Tour Life
Viktor Hovland has toured this famous movie landmark twice while in Ohio for the Memorial
Ross Kinnaird
After going through a slump, Viktor Hovland is getting his game back on track. Which means he's also going to be getting his sightseeing back on.
The curious and thoughtful Norwegian revealed as much—as well as his smart thoughts on long par 3s—ahead of this week's Memorial Tournament.
"I've had my hands full on the range the last couple years, so I haven't had that much time to sightsee," Hovland told reporters at Muirfield Village Golf Club on Tuesday. "But, hopefully, we're getting closer to be able to do that again."
Hovland, the 2023 FedEx Cup champ, stumbled through 2024 and summed up his struggles with a succint, but perfect quote: "Sh-- happens." But after his winless drought stretched to 19 months, the 27-year-old surprised even himself by winning the Valspar Championship in March for his seventh career PGA Tour title.
And as he's shown in the past, when he's striking the golf ball well, he enjoys striking out to explore local spots at various tournaments. And the Memorial is one of his favorites because it's located about an hour drive away from The Ohio State Reformatory (Man, they love saying THE Ohio State in Ohio, huh?).
What's The Ohio State Reformatory? Only the prison from arguably the greatest movie of all time, The Shawshank Redemption.
"Two years ago I checked out—went to Mansfield and checked out some of the Shawshank spots because my old swing coach, Joe Mayo, he's a big movie guy," Hovland explained. "Like, he goes to places where they have shot famous movies, and he said, Oh, it's about an hour from here. You want to go and check it out? I said sure.
"Then last year, my dad and cousin came for this tournament, so I just said, Hey, let's just do that, and they loved it as well. So I try to go to certain places if I think it's worth seeing because it gets pretty monotonous just being on the golf course and hotels and airports every single week."
Good for you, Viktor. And this place sounds great. Apparently, there's an official big tour:
When in Rome, right? Well, Ohio.