From Oslo to OSU: Ventura, Hovland excelling with Cowboys

STILLWATER — Not long after Alan Bratton had been hired as Oklahoma State’s men’s golf coach, he received a call from a friend at Ohio State.

“My first week on the job, he called me and said, ‘Hey, there’s a boy in Norway you need to go see,’” Bratton said.

That player was Kristoffer Ventura, the lone senior in the top-seeded Cowboys’ starting lineup as they begin their pursuit of the NCAA men’s golf championship Friday on their home course of Karsten Creek Golf Club.

“I went over to watch him play a tournament in Scotland, and eventually we were fortunate enough to convince him to come to Oklahoma State,” Bratton said. “While I was there, I saw Viktor Hovland. They were on the same team, and we pegged him as a future prospect.”

Hovland, only a sophomore, has spent most of the year ranked in the top five nationally among college players, and has been invaluable to the Cowboys during a season in which they’ve won eight of their last 10 tournaments.

Oklahoma State’s starting lineup for the NCAA championships will include a player from Oklahoma (Austin Eckroat), one from California (Matt Wolff), one from West Virginia (Zach Bauchou) and two from WANG Toppidrett School in Oslo, Norway.

Bratton’s connection at Ohio State was Donnie Darr, now the Cowboys’ assistant coach. Darr didn’t have enough scholarship money to go after Ventura, and it ended up working out twofold for Bratton.

“They’re both in the top 30 in the world amateur golf rankings, so that’s been special to have them together,” Bratton said.

Getting recruited from Norway to a college in Oklahoma offered a unique set of obstacles for Ventura, whose goal was to play college golf in the United States.

“It’s complicated,” Ventura said. “There’s not much knowledge about college golf in Europe. Usually, people want to turn pro as soon as possible.

“Talking to other players and seeing that most of the best players in the world at that time had gone to college. The whole goal was to play college golf to get me ready to be a professional.”

Ventura was born in Mexico, his father’s native country, and lived there until he was 12. That’s when they moved to Norway, where his mother was from.

“I got the best of both worlds,” Ventura said. “I started playing golf in Mexico, then we moved to Norway.”

Having known Ventura since his early teenage years, Hovland relied on his friend for help through the recruiting process two years after Ventura had experienced it. Ventura wanted Hovland to see other schools, too, so he knew what he was comparing OSU to.

“It for sure helped, because I could lean on him,” said Hovland, who also considered TCU, Texas Tech and Tennessee. “The transition to everything, the culture and how things work here — it was way easier and it made a big difference having him here.

“And then, the first time you walk through here and see all the trophies, you quickly realize that there’s a winning mentality here. It just made a lot of sense to come here.”