THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2023

Viktor Hovland

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. I'm doing a story on the 4th hole. I know it wasn't a great one for you today, but what's the challenge to that particular hole.

VIKTOR HOVLAND: It's hard to hit the fairway, and if you miss the fairway it's hard to hit it close, and obviously the water is in play.

Q. How about your overall round and where you're at and where you sit in the tournament?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, obviously in a good spot, but pretty disappointed I didn't finish it off today because I played some really, really good golf.

Yeah, it's frustrating with that finish.

Q. You had a heck of a run dating back to yesterday's round. Was everything clicking?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I was just hitting it really well, hitting a lot of fairways, hitting a lot of greens. I hit a lot of really nice iron shots to close and give myself a lot of looks and made a couple nice putts on top of that. Had it going.

Q. What do you feel like you've been able to learn about this course the last three years here as far as your comfort level with the course and the challenge it presents?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it's one of the great things about Pete Dye is that he kind of challenges you. There's enough room to hit golf shots between the rough and on the greens, but he makes it very visually intimidating. Now that I'm hitting it pretty well again, I can kind of -- like for example, on 18 I can hit it left and hit a cut off the water. Except for -- lately it's been a little tough because the ball has been going two ways, and when the ball is going two ways, it's hard to play out here.

Now that I kind of have one shot shape, you can kind of play away from trouble a little bit.

Q. What was your view of what happened on 17? It looked like that was a close one.

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it was -- obviously playing 16, the wind was hurting pretty good, and my approach shot ended up short. When we were standing on 17, the wind was down and off the left, so I just figured I don't even need to hit a full 50-degree. Take a little bit off of it, and then the wind kind of switches more left to right and almost into, and I didn't hit the best of shots, but I thought for sure it was going to be on the green, just a little short right. Yeah, barely covered, hit the planks and barely stayed on the green, so it was a little too much drama there.

Q. Is there a Pete Dye course at Oklahoma State?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Not at Oklahoma State, but I go to Oak Tree National a lot and go play there. It's awesome.

Q. Does that kind of familiarity get you adjusted for this kind of golf course? This one is more severe, but it's the same idea.

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I think so. He's just like -- Pete Dye was just great at, for example, a lot of par-3s at Oak Tree National is you'll have like these diagonal greens, and right is right by the water, so you kind of need to take it over the water to get close, and you think left is bail-out, but then you hit it left, and it's a really difficult up-and-down.

It kind of just really visually intimidates you, tests you. You kind of have to shape shots different directions to get close to certain pin locations.

I think playing out there a lot has helped me.

Q. Do you find that even though it may be hard to see from the tee or hard to see from the fairway, there's always a good landing spot for you?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it's like when you get up there, there's plenty of room, but when you stand back there and you see the wind and kind of the contours of the slopes and everything and how -- if the fairway is going the opposite direction kind of like a dogleg, it makes it just play way smaller than the area looks like.

Yeah, it's just a really good design.

Q. Have you ever met Pete Dye?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: No, I have not.