Viktor Hovland took full advantage of a rare implosion by Collin Morikawa to take the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, but it wasn’t just Morikawa’s misfortune that led to Hovland’s win. Hovland also made back-to-back eagles to propel him to victory.
In a logjam at the top at 15 under par as he played the 307-yard, par-4 14th, Hovland drove the ball into a greenside bunker and holed the bunker shot using a Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks 60-degree wedge for an eagle 2.
On the next hole, the par-5 15th, Hovland hit the green in two and made the 30-foot putt for eagle to take control of the tournament with his second eagle in as many holes.
Hovland’s driver is a 9-degree Ping G425 LST with a Fujikura Speeder 661 TX shaft. “I don’t want to spin the ball too much, so I use the low spin version of the G425 family,” Hovland told Golf Digest earlier this year.
At the other end, Hovland’s putter is a Ping PLD DS72 half mallet with a counterbalanced grip. “The last six years I’ve had a variation of a mallet,” he said. “In college I started using a counterbalanced putter. I’ve always been a bit of a Tiger fan boy and I wanted to have an Anser-style putter and have it be the traditional head shape. But I just could not putt with it. I picked up a counterbalanced putter at Oklahoma State and noticed my stroke became so much better. I wasn’t pulling it as much and was starting the ball on line. My speed control was a lot better too.”
His timing for key shots wasn’t too bad, either.
What Viktor Hovland had in the bag at the Hero World Challenge:
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G425 LST (Project X RDX Black), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade SIM, 15 degrees
7-wood: Ping G425 Max, 21 degrees
Irons (4-PW): Ping i210
Wedges: Ping Glide Forged Pro (50, 56 degrees); Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks prototype (60 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD DS72
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