Ryder Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s making the game a bit more stressful than it should be,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cIt\u2019s just frustrating as a golfer when this is my game. I step up and I have an intention of wanting to start the ball a certain height and start it left of the target and curve it, and then the ball starts high and right, complete opposite of what I\u2019m trying to do. That\u2019s just frustrating. But I know how to play. So I\u2019m doing the best I can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI shot 80 at the Players earlier this year and I won the next week. I would rather not play the game of golf that way because that is not how I used to do it. Obviously I like to focus on what I need to work on, but at the same time I need to be proud of myself that I\u2019m still able to come around here and compete after two rounds when it doesn\u2019t feel very good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super happy to be where I\u2019m at and scoring-wise, it\u2019s incredible to be honest. I really am struggling off the tee and I\u2019m just trying to do whatever I can just to put it in the fairway. Trying not to hit it off line and in the trees. But I do want to play the game a little bit more stress-free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hovland will begin day three a shot behind Hideki Matsuyama after the Japanese\u2019s 64. Justin Rose and Ludvig \u00c5berg are alongside Hovland on 11 under.<\/p>\n
Hovland was far more upbeat on Europe\u2019s chances at Bethpage as they seek a rare win on American soil. Hovland was a star for Europe in Rome two years ago, claiming three and a half points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the record speaks for itself,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cAll the guys have had great years. I think what\u2019s really cool is that we have 11 out of the 12 same guys [from the last Ryder Cup] and we have the same captain. As a team, we\u2019re a known commodity. We know that this is successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have to go to Bethpage and wonder if this is going to work versus maybe the American side, you know, there\u2019s a lot of new guys and new captain. They maybe have some more insecurities, maybe. I think a strength that we have is we know our squad well and we know that it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy\u2019s turbulent day saw the Masters champion flirt with the cut line after dropping three shots in his opening five holes. McIlroy responded with five birdies but produced a painful double bogey at the last. This all added up to a level par 72, which leaves McIlroy eight shy of Hovland. Shane Lowry\u2019s aggregate is the same as McIlroy\u2019s at halfway after a 74. Jon Rahm is four under with Robert MacIntyre at minus two.<\/p>\n
More ominous in European Ryder Cup context were the struggles of Rasmus H\u00f8jgaard. The Dane, who qualified for Luke Donald\u2019s team automatically, exited Surrey at five over par.<\/p>\n
Marcel Siem suffered the embarrassment of disqualification after it emerged he played the wrong ball on the closing hole of his first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is difficult to square Viktor Hovland\u2019s excellent position on the Wentworth leaderboard with the Norwegian\u2019s blunt assessment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-139753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}