CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Viktor Hovland feels he is headed in the right direction, and Saturday at the Travelers Championship was a big test. He played alongside Scottie Scheffler on a course that features plenty of water and shots that can cause some stress.<\/p>\n
A two-shot swing on the 18th hole \u2014 Hovland made a 6-foot birdie, Scheffler three-putted from 25 feet on the fringe for bogey \u2014 gave the Norwegian star a 6-under 64 and a one-shot lead over the world’s No. 1 player.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust had a great time,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve been in this position. To go head-to-head against the best player in the world and pull off some great shots, it was just a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pleasant surprise was the support he had in the crowd.<\/p>\n
Scheffler is enormously popular and the TPC Highlands had a vocal gallery. Hovland had plenty of support from a Norway contingent that drove over from Boston following a World Cup loss to France. Hovland gave them plenty of opportunity to do the \u201crow\u201d that has become so popular in the stadium and subway stations and wherever they gather.<\/p>\n
Hovland knows it well. Oddly enough, it was the first time he had seen it live.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we\u2019re Vikings, so it\u2019s kind of in our DNA,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny, that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever seen it. I think that\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve ever done it, especially in the World Cup. So yeah, it took us 1,000 years to figure it out. I think it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRo, ro, ro!\u201d they chanted as Hovland approached the 18th green. \u201cUSA! USA!\u201d came the American chants. It was good banter on a Saturday afternoon in New England, an example why partisan cheering in a World Cup year is far more palatable than a Ryder Cup year.<\/p>\n
It was the second straight year Scheffler, whose bogey gave him a 67, fell from the top of the leaderboard going into the weekend at the TPC River Highlands, though this was no cause for alarm. A year ago, he opened with a triple bogey, shot 72 and fell nine shots behind.<\/p>\n
This was one hole, and he was only one shot behind as Scheffler tries to win for the first time since the start to his season in the California desert.<\/p>\n
Hovland was at 20-under 190 and gets another afternoon with Scheffler on Sunday. The next closest players were Patrick Cantlay (64) and Akshay Bhatia (67), who were five shots behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a golf course where you can see some numbers be shot. You know, guys can shoot pretty low,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cGoing into tomorrow just try to execute, have a good round, and see where that puts me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hovland started two shots behind and it took him four holes \u2014 three birdies \u2014 to catch Scheffler. From there, it was a bit of a pillow fight as they matched mostly pars, two birdies and one bogey to remain tied.<\/p>\n
Scheffler regained the lead with a lob wedge to 2 feet on the 14th. Both got up-and-down from the front of the green on the reachable par-4 15th \u2014 Scheffler with a nifty chip that floated up the slope and trickled down to the pin \u2014 and exchanged pars going to the 18th.<\/p>\n
That’s where it flipped, giving Hovland the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe score is nice … but I’m very process-driven,\u201d Hovland said. “As soon as I find a certain feel that I can trust and it produces a pretty reliable shot shape, I know that I\u2019m going to be able to score pretty well from there. So if I happen to shoot 2 under or 6 under or 9 under, that\u2019s not the most important thing. As soon as I see the shots that I\u2019m trying to hit and execute, that\u2019s what gives me the confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it\u2019s all a bonus on top being able to do it at this stage and in front of that many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was separation, but this is not a duel given the nature of this course that allows for low scoring and dynamic finishes because of the closing hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty of this golf course is that I think Scottie and I have separated ourselves from the rest of the field, but at the same time, 14 or 15 under is still very much in this thing if they go and shoot a very low score tomorrow,\u201d Hovland said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we still have to go out there and play very similar to what we did today,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise, we\u2019re bringing in a lot more guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Viktor Hovland feels he is headed in the right direction, and Saturday at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-765755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765755","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=765755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}