Hovland beats Scheffler in play-off; Seven Irish for Open Qualifying
Viktor Hovland
Viktor Hovland joined Norway soccer fans in doing “The Row” after he birdied the first play-off hole to edge out Scottie Scheffler in a Monday finish at the Travelers Championship and claim his first PGA Tour win for 15 months.
The pair tied on 21-under par late on Sunday when world number one Scheffler made a clutch nine-footer for par on the 72nd green.
Returning at 9 am for the play-off, a group of Norwegian fans, who had been in Boston for the World Cup, wore their soccer jerseys and chanted, “Hov-land!” as he approached his ball in the fairway at TPC River Highlands while the Americans tried to drown them out with chants of “Scot-tie Scheff-ler!”.
Texan Scheffler, whose hometown of Houston will host Norway’s round of 32 clash with Ivory Coast on Tuesday, looked odds-on to win for the first time since capturing the American Express in January when he hit his approach to four feet.
But Hovland responded by knocking his approach to around seven feet and after watching his birdie putt wriggle in on the low side, Scheffler powered his five-footer through the break and lipped out.
The Norwegian picked up $3.6 million for his first win since he captured the Valspar Championship in March 2025,
He also jumped 18 places to 12th in the world, but while he appeared to enjoy celebrating with the Norwegian World Cup fans, he confessed that beating Scheffler gave him even greater satisfaction.
“Yeah, that was my first one there,” Hovland said of the rowing celebration that’s been a World Cup hit. “It's fun. You definitely get the adrenaline from it. No, but winning in the playoff against Scottie, best player in the world, that was pretty satisfying.”
He added: “You always want to try to beat the best. What he's been doing the last few years is just super impressive, and I have so much respect for him and his game.
“To go up against him and have a chance to beat him, I think it's just super exciting. That's what you wake up every day to get better, that's for those moments right there.”
It was another frustrating result for Scheffler, who has now finished second four times since winning the American Express on 25 January, losing two play-offs.
After finishing second to Rory McIlroy at the Masters, he was beaten in sudden-death by Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage the following week, then finished second to Cameron Young in the Cadillac Championship in Miami before losing out to Hovland today.
“Maybe I hit it a little firmer than I intended to,” Scheffler said. “It looked like it got pretty far by the hole and I was playing it outside the hole, so I hit it down my line, just maybe the speed was a touch off.”
To his credit, he was full of praise for Hovland, who was a college golf rival.
“He has so much talent,” Scheffler said. “He hits the ball so solidly. I remember playing with him at Bay Hill a few years ago and I was just telling him, like, ‘Dude, you just hit the ball like so solid every time’. It's really quite impressive.
“He's a guy that has a lot of talent and works really hard. So those are the types of guys you like to see have success.”
Hovland has yet to win a Major, but he’s hopeful for The Open at Royal Birkdale next month.
“Obviously I want to contend and have a chance to win,” he said. “But at the end of the day I just proved a lot to myself that I have got the game now and I really made some big strides in just the way I've driven it all week; that's been kind of one of the weaknesses this year.
“This week I drove it amazing. I did a lot of good stuff the whole week. I just want to continue that trend. Whether I win or lose or whatever, I just want to play good golf and have fun out here again.”
Irish golf has six players in the field for the final Major of the season — former winners Pádraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Darren Clarke, LIV star Tom McKibbin and recently crowned Amateur champion Stuart Grehan.
While Graeme McDowell finally opted not to make the trip to Royal Cinque Ports for Final Qualifying tomorrow, another seven Irish players tee it up dreaming of winning a place in the field.
No fewer than 288 golfers will tee it up at Final Qualifying, which will be played over 36 holes with five places on offer at each of the four qualifying venues.
There are no Irish at Royal Cinque Ports but amateurs Jordan Boles from Carton House and Fota Island’s David Howard are joined at Dundonald Links by Derry’s Ruaidhri McGee and Dundalk’s Cian Geraghty
Laytown and Bettystown’s Alex Maguire, who qualified for The Open at Hoylake in 2023, plays at West Lancashire alongside Edmondstown amateur Liam Abom while Royal Dublin’s Max Kennedy tees it up at Burnham & Berrow.
