THE 150TH OPEN

July 14, 2022

Viktor Hovland

Mixed Zone

Q. Hello, Viktor. Obviously what you worked on yesterday worked. Take us through the round today. What went well? What clicked for you?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Obviously got off to a nice start being 2-under through three holes. Made a little bit of a mistake on 4. Didn't play my best through kind of the middle portion of the round. But I knew, if I just kind of kept making pars, I would hit a good shot and get close to the pin and try to take advantage.

It was an up-and-down day, but I managed to finish with three birdies in a row. That was awesome.

Q. A lot of guys are coming in complaining about not being able to make putts. That's one thing you were very clear -- you had to work on this. Can you tell me about the strategy with the putting and what worked for you?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I've been putting really well this year as a whole, but I noticed the links greens are usually a little bit slower than what we normally play. I just noticed in the practise rounds I was just barely getting the ball to the hole. So anything inside 15 feet I was really trying to hit it two, three feet -- yeah, two feet past the hole just to give it a chance to go in the hole.

When it slows down or if it doesn't have any speed going into the hole, it usually just wobbles and goes off to the side. So I putted great today.

Q. The fact that -- major golf for you and having the mindset here, part of the major golf sometimes is the element of fortune, no? Especially with how firm the golf course is. How do you prepare yourself mentally for that?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: There's a couple tee shots out here where, like for example on 12 today, you're trying to just hit a driver at the middle of the green. You're hopefully trying to avoid the bunker there. I ended up right in it.

Obviously it's kind of maddening right there and then, but you know it's going to happen. I hit a good shot. There's not much you can do about it. It matters how you get out of that situation.

And I made a great par, for example, on that hole today. Instead of letting it bother me too much, and then I try to go for a stupid shot to gain back what I lost.