When Viktor Hovland announced he had split with coach Joe Mayo on the eve of the 2024 PGA Tour season, plenty of people were taken aback at the decision.
The Nowegian had gone from an excellent player in his own right to genuinely world class in less than a year after Mayo helped transform Hovland's short game.
Once the coach came on board in February 2023, the 26-year-old went on to record top-20 results in all four Majors, won three of his final eight starts of the year (including the FedEx Cup), and played a significant role in Team Europe's Ryder Cup success at Marco Simone.
Since beginning the 2024 campaign, however, Hovland has only competed in three PGA Tour Signature Events and has failed to finish above T19 in those limited-field tournaments.
Heading into The Masters without the kind of form which made him one of the most feared golfers on the planet this time last year, Hovland explained just why he opted to make a change to his coaching staff over the off-season.
He said: "I mean, it's one of those things. Like, I was playing great golf last year, but it's not like I'm trying to change my golf swing. It's just sometimes the game of golf you try to do the same every day, but then things aren't the same every day when you go to the golf course.
"I took a huge break after last year and when I came back, things were a little bit different and I had to kind of find my way back to where I think I'm going to play my best golf.
"And even at the end of the last year I still felt like, yeah, I was playing great, but I got a lot out of my game and it didn't necessarily feel sustainable, but it's not like I consciously went in and said, 'hey, we're going to change everything up.'"
The Norwegian is now working with swing coach Grant Waite and was seen on the range at Augusta National with Dana Dahlquist, too, as he aims to recapture some of the feels from 2021.
The former low amateur at The Masters acknowledged that he wanted to hear a different voice as he attempted to find greater consistency from his game, going on to admit that he would spend "up to eight hours" after a round searching for something last season.
Hovland continued: "I was always trying to learn, but at the same time, I just felt like I got to basically the pinnacle of what my golf swing was able to do last year. When I keep looking back at my swings from 2020, 2021, I just really had more control of the golf ball, in my opinion.
"During the Scottish Open and British Open last year, I was on the range for probably seven, eight hours after every single round just trying to kind of figure it out a little bit.
"So, honestly, like, I knew I was playing good golf, but it came a little bit of a surprise that I was able to win the FedExCup right after that. But I still felt like that issue kind of had to be discussed and kind of figured out and that's kind of what I'm doing now."
Hovland will attempt to better his Masters finish of T7 last season when he tees off in the first round alongside Wyndham Clark and Cameron Smith at 10:54am on Thursday morning.
