Norway’s Viktor Hovland holds up his Travellers Championship trophy after beating world no. 1 Scottie Scheffler of the US in a Monday playoff at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut. Image courtesy PGA Tour/X.
By Rahul Banerji
Viktor Hovland returned to make quick work of his playoff against Scottie Scheffler and seal a merited Travellers Championship victory at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, on Monday.
The popular Norwegian capped a fighting rally with a seven-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole when Scheffler missed a four-footer for birdie after having forced the playoff on Sunday with a successful eight-foot effort on the 72nd hole.
Monday’s playoff had both drama and atmosphere. Hovland and Scheffler both found the middle of the fairway on the Par-4 18th before the world no. 1 hit his approach to four feet.
Hovland responded with an approach to six feet in turn and then converted his birdie putt with the ball catching the edge of the cup and toppling in to cap a curling, downhill effort.
Sitting two feet closer, Scheffler missed, playing for too much turn and sending it just past the left edge of the hole to hand his Norwegian rival an eighth PGA Tour victory and the 10th worldwide after last year’s Valspar Championship.
It was also Scheffler’s fourth runner-up placing of the year after winning his opening event, the American Express in California.
Ironically, the last time Scheffler was in a playoff at the Travellers, he beat Joohyunng ‘Tom’ Kim two years ago.
Clean record
The result improved Hovland’s playoff record to 2-0, while Scheffler fell to 2-3 in knockouts. Monday’s knockout was also the sixth of the current PGA Tour season.
“Obviously I know how good I can get and I keep pushing myself and I keep wanting to get better and then when I fall short it really pisses me off,” the Norwegian said later.
“But I really did a good job of, I didn’t get off to a great start on Thursday and I just kind of didn’t let it bother me as much.
“I just proved a lot to myself that I have got the game now, and I really made some big strides in just the way I’ve driven it all week.
“That’s been kind of one of the weaknesses this year. This week I drove it amazing. I did a lot of good stuff the whole week.
“I just want to continue that trend. Whether I win or lose or whatever, I just want to play good golf and have fun out here again.”
“I’ve been playing golf with Viktor for a long time. We’ve had some good battles in college and out here as a pro. He has so much talent,” Scheffler said.
“He hits the ball so solidly. I remember playing with him at Bay Hill a few years ago and I was just telling him, like, ‘Dude, you just hit the ball like so solid every time.’
“It’s really quite impressive. He’s a guy that has a lot of talent and works really hard. So those are the types of guys you like to see have success.”
Also read: Hovland takes Scheffler into Monday shootout at Travellers C’ship
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