It's been something of a slog on the golf swing front for most of the past years for Hovland. Hovland's been unflinchingly honest about the struggles in his own golf swing. Perhaps to his own detriment.
"It probably would benefit me to shut my mouth a little bit more," he said on Tuesday. "But I don't mind being honest. I think if you hold it in, the fear almost becomes bigger instead of when you speak the truth out there."
The fear in Hovland's golf swing comes from a two-way miss. A series of "high right shots" most of the time, with some hot left misses mixed in when he overcorrects.
He felt the problem arise during his 2023 season which, on paper, was fantastic: He was a top points scorer at the Ryder Cup, finished in the top seven of two majors and won the FedEx Cup.
But the bottom started falling out the following season. Hovland saw—and felt—the problem, just wasn't exactly sure of the cause.
At the 2025 Masters, he finally feels he's figured it out.
The issue, he says, was with his left wrist. Traditionally it's been more bowed than most, and it still is. But recently, Hovland says his left wrist has been getting less bowed on the downswing.
The problem
"In the downswing, my lead wrist has just been going into more radial," he says. "That for my [swing] pattern is just really tough."
Hovland said his breakthrough came in understanding why that was happening. What was causing it. The issue came on the backswing.
"Those wrist angles were being changed in the downswing because of how the forces were moving in the backswing," Hovland says. "That was due to a multitude of different movements... I was making some inefficient movements as my motor pattern. So I had to re-learn some of the things that I used to do."
According to coaches who have worked with Hovland in the past, the backswing move causing his trouble was moving his hands too deep around him on the backswing, which in turn pulled his left shoulder down towards the ball.
With his upper body now tilted too close to the ground on the backswing, Hovland would compensate by moving further away from the ground on the downswing. This is what was causing him to throw the club with his hands—the move he says was causing him so much inconsistency.
The breakthrough
Understanding that hands-deep-left-shoulder-down move was the breakthrough.
Hovland is now cleaning up his backswing by doing the opposite of before. Keeping his hands a little more in front of his body, rather than around. This, as a result, moves his shoulder less down, and more around.
Stephen Denton
(Side note: This is very important for amateur golfers, too)
This puts allows him to keep his wrist is in a more stable position through the ball, and his golf swing is less reliant on his hands.
Stephen Denton
That's because, now, he's in a better position to stay down and turn, rather than having tilt away and throw his hands.
Stephen Denton
The question with all of these things is: Will it work? There's nothing more fickle in this fickle game than the golf swing. Short term? Who knows. But for the first time in a long time, Hovland is believes in what he's doing. He's not searching; he's commiting. And that, in many ways, is the hardest part.