For the first time in two-and-a-half years, a PGA Tour event has the same winner two years in a row. Viktor Hovland shot a 67 in the final round to finish at -23 on the week, defeating Carlos Ortiz by four and Justin Thomas by five to take the World Wide Championship at Mayakoba.
It was never even as close as it looks on paper — and it doesn’t look all that close on paper. Hovland took a two-stroke lead into the finale of the event he won this time last year, went out in 3-under 33 to increase that lead and mostly cruised home to win the third Tour event of his career. In the middle of all that, he went 37 holes — from middle of his round on Friday to middle of his round on Sunday — without a single blemish on his scorecard. He led the field in birdies on the week with 28 and nearly led it in bogey avoidance. That’s normally going to produce trophies.
Hovland is now a three-time champion on the PGA Tour in just 57 events played and a two-time champion of this event. Not since Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship in 2018 and 2019 has a player won the same PGA Tour tournament two years in a row. And while it would be easy to write off the fact that this happened in the fall at an event that’s not necessarily elite, look at the players Hovland beat. Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Matthew Wolff and Sergio Garcia all finished in the top 20. Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Will Zalatoris and Koepka were all in the field. Don’t be confused by the name on the signage, this was a strong event at the top of the field.
Three wins in 57 starts on the PGA Tour is faster than Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson or Thomas reached that number. And while none of them have been a premier event, you have to think that’s coming for him, perhaps as soon as 2022.
Hovland ranks third on the list of the top-10 ball-strikers in the strokes-gained era (beginning of 2004 to now), behind only Rory…
Source : cbssports
