The LIV Golf League format, according to Viktor Hovland, is not for him. However, the Norwegian golfer also states that he is aware of the reasons why players like Jon Rahm have moved on to LIV and that they are not to blame for the rift in the sport. Speaking to Discovery’s golf podcast “Fore” in Norway (where his comments were translated into English), Hovland stated that, given his recent commitment to six PGA Tour tournaments, “I doubt that” you will see him attend LIV Golf. However, he also held the PGA Tour in high regard. Sounds like Viktor Hovland is prepared to defend his FedEx Cup victory.
Fernando Llano/Associated Press Luis Fernando Llano AP The current FedEx Cup champion Hovland, 26, stated, “I don’t think I would have become a better golfer if I had gone to LIV.”
said Hovland, 26, who won the FedEx Cup three times in 2023, the current champion. “After that, the conversation comes to an end in a sense. However, I can’t hold it against anyone who choose to go there and make that choice. The last step is to try to come to an agreement. We’ll see. Following Rahm’s decision to join the league, Hovland was strongly associated with LIV Golf; however, he has now dispelled that rumor, at least for the time being. He’s committed to the WM Phoenix Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Genesis Invitational, and the season-opening Sentry in two weeks. Hovland, meanwhile, claimed he “really wasn’t that shocked” to see Rahm go and attributed the division to PGA Tour management for the divide that continues as the entities try to solve out a frame work agreement that would unite the game.
To blame the players for quitting would be a little absurd, he stated. “There are many different things going on here at the same time, but you only hear one side in the media. I completely comprehend his departure. That is a huge sum of money. And when the PGA Tour’s management has performed so poorly, at least.To be clear, I’m grateful for everything and have no complaints about the position I’m in. However, the management hasn’t performed well. They essentially regard the players as employees rather than fellow members. We are the PGA Tour, after all. Nothing exists if the players are absent.
When you get to see what happens behind closed doors, how the management actually makes decisions, which are not in the players’ best interest, but best for themselves and what they think is best … they are businessmen who say that, ‘No, it should look like this and that.’ There is a great deal of arrogance behind it all.” Although three of the first six events Hovland will play on the PGA Tour will not have a cut due to the signature event format, he said LIV’s format was a detriment. “You need the competition with 150 players and a cut,” he said. If you don’t play well enough, you’re out. There is something about it that makes your game a little sharper. If I had gone to LIV, I don’t think I would have become a better golfer.” Hovland won the BMW Championship as well as the season-ending Tour Championship to capture the FedEx Cup. Earlier in the year, he won the Memorial Tournament. The former Oklahoma State golfer who is from Oslo has won six times on the PGA Tour and twice on the DP World Tour. He is ranked fourth in the world.
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