Hovland prevails again in Bahamas

Viktor Hovland denied Scottie Scheffler a return to world No 1 as he joined tournament host Tiger Woods in becoming the only player to record back-toback wins in the Hero World Challenge.

The 25-year-old Norwegian, who produced a late burst as he triumphed by one shot on his debut 12 months ago, went wire-to-wire on this occasion at the Albany resort in the Bahamas.

Hovland, who started the day with a three-shot cushion after he’d spreadeagled the field with a best-of-the-week 64 on Saturday, was briefly joined in a share of the lead when playing partner Scheffler chipped in for an eagle-3 at the sixth.

However, Hovland’s birdie there and another one at the next, where Scheffler duffed his chip into a bunker and bogeyed it before running up a double-bogey 7 at the ninth, gave him breathing space again and it was job done despite finding water with his second at the last and holing a 20-footer for bogey.

Hovland signed off with a 69 for a 16-under-par total, winning by two shots from Scheffler as he matched Woods, who achieved the feat in 2006 and 2007, by pulling off a successful title defence.

It was Hovland’s seventh success as a professional and stretched a winning run in this event to four on the spin after Jon Rahm and Henrik Stenson triumped in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Masters champion Scheffler would have claimed the No 1 spot in the world rankings back from Rory Mcilroy if he’d won in the Caribbean.

Cameron Young finished third on 12-under, one ahead of Xander Schauffele.