Hovland opens three-shot lead on Moving Day at HWC

By Rahul Banerji

Defending champion Viktor Hovland sank 10 birdies in his eight-under 64 to open a three-shot lead on the penultimate day of the Hero World Challenge at Albany in the Bahamas on Saturday.

On 13-under 203, the Norwegian (69-70-64) had American Scottie Scheffler (72-68-66) in chase on 10-under 206 with the final 18 holes to go.

As an incentive, Scheffler – a four-time winner in 2022 including the Masters –would return to the world no. 1 ranking in the event of a win.

Justin Thomas (72-70-66) overcame the conditions to go bogey-free and was tied third with Cameron Young (71-69-68), event organisers said.

The newly-married Collin Morikawa (69-71-69) shares fifth place with Olympic champion Xander Schauffele (72-68-69).

Hovland may be improving with every shot, but he still knows a 3-shot lead at Albany is not safe on a course that has five par-5s.

On Moving Day though, Hovland was in the zone, so much so he was not sure of the number of putts he took for the round but reckoned it about 24.

Hovland had six birdies on the back nine but finished with a bogey.  His 64 puts him in good position to join tournament host Tiger Woods as the only player to win back-to-back at the HWC. Woods did it in 2007.

He had three straight birdies from 15 feet or longer on the front nine. Then came the sizzling run with six birdies in seven holes on the way back before giving back a shot on the very last hole.

Hot putter

Hovland said, “I missed probably like a 10-footer on the first hole and lipped out and I kind of thought here we go again, but after that it was a lot of putts that went in.

“You need that on a day like today when the winds are down, and you can be a little bit more aggressive. That’s the only way you can make that many birdies, so that was a lot of fun.

“I hit a lot of good quality iron shots to give myself seven to 12 feet. It wasn’t like I hit one just incredible shot and stuff it or make it like I did the other days, but it was just kind of consistently giving myself looks.”

Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim, one of three players to shoot over par on Saturday dropped to tied 12^th.

The young Korean though was still ahead of Tommy Fleetwood (72, 14th) while Jordan Spieth (72, T15), Matt Fitzpatrick (76, T15) and Shane Lowry (71) were way behind.

Kevin Kisner had a hole-in-one on the 12th hole with a 6-iron, the lone bright spot on a day when he shot 77 and was T-19 at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Also read: Scheffler, Schauffele go low at Albany but Hovland retains lead