Viktor Hovland Aces The Par-4 5th Hole In Ryder Cup Practice Round As His Teammates Lose Their Minds

Getty Image / Richard Heathcote

Viktor Hovland is playing lights out golf right now on the eve of the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome. He just made an ace in his final practice round before Thursday’s opening ceremonies and Friday’s opening matches and Victor Hovland made that ace on the par-4 302-yard 5th hole with his entire time watching.

To be precise, the ace was actually Viktor Hovland‘s second shot. He hit a safe one down by the green so he let the proverbial big dog eat once again and it went right into the hole with his European squad teammates going nuts.

Viktor Hovland’s Par-4 Ace In Rome

It is a bit unnerving to see Team Europe peaking like this on the eve of the Ryder Cup. Viktor and Rory prepped for the Ryder Cup by partying it up in Mykonos and now this…

The American squad are favorites to win despite getting dominated on European soil over the past two decades. Seeing this sort of crowd reaction and level of golf from the European squad is worrisome despite the American’s having the edge on paper.

The Team Europe TikTok account uploaded this video from cameras rolling during the practice round and it shows the ball actually going into the hole:

Team USA vs Europe Ryder Cup By The Numbers

Viktor Hovland is currently #4 in the world according to the Official World Golf Rankings. Team Europe also has Rory McIlroy (#2) and Jon Rahm (#3). However, the average world ranking for the US team is 12.9 while the average OWGR for Team Europe is 29.3.

Europe is STACKED at the top, and it’s evident that their best golfers are peaking right now after Viktor Hovland’s ace, but Team USA has depth and will need to lean on that in order to win. Team USA is coming off a historic 19-2 win at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in the most recent Ryder Cup so there are some US team members who know how to get it done.