Victor Hovland (24) gave another great tour of Los Angeles. Nobody was better than the Norwegian in the third round.
Victor Hovland needed a real superhero tour to really get involved in the battle for victory before the final round of The Genesis Invitational on the PGA Tour.
The Norwegian also played the first 13 holes of great golf, and seven complete strokes were sub-par on the round. Unfortunately for Hovland, he totally couldn’t keep up with the pace all the way. With the bogey on holes 14th and 15th, Hovland’s first bogey since Thursday’s opening round, there was a small setback.
He got a birdie on the 17th hole and finished the round equally on the 18th hole. Thus, it was a round of 65, six strokes under par.
It’s the best all-rounder on Saturday, along with Scotty Scheffler, Emiliano Grillo and Danny Lee.
The first nine holes were pretty good. I hit a lot of green and green trails, and I had some “tap” birds. I wasn’t quite able to last through the middle of the last nine, but overall it was a good round of golf, says Hovland on the PGA Tour.
With the Tour, Hovland also jumped on the scoresheet and is now in third place. Before the final round, Hovland also cut nearly three strokes from the lead to Joaquin Niemann. Chile is 19 under par after the first three rounds, three strokes ahead of Cameron Young and six strokes ahead of Hovland. Behind Hovland, former world number one Justin Thomas lags behind, while world number two Colin Morikawa lags behind Hofland.
Hovland climbed a total of 54 spots, from joint 61st to joint seventh, on Friday, and the Norwegian looked determined to continue the climb on Saturday.
The Norwegian opened with a birdie on holes 1 and 2, and after nine holes was playing five under-pitch hits. Hovland followed a fresh bird into hole 10, and made his way to a four-meter hit of an eagle on the hole.
He didn’t enter it, but with another bird that had a full seven blows below level after eleven holes. Hence, it looks like he might have the opportunity to play his best PGA Tour tour of his career. Previously, Hovland’s lowest run on the PGA Tour was 62 runs, nine equal strokes, on her way to winning the championship in Mexico last fall.
After having pairs in the next two slots, it got heavier for Hovland. The Norwegian’s first real foul came today on hole 14, hitting hole 3 in the green bunker. From there, he failed to save the pairs. On hole 15, Hovland stunned many earlier this week by choosing the line on the tee:
He took the same streak on Saturday, and also got on the green with the entry, but from about 15 meters there were three throws on the Norwegian.
With a birdie on the 17th hole, it was a 65-stroke round, six strokes below par for Hovland.
The Genesis Invitational is one of the biggest tournaments on the PGA Tour, and all the players in the top 10 rankings – including Hovland, ranked No. 4 in the world – are taking part in the tournament. The prize pool in the tournament is NOK 107.9 million, with the winner taking out NOK 19.4 million.
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