Viktor Hovland set for PGA Tour return with Woods after addressing LIV links
Viktor Hovland is set to make only his third appearance of the year on the PGA Tour, with the European Ryder Cup star teeing it up at this week's Genesis Invitational.
Hovland was the man to catch on Tour in 2023, after being crowned FedEx Cup champion at last year's season finale, the Tour Championship. His FedEx Cup title defence has been a stop-start one though, having only played two of the first six events of the season.
The Norwegian turned out at the campaign opener at The Sentry in January, finishing in a tie for 22nd at Kapalua Plantation Course, eight shots behind eventual champion Chris Kirk.
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His next tournament did not come for another four weeks, as he sat out the majority of January, before returning for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this month. Hovland struggled to find the form from the year prior in California, as he finished the reduced, 54-hole event in a tie for 58th.
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He was then set to turn out at last week's Waste Management Phoenix Open, but opted to skip the event in a bid to prepare for the coming tournament in Los Angeles. In between his FedEx Cup win and start to 2024, it proved to quite the offseason for Hovland, who was one of the many PGA Tour names linked to LIV Golf.
Two of his Ryder Cup teammates in Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton made the LIV switch for the new campaign, however Hovland opted to remain with the Tour. The 26-year-old did address the links to the Saudi-backed league, and appeared to squash any chance of him making the move.
Viktor Hovland had been linked with LIV Golf in the offseason (Oisin Keniry/Getty Images)The European star pointed out the league's no-cut, limited field format as his key reason for not wanting to follow in the footsteps of Rahm and co. "I don't think their product is that great," he told Eurosport back in December. "I'm not such a fan of, for example, playing without a cut
"You need the competition with 150 players and a cut. If you don't play well enough, you're out. There is something about it that makes your game a little sharper. If I had gone to LIV, I don't think I would have become a better golfer. And then it is, in a way, end of discussion."
Instead his attention will now turn to the Genesis, where he will return to action alongside the great Tiger Woods. Woods is playing in his first tournament of the 2024 season, with his last outing coming in the Bahamas at the Hero World Challenge at the end of last year.
It will begin a new era for the 82-time PGA Tour winner, who will sport his new Sun Day Red apparel line for the first time, after parting ways with Nike Golf after 27 years last month.
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