MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 12, 2026

Viktor Hovland

Quick Quotes

Q. Just wondering if you could give us some insight into how the course is playing. How scorable is out there?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: I'd say a couple of the pins are gettable and some of the -- obviously the wind direction is a little bit different, so some of the holes played easier. Maybe some of the other holes played a little bit tougher.

I think if you're precise, you have an even better chance to make a few more birdies today, but at the same time, you miss those spots, it's just going to be difficult, I would say.

Q. Were there any standout difficult holes in terms of setup-wise that you think --

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, 11 was pretty difficult. They had the tees pretty far back, into the wind today, and obviously that pin over on the left side, that's a pretty tough pin. But you're going to see guys hit it to the right most of the time.

I'm trying to think what else. Obviously 12 with the pin location there to the right. They didn't really change that much. I think 17 with it being a little bit into and tees all the way back, that might play a little bit harder. Subtle things like that.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Rory; he was saying last night that he was kind of missing it left, was trying to neutralize it. You've been really candid about talking about that. You've also played without your best stuff. I'm wondering what that process is like, trying to close out a victory but when you don't have the most comfortable feeling --

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I've had to battle some really bad stuff. But I think subtle things, especially for Rory, the caliber of player that he is, yeah, he might miss a couple left, but we're talking milliseconds in the face that's half a degree or one degree more left than he expects it to be.

So that's stuff that can easily change the next day. I wouldn't be surprised if he just shows up today and stripes every shot. I saw he had maybe a range session last night, and you can find a good feel there and go with that the next day, and suddenly the ball is going straight.

That's the insanity of the sport that we play.

Q. Is there a point where, let's say the ball is coming out a little left of the window you're looking for. At what point are you like, I'm just going to play this, versus I can make an adjustment where I can get it back where I want --

VIKTOR HOVLAND: It's a good question. It's just tough to answer. First of all, that's why I like TrackMan and understanding the ball flight laws are very good to have because you can start a ball left, more left than you would like, but if it's curving back, who cares. That just means you're -- granted, if you're hitting it in the center your club path is just maybe creeping a bit more left, but if your face is in the right spot you're just hitting a bigger curve and then you can adjust that accordingly.

If you're starting the ball left and it's going left, is it a face issue, are you striking it off the heel and they're not coming back? There's a lot of minutiae involved with that.

If it's just a face-to-path issue or a club path direction, you can solve that pretty easily by playing a bigger cut or playing a bigger draw or moving it a bit more forward or back in the stance, simple stuff like that.