European Tour: Viktor Hovland Previews First Start at 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic

PGA Tour and European Tour professional Viktor Hovland speaks with the media about his incident at last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship involving slow play as well as giving a preview of what he expects out of his first start at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

European Tour: Viktor Hovland speaks with the media prior to making Omega Dubai Desert Classic debut

CLARE BODEL: Welcome to the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic, Viktor. This is your second week out here in the desert, but your first time here at Emirates Golf Club. What have you made of your week so far?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: It’s a little different course than last week. Everything’s very intimate and all the holes are very close together, and obviously seeing the skyscrapers in the background is really cool.

Conditions are a little different, too, as well. I would say the greens are a lot firmer and faster, and the greens are a lot smaller, and the rough is probably thicker than it was last week. So it will be a little interesting.

CLARE BODEL: Obviously last week didn’t go as you wanted it to, but what do you take from that week? What have you learned about sort of playing in this region, playing in the desert?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: Obviously with the new pace of play policy, I had one instance, we were the first group off, and on my fourth hole, I had to readjust my line, and I’m normally not a slow player but I had to readjust my line, and we were already on the clock, and I spent a little bit more time than I should have. That kind of flustered me a little bit. And the rest of the round, I was only focusing on trying to play fast, instead of you know, trying to perform, which you’re ultimately there for.

It was a little bit of a learning experience for me just to trust my routines, and obviously it’s the first tournament of the year, so I’m just trying to get back into it.

CLARE BODEL: Your first time playing here on The European Tour, and we won’t give anything away, but we know you were filming a content piece with Beef the other night. What’s it like getting to know those guys?

VIKTOR HOVLAND: That was a very different challenge, or very different thing from what I’ve done before, and obviously having to do that with Beef, that was awesome. I just briefly met him before, but he’s a great guy and made it super easy.

Yeah, I would say definitely a round on The European Tour, guys are a little bit more laid back and I kind of feel more at home here, if you can say that, because of my Norwegian heritage. So yeah, it’s fun to be out here.

Q. Just to go back to the incident in Abu Dhabi, and as you say, you’re not normally a slow player. Have you had anything like that in the past in your career as an amateur or since you’ve turned professional?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: We’ve been on the clock before. But normally, or from my perspective, I wouldn’t say I was the reason because of that. We might have had a bad hole or something.

I’ve never felt stressed in that way before. You know, I was given a bad time, so I don’t want to have another bad time before I have a penalty shot. I always want to err on the other side, so your mind is going through, oh, when are they starting the time, does this count, or do they look from the other side; but you’re just trying to hit the ball. So that was a bit of a rookie move from my perspective, but I felt like we got it cleared up with the rules officials and now more comfortable with that.

Q. As you say, you can learn from that going forward. Didn’t help you last week, made you stress, but going forward, that can be only good for you.
VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, it’s a lot better than it happened here than maybe another tournament where I was in contention, so I think I can only learn from it.

Q. When did you actually know? Did they tell you right away, after the shot?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I believe it was — I think it was right as soon as I holed out. Made the putt, and then we walked to the next tee and then he came up and said that was 57 seconds or whatever it was. So, yeah, he let me know right away, which was good, I guess, because I don’t want to hear that after.

Q. It seems to me that the grey area is exactly when they start to time you. Is that something that was cleared up?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, obviously they let me know that they have done some testing before they started doing this, and their standard deviation was within a certain parameter.

But it was just, you know, longer putts, obviously you want to spend some time looking at both sides and then you’re spending a lot of time just walking to the hole and behind the hole and then back.

So it’s just clearing those things up, and yeah, I’ve got a pretty good handle on how it’s being done now.

Q. So we won’t expect that to happen again then?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: It should not. It should not.

Q. Sort of a rough week last week rules-wise. Robert Karlsson was weighing in on incident on the first hole, you weren’t aware of regarding the signage, too. Not the sort of week you were looking for?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I hit it right of the green on 10 for my second shot, and my ball rested up against the sign there. Yeah, I wasn’t aware that you’re not supposed to mark it. I didn’t want the ball to move, so I marked it, picked it up and placed it to the side, which you’re not supposed to do.

So that hurt a little bit looking back at it, because I missed the cut by one. And I felt like I was playing some decent golf, and obviously with the leaders being at maybe 9-under after two rounds, you would think a couple good rounds over the week and then you could climb a lot of spots. So that hurt a little bit.

But you know, once again, it’s better that it happened here or last week instead of a U.S. Open or a Masters.

Q. Was it good playing in Robert’s company last week the first two rounds, because Robert was in that group, sort of Ryder Cup situation, and looking at you as a prospective member of The Ryder Cup Team this year, was that good?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: I don’t know if it was good for me (laughing) it was good if I made a good impression I guess.

Q. Did he talk to you about the sort of aspirations and stuff as you went around?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: Not really. We didn’t talk about The Ryder Cup that much. Obviously with him being Swedish and me being Norwegian, we just talked about pretty much everything else. We talked about, it was kind of funny, he’s played The European Tour in five different decades, which he’s seen a lot of really cool golf and he’s played with a lot of good players.

Yeah, just kind of listening to him talk was really fun.

Q. You’re getting a lot of attention, which is understandable, with your amateur career and how you started off as a pro. Are you comfortable with that, and also, how important is it just to keep things in check and not get carried away and focus on what you’re trying to achieve?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: It is a little weird. But I mean, I guess it’s just how it is, and it’s a good thing; I’m not complaining about it.

It is a little weird, for example, being at the Hero Challenge last week. You know, you’re going up against guys that have won five, seven times, world No. 1; Bernd that won three times last year, it’s an impressive resumé.

I’m happy, but I haven’t won anything. It’s kind of weird just to be in that group of guys already, but I’m trying not to think about it too much. I’m just trying to get better and hopefully I can win some tournaments.

Q. Where exactly do you stand on the PGA Tour in terms of how much you’re going to be able to play this year?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: Well, my schedule is not set in stone as of right now. I’m going back after this, and I’ll be looking to try to play some tournaments. It kind of depends where I’m at in the World Rankings and what tournaments I get into. From there, just set my schedule.

But you know, this is brand new for me. I’m just checking out, okay, is this a tournament I want to play in next year; how does that work with this tournament for next year. So I’m just trying to piece everything together.

Q. So it’s hard to plan, is it?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: It is. The schedule is very fluid for me at this point.

CLARE BODEL: Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Viktor. Good luck this week.

January 22, 2020

Dubai, UAE

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