Right before the season began, Viktor Hovland sustained an unfortunate injury, fracturing his left pinky toe in an “unpleasant encounter” with the edge of his bed.
A few weeks later, he’s—mostly—progressing in his recovery, taking painkillers.
“It’s healed a lot the last couple weeks,” Hovland said ahead of the Hero Dubai Classic, “but it did bother me a little bit the last couple days.”
Why?
“I forgot to bring my shoes that was half a size bigger that I used in Hawaii,” the 27-year-old said. “That did help. These shoes were a little bit tight, but no issue. It should be fine.”
And getting to Dubai without the proper footwear was quite a whirlwind.
“It was a bit of a kerfuffle getting here,” the Norwegian said. “I missed my first flight. I was in a little bit of a rush and I just didn't even bring (the bigger shoes). I just figured, it will be O.K., and then I got here and put the shoes on and it hurt a little bit more, and then obviously wish I had brought the bigger shoe. But hey, always learning.”
Starting the year with an injury adds another obstacle for Hovland as he tries putting a sub-par 2024 in the rearview. He recently split with his swing coach Joe Mayo (again) and is now working with T.J. Yeaton. He said the path to finding the right coach has been “frustrating,” but now he’s looking to rediscover his old form that helped him win the FedExCup in 2023.
“Certainly makes me cherish how I used to play golf for the first, say, four years of my career,” Hovland said of his struggles. “But you know, last year and some change, I’ve just gotten into some bad habits, and there’s been a couple key moves that I used to make in my old golf swing that I’m currently not doing. And I’ve got to get back to making that movement in order to play my best golf. That’s just kind of where we're at.”
Regrets, he has a few.
“You could say that,” the world No. 8 said. “I think a lot of people have it maybe misconstrued a little bit that I made a conscious decision to go down this rabbit hole.
“Just to put it simply, I added a lot of draw pieces in my golf swing because I’d always been a cutter, and I wanted to see the ball not cut as much. And then you add more draw pieces in there, and then suddenly, I get sick and tired of it missing left and now I’ll want to cut it, and that compensation was not good for my swing. It’s just a process of, s--- happens. Like, I didn’t go down there and say, ‘no, this is better.’
“I made a poor decision. That’s the game of golf for you. It's hard to play golf 20 years great.”
And this week, he may also have those same feelings about the shoes be brought.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Viktor Hovland Brings Wrong Shoes Amid Toe Injury, Discusses Swing Coach Regrets.
