RBC Heritage
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Viktor Hovland
Quick Quotes
Q. Viktor, congrats on that first round, 6 under par. Pretty memorable shot. Your first time playing this event as a professional, and you hit it in for eagle at the 9th. Describe that one.
VIKTOR HOVLAND: That was a very nice finish. Been playing pretty solid all day. Tried to hit a driver on the last hole, or the course's 9th hole, and tried to get it in the bunker. I guess the wind switched a little bit and ended up short of the bunker, and I had about 30 yards, kind of a nasty shot. Thankfully, it was down grain, and I was able to put some spin on it, and it thankfully went in.
Q. First time going around in the confines of the tournament event. Great start with 6 under par, but how did you feel about the round overall to get the tournament started?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: I got off to a nice start. I think I was 3 under through five or six holes and made a really bad bogey on 16 and three-putted on 17 and kind of lost some of that momentum. But started on the back nine making three birdies in a row and just kind of hitting a lot of greens and gave myself a lot of good looks. Either two-putted it or made the putt and just kind of kept on going, and obviously the finish was a bonus.
Q. Could you just talk about your round, please.
VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, hit it pretty solid, had a lot of kind of short irons into the greens, which kind of this course sets up for. I hit a lot of really nice iron shots into the greens and just kind of towards the fat part of the green, was really just pin high the whole day. I kept making 15, 20 footers all day, kind of just keeping it going. I was just plugging along really well until that last hole where I chipped in or pitched in for 30 yards to make an eagle. So that definitely went my way.
Q. I know all these golf courses are kind of new to you, but having played last week, and these two courses compare to each other, did that help out at all?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: I would say a little bit. You're definitely hitting a lot more shorter clubs into the greens, and the greens are kind of smaller-ish compared to what we normally play. I think that kind of just you get used to seeing it with your eyes a little bit, compared to if you play a really wide open course and suddenly you're playing a really tight course, it can kind of -- not mess you up. It shouldn't mess you up that much, but it's just a different look. So I think that just helps you bring in the same mindset into every single round.
Q. After three months off, has there been anything that surprised you about your game? Either that you were doing really well or maybe weren't doing all that great?
VIKTOR HOVLAND: During the quarantine, I've actually been -- I thought I made a lot of gains with my game. I kind of struggled with a little -- not slice, but a little cut during the regular season, and over the break, I really started drawing it a lot more, kind of started hitting higher draws, which I've never really been able to do very successfully.
So that gave me a lot of confidence going into last week, and then just two weeks ago, I literally lost it, and I could not -- like I didn't know what I was doing. I was very happy to finish 23rd last week with really, really bad ball striking, and kind of just spent a lot of time on the range throughout the week and started figuring it back again.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #181 at 2020-06-18 17:04:00 GMT
