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Viktor Hovland turned his season around at the PGA Championship over the weekend with a Top 5 finish at Valhalla Golf Club. His new (and old) swing coach believes he had a little something to do with it.
Joe Mayo posted a hilarious message to his Instagram page on Saturday as Viktor Hovland continued to climb the leaderboard. The post possessed no caption and no context, but the point certainly got across!
The tournament represented a sense of redemption for Mayo after he and Hovland split last offseason. Despite recording his best year as a professional, the golfer decided to ditch his instructor and look for help elsewhere.
“I just felt like I got to basically the pinnacle of what my golf swing was able to do last year,” he said before missing the cut at The Masters. “When I keep looking back at my swings from 2020 and 2021, I just really had more control of the golf ball.”
It was a move that was regrettable based on what’s transpired since.
Hovland made all 23 of his cuts last year while winning three tournaments, adding one runner-up, and landing nine T10 finishes. The success ended when the calendar turned.
Through his first seven events of 2024, he’d failed to finish above 19th. He ranked 89th in FedEx points upon entering the PGA Championship, which he said he nearly skipped out on due to his struggles.
“Damnit, I shouldn’t have said that.” 💀
Props to @JasonSobelGolf for getting Viktor to reveal that he almost pulled out of the PGA Championship because he was playing so poorly.
pic.twitter.com/HMrgcavd28— Gabby Herzig (@GabbyHerzig) May 19, 2024
Looking for a change, Viktor Hovland crawled back to Joe Mayo, and it’s paid immediate dividends.
The Norwegian finished third in the field at Valhalla, shooting -18 with three straight 66s to end his weekend. It was easily his best showing of the year, and one that Mayo believed he had an influence in.
“He knows my swing really well,” Hovland said. “[He] was able to apply some of the feels right away, and I saw improvement right away.”
Coincidence that Hovland performed so well after linking back up with his former swing coach? Mayo thinks not!
He posted a contextless message on Instagram, taking some credit for his client’s success.
View this post on Instagram
There’s no better performance review! Instant gratification.
Hovland seems to have gotten things back on track at Valhalla, and he’ll look to return to 2023 form with Mayo back on his side.