Viktor Hovland Excelled At The Open Championship
Viktor Hovland is on the verge of winning the 2023 PGA Tour, but Scottie Scheffler still needs to be more of a presence.
With 18 holes remaining, the lead was six strokes, while Jon Rahm was nine shots behind.
Viktor Hovland is on the verge of winning the 2023 PGA Tour, but Scottie Scheffler still needs to be more of a presence.
With 18 holes remaining in The Open Championship at East Lake (Atlanta), the Norwegian took a six-shot lead over Xander Schauffele, who has consistently placed in the top seven in the FedEx Cup final. Viktor Hovland was nine strokes ahead of Jon Rahm at the time, and he had the same amount of strokes left over when the previous year’s world number one, Rory McIlroy, eventually defeated him.
On a Saturday when play was temporarily delayed due to a rainstorm when lightning hit, the 25-year-old made 66 with five bogeys and one birdie. The result makes him daydream about the 18 million dollars the World Grand Tour final-round victor will get.
After taking home the BMW Championship last week, he stated, “This is a lot of money, and I can’t even remember the last time I had such a big lead. But there are some outstanding players back there who can shoot 62 or 61, so we’ll have to focus on the game.”
After failing to shoot under par on the course, Rahm (71 strokes) sits in fifth place. He sent his tee shot into the water on the eighth hole, resulting in a double bogey. On the eleventh hole, he made another error.
His game picked up when he was three over par, and he made two birdies in his next three holes, but it still appeared nearly impossible to cover the distance in nine shots.
Since Colin Morikawa shot 73 after playing brilliantly through the first two rounds, it wasn’t the worst round among the top players.
