Viktor Hovland lifted the venerable trophy, grinned in familiar style and enjoyed the tribute from the Atlanta crowd. – This is the result of all the hard work I have put in and the support system I have had around me, he said in the interview with the organiser. – It is surreal to experience this. I have played my best golf ever the last two weeks. It couldn’t have happened at a better time, he said, thanking everyone who had turned up to see him play. The expert in ecstasy – What a psyche he has, shouted commentator Per Haugsrud after a fantastic putt on hole 17. – He’s a stallion! Quite simply, added former golfer and Eurosport expert Henrik Bjørnstad. – I’m falling in love with the whole guy! I have been for a long time, he continued. It was then that the competitors, the commentators – and the Norwegian people – realized that Viktor Hovland was going to win the tournament overall. He clenched his fist, cheered and threw the ball he won with to the crowd. The top 70 players in the world became 50 last week. Then Hovland clinched victory. At the weekend, only the top 30 played. And the best of them all was Viktor Hovland. Thus, the fact is that the season’s best golfer is a 25-year-old from Ekeberg. It has never happened before. NOK 190 million was in the prize pool for the winner. – This is a title for the big boys; Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Now our man is one of them, said Henrik Bjørnstad. – We can compare sports, but if he wins the PGA tour championship overall, then, for me, Ingebrigtsen can run as fast as he wants and Haaland can score as much as he wants, said golf expert Marius Torp on the Eurosport broadcast last week. Hovland is fighting this if Helgen’s tournament is the third and last of the golf elite’s season finale, where an overall winner is to be chosen. Throughout the season, players earn so-called FedEx points based on performance. Only the 70 players with the most points after the entire season are allowed to participate in the first tournament of the playoffs. Then it is filtered down to 50 players before playoff tournament number two, before it is all decided on the third and final weekend. And that’s where we are now. Only 30 players were eligible to take part in this weekend’s tournament, which is organized as a hunting start. When three of the four rounds of the season finale have been completed, Hovland leads superbly. To use a term sports-interested Norwegians know well: He is likely to win the World Cup overall. He finally did. But not without fighting tooth and nail for the title at the PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. GET TO SEE THEN!: Viktor Hovland got his fill while Xander Schauffele fought to the door in a nerve-wracking duel in the final round of the PGA Tour Championship. Photo: Mike Stewart / AP Giant start The starting point was fantastic. Six strokes down on the nearest competitor. When Viktor Hovland birdied – one shot under par – on four of the first six holes, it looked like it would all be decided early. NERVOUS: He had to watch his fiercest competitor eat up the clear lead. But Viktor Hovland kept his nerves in check. Photo: John Bazemore / AP But a lead of seven strokes quickly became just three. Hovland could be seen scratching his hair and realizing that while he had the margins against him, his offensive competitor was eating into his lead. – This is tiring. It’s exhausting. He is so strong there, was the conclusion from Haugsrud and Bjørnstad live. Just then, the Norwegian had sunk one of several putts where he was under intense pressure from a gasping audience. They sensed that it would be a dramatic end. The nerve-wracking American Xander Schauffele did not give up without a fight. – We are in the middle of an epic battle here, Haugsrud exclaimed along the way as the two elite players topped each other’s shots on every single hole. After that, a super duel began between the two best – where one was the Norwegian. Shauffele followed the Norwegian all the way in, but eventually finished five strokes behind after the Ekeberg man kept his cool, got the margins with him and sunk a number of fantastic putts. To put it in perspective: Viktor Hovland finished 11 strokes ahead of the third man. It is a rare distance in such a tough tournament. – That’s like two seconds in a 100-metre race, compared Haugsrud.
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