Hovland gave them plenty of opportunity to do the \u201crow\u201d<\/a> that has become so popular in the stadium and subway stations and wherever they gather.<\/p>\nHovland knows it well. Oddly enough, it was the first time he had seen it live.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we\u2019re Vikings, so it\u2019s kind of in our DNA,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny, that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever seen it. I think that\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve ever done it, especially in the World Cup. So yeah, it took us 1,000 years to figure it out. I think it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRo, ro, ro!\u201d they chanted as Hovland approached the 18th green. \u201cUSA! USA!\u201d came the American chants. It was good banter on a Saturday afternoon in New England, an example why partisan cheering in a World Cup year is far more palatable than a Ryder Cup year.<\/p>\n
It was the second straight year Scheffler, whose bogey gave him a 67, fell from the top of the leaderboard going into the weekend at the TPC River Highlands, though this was no cause for alarm. A year ago, he opened with a triple bogey, shot 72 and fell nine shots behind.<\/p>\n
This was one hole, and he was only one shot behind as Scheffler tries to win for the first time since the start to his season in the California desert.<\/p>\n
Hovland was at 20-under 190 and gets another afternoon with Scheffler on Sunday. The next closest players were Patrick Cantlay (64) and Akshay Bhatia (67), who were five shots behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a golf course where you can see some numbers be shot. You know, guys can shoot pretty low,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cGoing into tomorrow just try to execute, have a good round, and see where that puts me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hovland started two shots behind and it took him four holes \u2014 three birdies \u2014 to catch Scheffler. From there, it was a bit of a pillow fight as they matched mostly pars, two birdies and one bogey to remain tied.<\/p>\n
Scheffler regained the lead with a lob wedge to 2 feet on the 14th. Both got up-and-down from the front of the green on the reachable par-4 15th \u2014 Scheffler with a nifty chip that floated up the slope and trickled down to the pin \u2014 and exchanged pars going to the 18th.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where it flipped, giving Hovland the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe score is nice … but I\u2019m very process-driven,\u201d Hovland said. \u201cAs soon as I find a certain feel that I can trust and it produces a pretty reliable shot shape, I know that I\u2019m going to be able to score pretty well from there. So if I happen to shoot 2 under or 6 under or 9 under, that\u2019s not the most important thing. As soon as I see the shots that I\u2019m trying to hit and execute, that\u2019s what gives me the confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it\u2019s all a bonus on top being able to do it at this stage and in front of that many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was separation, but this is not a duel given the nature of this course that allows for low scoring and dynamic finishes because of the closing hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty of this golf course is that I think Scottie and I have separated ourselves from the rest of the field, but at the same time, 14 or 15 under is still very much in this thing if they go and shoot a very low score tomorrow,\u201d Hovland said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we still have to go out there and play very similar to what we did today,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise, we\u2019re bringing in a lot more guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Viktor Hovland feels he is headed in the right direction, and Saturday at the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":898346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[47],"tags":[13058,2731,2738,2734,1430,1510,1505,62,358,5028,67,132,68,33608],"class_list":["post-898345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-akshay-bhatia","tag-boston","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-state-wire","tag-golf","tag-patrick-cantlay","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-viktor-hovland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116827069158419494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}