Viktor Hovland’s Quest for Golf Perfection at the 2023 Masters
Discover how Viktor Hovland, world No. 5, adjusts his swing with new coaches ahead of the 2023 Masters Tournament. Will his pursuit of technical perfection propel him to victory or hinder his chances of winning the green jacket?
Augusta, Georgia – On the eve of the 2023 Masters Tournament, golf fans are closely following the story of world No. 5 Viktor Hovland, who enters the year’s first major championship in uncharacteristic form. Just eight months removed from a dominant stretch that saw him win the Tour Championship and star for Europe in the Ryder Cup, Hovland has struggled to recapture that elite level of play.
The 26-year-old Norwegian superstar has been tinkering with his swing, working with a series of coaches in a quest to find the perfect formula. After attributing much of his late-summer success last year to short-game coach Joe Mayo, Hovland has since switched to working with Grant Waite and now Dana Dahlquist in the days leading up to the Masters.
“It’s going to sound a little dumb, but I actually prefer my golf swing better in 2021,” Hovland admitted last month. “I just felt like I got to basically the pinnacle of what my golf swing was able to do last year, and just when I keep looking back at my swings from 2020, 2021, I just really had more control of the golf ball, in my opinion.”
Hovland’s obsession with technical perfection has been both a blessing and a curse. The analytics-driven Norwegian has spent countless hours on the range, analyzing and tinkering, in a bid to unlock an even higher level of ball-striking prowess. However, this pursuit of swing refinement has come at the cost of consistency, as Hovland has just one top-20 finish in five starts this season.
As the Masters approaches, Hovland finds himself searching for answers, spending marathon practice sessions at Augusta National in hopes of rediscovering the form that made him one of the hottest players in the game last year. The question is whether he can put the pieces together in time to contend for the green jacket, or if his quest for technical perfection has temporarily derailed his title aspirations.
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