As Collin Morikawa fades, Viktor Hovland adds to tropical paradise haul with Hero World Challenge win

© File photo Hero World Challenge 2021

NASSAU, Bahamas – Collin Morikawa’s expected cruise Sunday to the Hero World Challenge title and the No. 1 world ranking hit troubled waters early.

Then all sorts of crazy broke out all over Albany Golf Club.

And when all the eagles and birdies and doubles and triples were counted in the final round, tropical paradise monster Viktor Hovland was accepting the trophy from tournament host Tiger Woods.

The Norwegian, who won three of his previous four pro titles in Puerto Rico and Playa del Carmen south of Cancun (he won twice there), made consecutive eagles on the back nine and overcame a six-shot deficit at the start of the round to wind up winning by one shot in the 20-man field where 17 of the players were ranked in the top 25.

Hovland closed with a 6-under-par 66 to finish at 18 under, one shot ahead of Scottie Scheffler (66). At 15 under were Patrick Reed (69) and Sam Burns (69).

Hero World Challenge: Winner’s bag

Morikawa closed with a 76 and finished at 14 under. Joining him there was Justin Thomas, who shot a Sunday 64 to celebrate his beloved Alabama Crimson Tide’s win over Georgia on Saturday in the SEC Championship.

Five players held at least a share of the lead in the final round.

“Honestly, when I first teed off and obviously got off to just making a few pars early on, I didn’t really think winning was even in question,” said Hovland, whose hole-out eagle from the bunker on the drivable par-4 14^th was his third big bird on the hole during the week.

His third eagle of the week at No. 14. 👀

Viktor Hovland holes it from the bunker. pic.twitter.com/rPqCwwbMiH

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 5, 2021

“But after I made three birdies in a row at the end of the front nine and I got to No. 9 and I was in the greenside bunker and I looked up at the leaderboard and I saw I believe I was tied for the lead, maybe one shot behind or something like that, that’s when I knew that, OK, if I play really well on the back nine, I’ve got a chance.”

Now, about those wins coming in the tropics.

“Yeah, there’s not that many similarities to Norway, so I don’t really get it myself,” Hovland said. “Usually there’s trouble off the tee and you’ve got to hit it straight, I think that helps. But frankly, the grass here, the Paspalum and the Bermuda, is not something that I’m very used to, so I don’t know.

“For some reason I just play well in those events.”

Ironically, Hovland roomed with Morikawa this week in the Bahamas. Morikawa, who would have become the second fastest to reach world No. 1 with a victory (Woods is the fastest), led by five shots at the start of the round but saw his advantage completely vanish by the time he reached the green on the sixth hole.

Morikawa, who won his second major earlier this year in the British Open and became the first American to win the Race to Dubai two weeks ago, lost a ball in the bushes on his approach and made double bogey on the par-4 fourth, then lost another ball with his approach on the par-5 sixth and made another double bogey. He shot a shocking 41 on the front nine.

“Obviously a little sad to see him not play his best today,” Hovland said. “He’s a great player and I expected him to just kind of roll away with the victory, but sometimes this sport is not that easy and I’m sure he’ll come back even stronger.”

All was not lost this week: Morikawa became engaged to Katherine Zhu on Tuesday.

Scheffler, looking for his first PGA Tour title, started the day seven shots back and then triple-bogeyed the fourth, came storming home with four birdies in his final five holes.

“I felt like I played pretty well. I had really struggled with my putting pretty much the whole week until maybe the back nine yesterday, made a few putts,” he said. “Outside of that, the first two days I putted so bad, so today just to see a few go in and kind of get going was nice and felt like I gave myself a chance there at the end and I’m pleased with that. I’m pleased with how I performed on the back nine.”

Hovland, 24, will move to No. 8 in the world. He still marvels that a kid from Norway is having so much success on the PGA Tour; Hovland was the first Norwegian to win on the circuit.

“It’s crazy to think that I’m, you know, playing the PGA Tour,” he said. “It’s pretty incredible just from thinking back to where I grew up and playing golf in Norway, you’re playing golf six months out of the year and it’s pretty farfetched to even just play golf professionally coming from Norway. So for me to be here and winning tournaments is pretty unreal.”

But he was inspired by one Tiger Woods.

“I remember sitting in the classroom just watching highlights on YouTube. He definitely inspired me and helped me in that way but watching his highlights kind of made it seem even more farfetched because you’re going to be competing against this guy when you get on Tour hopefully,” he said. “It was more like I made it more of a dream.”

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