Viktor Hovland spent the weekend following his U.S. Open not on the golf course—he had missed the cut by one on Friday—but on the range.
He spent a chunk of hours practicing there in all, grinding on a very specific move in his takeaway. It’s the move in Viktor’s swing that makes it all work. Here’s how to spot it, and what you can learn from it.
The takeaway is one of those golf things that matters a lot more for some golfers than others. You can find any number of great players with strange takeaways, and lots more great players who work hard on getting their takeaway perfect.
Another is the opposite; they use so much wrist movement that they end up rolling the clubface open and inside, and hitting slices because of it.
Viktor has a good player tendency of the second one. He says his tendency is to over-flex his lead wrist. To bow it too much.
When that happens, the clubface closes too much, too early. Now he has to compensate somewhere else in his swing to open it back up.
“When that happens, I spend the rest of my swing trying to get out of it,” Hovland said.
Either he doesn’t compensate enough and misses left, or too much then misses right. A flatter wrist for him is the sweet spot.
It’s why you see him rehearsing his takeaway move right before his actual swing right here.
His problem and solution apparently were pretty spot on. After some range work at Shinnecock, he arrived at the Travelers Championship sharp, led the field in SG: Off The Tee, and won the tournament.