Hovland’s big rally carries him to title
Morikawa fades early in Bahamas
NASSAU, Bahamas — The 24-year-old rising star put a nice ribbon on a three-win year in golf by posing with Tiger Woods at the trophy presentation Sunday in the Hero World Challenge.
It just wasn’t the winner anyone imagined.
Not even Viktor Hovland thought it was realistic he could rally from six shots behind Collin Morikawa, the steady hand who was poised to reach No. 1 in the world with a victory.
Instead, Hovland did the unthinkable in a final round at Albany that was pure chaos.
He looked up from a greenside bunker on the ninth hole and saw Morikawa sliding fast with a pair of double bogeys. Hovland seized on the opportunity with back-to-back eagles on his way to a 6-under 66 and a one-shot victory.
“I didn’t think a win was going to be very possible,” Hovland said. “But I know this course is tricky. You can make birdies, but it’s easy to make bogeys and doubles. If I put a good score up there, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Just about everything did. On the same hole Hovland holed a bunker shot for eagle, Sam Burns went from a tie for the lead to a triple bogey when it took five shots to get up a slope from 15 yards away. Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson were penalized two shots for hitting shots off the wrong tee. Scottie Scheffler was seven shots behind, made a triple bogey on his fourth hole and still nearly won.
The biggest surprise was Morikawa, who took a fiveshot lead into the final round and wasn’t even a factor over the final hour. Two double bogeys and a 41 on the front nine sent him to a 76.
The British Open champion looked like he would breeze to a fourth win of the year in the Bahamas. But he missed three birdie chances from 10 feet or closer at the start of the round and then went sideways when his approach on No. 4 sailed into a big bush and led to double bogey, and the same thing happened — presumably with mud on the ball —at the par-5 sixth for another double bogey. A chunked wedge on the par-5 ninth led to bogey.