Chicago – Viktor Hovland overcame a three-shot deficit on Sunday by firing a course-record 61 at Olympia Fields to defeat Scottie Scheffler and the other 49 competitors in the Fedex Cup Standings. Hovland shot 33 on the outward side, and caught fire coming in with a birdie at the last for 28 to finish -9 for the round and a 17 under par total to win by one at the BMW Championship.
After the best round of his young career, Hovland discussed his mind set down the stretch, “When I made the putt on 15 for birdie, I felt like, ‘OK, we’ve got a chance now if I can finish pretty well,’” Hovland said. “Then you never know what’s going to happen behind you – until then, I had no idea what was going on. I was just going to try to play well and keep making birdies. That has to be the best round I’ve ever played,” Hovland said. “Given the circumstances . . . a playoff event, this golf course, the way I played the last holes was pretty special.”
Scheffler meanwhile, suffered another could have been runner-up, but realized what Hovland did was pretty special, “I’m just a bit frustrated. I think that would be the way to describe it,” Scheffler said. “Viktor went out and really just beat me today and played a fantastic round. I can hold my head high. I did my best out there today and fought hard. Just ultimately came up a couple shots short.”
