’t feel quite right. At that point, you kind of have to start over and figure things out until they start to make sense. “I think I’m in that predicament right now. All I need to do now is continue working out and complete the repetitions; we’ll see how long that takes.
