With an easier-than-it-looked 67, defending champion Viktor Hovland bucked a few trends Sunday en route to victory (again) at the World Wide Technology Championhip at Mayakoba. In the tournament’s 15-year history, no winner previously had been able to repeat his accomplishment at El Camaleon Golf Course. In fact, the PGA Tour hadn’t had a player win any tournament in back-to-back years since Brooks Koepka won the 2018 and 2019 PGA Championships.
Meanwhile, only seven times in the 14 previous tournaments at Mayakoba had the 54-hole leader hung on to win (although it had happened three of the last four years with Patton Kizzire in 2017, Matt Kuchar in 2018 and Brendon Todd in 2019). And just once in six tournaments so far in the 2021-22 PGA Tour season had a third-round leader been victorious (Hideki Matsuyama at the Zozo Championship two weeks ago).
But Hovland, 24, pulled away early and left little doubt that he was hanging on to his title. He stretched the lead briefly to as big as six shots through 14 holes before coasting to a four-shot lead with 23-under 261 total.
This was the second time Hovland had closed out a win after holding the 54-hole lead, doing it when he claimed his first career PGA Tour title at the 2020 Puerto Rico Open.
With the victory, Hovland matched his career best payday on the PGA Tour, earning $1.296 million from an overall purse of $7.2 million.
Here’s the prize money payouts for every golfer who made the cut this week at El Camaleon.
2: Carlos Ortiz, -19, $784,800
3: Justin Thomas, -18, $496,800
4: Scottie Scheffler, -17, $352,800
T-5: Joaquin Niemann, 268/-16, $278,100
T-5: Matthew Wolff, 268/-16, $278,100
T-7: Abraham Ancer, 269/-15, $218,700
T-7: Sergio Garcia, 269/-15, $218,700
T-7: Andrew Landry, 269/-15, $218,700
T-7: Danny Lee, 269/-15, $218,700
T-11: Talor Gooch, 270/-14, $160,200
T-11: Maverick McNealy, 270/-14, $160,200
T-11: Seamus Power, 270/-14, $160,200
T-11: Brendon Todd, 270/-14, $160,200
T-15: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 271/-13, $109,800
T-15: John Huh, 271/-13, $109,800
T-15: Denny McCarthy, 271/-13, $109,800
T-15: Troy Merritt, 271/-13, $109,800
T-15: Aaron Rai, 271/-13, $109,800
T-15: Michael Thompson, 271/-13, $109,800
T-15: Aaron Wise, 271/-13, $109,800
T-22: Thomas Detry, 272/-12, $69,480
T-22: Matt Kuchar, 272/-12, $69,480
T-22: Martin Laird, 272/-12, $69,480
T-22: Adam Long, 272/-12, $69,480
T-22: Andrew Novak, 272/-12, $69,480
T-27: Doug Ghim, 273/-11, $50,400
T-27: James Hahn, 273/-11, $50,400
T-27: Ryan Palmer, 273/-11, $50,400
T-27: J.J. Spaun, 273/-11, $50,400
T-27: Brian Stuard, 273/-11, $50,400
T-27: Danny Willett, 273/-11, $50,400
T-33: Chez Reavie, 274/-10, $37,594.29
T-33: Greyson Sigg, 274/-10, $37,594.29
T-33: Sepp Straka, 274/-10, $37,594.29
T-33: Hudson Swafford, 274/-10, $37,594.29
T-33: Billy Horschel, 274/-10, $37,594.28
T-33: Charles Howell III, 274/-10, $37,594.28
T-33: Nick Taylor, 274/-10, $37,594.28
T-40: Rickie Fowler, 275/-9, $28,440
T-40: Tyrrell Hatton, 275/-9, $28,440
T-40: Anirban Lahiri, 275/-9, $28,440
T-40: Scott Piercy, 275/-9, $28,440
T-40: Justin Rose, 275/-9, $28,440
T-45: Joel Dahmen, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Tyler Duncan, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Tony Finau, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Bill Haas, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Alex Noren, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Henrik Norlander, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Doc Redman, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Charl Schwartzel, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Adam Svensson, 276/-8, $19,341.82
T-45: Roberto Díaz, 276/-8, $19,341.81
T-45: C.T. Pan, 276/-8, $19,341.81
T-56: Adam Hadwin, 277/-7, $16,272
T-56: Russell Henley, 277/-7, $16,272
T-56: Tom Hoge, 277/-7, $16,272
T-56: Patton Kizzire, 277/-7, $16,272
T-56: Keith Mitchell, 277/-7, $16,272
T-56: Patrick Reed, 277/-7, $16,272
T-56: Brandt Snedeker, 277/-7, $16,272
T-56: Kevin Tway, 277/-7, $16,272
T-64: Matt Fitzpatrick, 278/-6, $15,336
T-64: Garrick Higgo, 278/-6, $15,336
T-64: Chris Kirk, 278/-6, $15,336
T-64: Andrew Putnam, 278/-6, $15,336
T-64: Vincent Whaley, 278/-6, $15,336
69: Brendan Steele, 279/-5, $14,904
70: Keegan Bradley, 280/-4, $14,760
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