What’s In The Bag: Viktor Hovland’s 2024 golf equipment
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What’s in the bag of Viktor Hovland? Our in-depth review of the clubs, balls, apparel, and shoes used by the FedExCup Champion
Jump To: WITB Hovland | How is Viktor Hovland fitted?
The 2023 PGA Tour Season finale had more than a tint of Norwegian red and blue to it – with Viktor (Hovland) by name, victor by nature – going back-to-back, storming to Tour Championship glory.
A truly dominant performance against the top 30 players in the world closed out a five-stroke victory at East Lake to additionally secure the converted FedExCup title and with it a cheque for $18 million.
There was nothing a battling Xander Schauffele could do, as Hovland carded a final round 63 to finish 27-under, which together with his winning 17-under a week earlier at the BMW Championship, put the Norwegian 44-under across his last eight rounds. Utrolig!
Now, with six PGA Tour wins, including three in 2023, it certainly feels like Hovland is knocking at the door of a first Major title, and if performances at the season-ending FedExCup Playoffs are anything to go by, he may be crashing through it sooner rather than later.
The proud Norwegian has shown he can dominate fields from the get-go, but also raise his game to new heights with Major Champions breathing down his neck in a final-round tussle.
Hovland carded a career-low 61 to break the Olympia Fields course record at the BMW Championship, holding off Matt Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler, and Rory McIlroy to claim victory.
The season-ending double backed up his Memorial Tournament triumph just two months earlier and consolidated his top 10 position in the Official Golf World Rankings alongside the biggest names in the game.
Hovland has also been putting on impressive performances in Majors since turning professional in 2019, finishing T-4 at the 2022 Open Championship, T-7 at the 2023 Masters, and T-2 at the 2023 PGA Championship.
Hovland became the first Norwegian to win on the DP World Tour with victory at the 2021 BMW International Open, before becoming the first of his countrymen to represent Team Europe at the Ryder Cup when he made his debut for Padraig Harrington’s side in September 2021.
His 2023 form ensured he was a vital player in Europe’s romp to victory in Rome. Viktor claimed 3.5 of the 16.5 points that Luke Donald’s men needed to wrestle the Ryder Cup back from the USA at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.
The former World Amateur No.1 is a Ping staff player with the majority of his bag made up of the brand’s clubs, although he does have some other brands in there as well. He’s not one to change his equipment on a regular basis and has very little 2024 equipment in his bag, instead preferring to play clubs from previous years.
Let’s take an in-depth look at what is in Viktor Hovland’s 2024 golf bag.
WITB Viktor Hovland
What driver does Viktor Hovland use?
Viktor Hovland uses a Ping G425 LST driver (9° at 8.4°) with a Fujikura Speeder 661 TX shaft
| Lofts | 9°, 10.5° |
| Stock shafts | Mitsubishi Tensei AV RAW Orange 65, Aldila Rogue White 130 M.S.I. 70 |
| Stock grip | Arccos / Golf Pride Lite 360 Tour Velvet |
| Adjustable hosel | Yes (+/- 1.5°) |
What fairway woods does Viktor Hovland use?
Viktor Hovland uses a TaylorMade Stealth Plus fairway wood (15° at 16.5°) with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X shaft
| Lofts | 13.5° - Rocket 3 / 15° - 3W / 19° - 5W |
| Stock shaft | Project X HZRDUS Smoke Red RDX 70 |
| Stock grip | Lamkin Crossline 360 |
| Adjustable hosel | Yes (+/- 2°) |
Viktor Hovland uses a Ping G430 Max fairway wood (20.5° at 18.75°) with a Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 X shaft
| Lofts | 3 – 15° / 5 – 18° / 7 – 21° / 9 - 24° |
| Stock shafts | Ping Alta CB Black, Ping Tour 2.0 Chrome, Ping Tour 2.0 Black |
| Stock grip | Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 |
| Adjustable hosel | Yes (+/- 1.5°) |
What driving iron does Viktor Hovland use?
Viktor Hovland uses a Titleist U505 driving iron (20°) with a Graphite Design Tour AD DI Hybrid 85 X shaft
| Lofts | 16°, 18°, 20°, 22° |
| Stock shaft | Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black Graphite |
| Stock grip | Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 |
What irons does Viktor Hovland use?
Viktor Hovland uses Ping i210 irons (4-PW) with KBS Tour V 120 X shafts
Read our full Ping i210 irons review.
| Availability | 3-UW |
| 7-iron loft | 33° |
| Stock shafts | Ping AWT 2.0, True Temper XP95, KBS Tour, various others |
What wedges does Viktor Hovland use?
Viktor Hovland uses Ping S159 wedges (50°-12S, 56°-12S) and Ping Glide 2.0 (60°-TS) with True Temper Dynamic Golf Tour Issue S400 shafts
What putter does Viktor Hovland use?
Viktor Hovland uses a Ping PLD DS 72 putter (2.5° loft, 20° lie) with a Patina finish and a 36" stepped shaft
| Loft | 3° (+3°/-2°) |
| Lie angle | 20° (+/- 2°) |
| Weight | 365g |
What golf ball does Viktor Hovland use?
Viktor Hovland uses a Titleist Pro V1golf ball
On the PGA and DP World Tours, it’s more a case of who doesn’t use a Pro V1 or Pro V1x. Some of the biggest names include Jordan Spieth, Will Zalatoris, Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau, Adam Scott, Tom Kim, Max Homa, Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, Seamus Power, and Sungjae Im.
Read our full Titleist Pro V1 golf ball review.
| Colour | White |
| Layers | Three-piece |
| Cover | Cast urethane elastomer |
How does Ping fit Viktor Hovland?
Ping PGA Tour rep Kenton Oates gives us a deep dive into how Viktor Hovland’s set up is configured.
Ping usually sign staff players from their college programmes, but Viktor didn’t play lots of Ping equipment at school in Norway. Instead, he was a phenomenal amateur who hailed from the same nation as founder Karsten Solheim – so Ping felt he was a perfect player for them.
“We’ve worked together since he became a professional,” explains Ping PGA Tour fitter Kenton Oates. “It’s been a whirlwind five years, yet it still feels like we’re learning from him. Of course we see him out on tour if he needs anything, but we’ve also got into a nice rhythm of going to see him at home in Oklahoma once a year.
“He has no problem testing on site at tournaments if there’s an issue or he’s trying to work through something, but he will do the bulk of his testing away from the tour.”
Fitting Viktor Hovland for a driver
Let’s see how things go, it’s very early days. Originally, Viktor averaged 168-172mph of ball speed (today he hovers around 178mph), but he played a shorter driver. At the time, his G410 was quarter of an inch shorter (44.25in) than the drivers we’d typically build for our tour staff. But in Memphis in 2020 (when Bryson DeChambeau was beefing up), Viktor wanted to see if he could use a longer club. When he did, it just exaggerated his right miss, as he’s naturally a cutter of the ball. On seeing the results, we didn’t think much more about the idea… until Ping launched the G425.
He loves seeing the ball start a clip left of where he’s aiming and fall a little right of his target line. When the G425 came out, we did some initial testing in Oklahoma. He loved the sound and it was a little faster and a little lower spin for him. From that initial session we could see the G425 went a little more left for him, which was good. We knew that further left tendency meant we could lengthen his driver by 0.5in; when levers get longer it’s harder to put torque on the shaft to square the face at impact, so typically longer shafts go further right (for right-handers).
Straight away he gained 3-4mph of ball speed and 10-15 yards of carry. It was an eye-opening experience that such a simple change could make a big difference, but it was done for the right reasons as the driver was allowing us to do it. He’s been in that same spec ever since. Of course, Viktor has tried the G430 Max and G430 Max 10K, but the Max went a fraction further left than he wanted. He plays the LST as, like for a lot of tour players, it’s just a little faster for him. His best drives launch in the 10-11° window, with 2,300 to 2,600rpm of spin.
Viktor is as close as you’re going to get to using an R&D robot. Honestly, he is that good. He’s got to be top five in the world when you combine driving distance and accuracy. He gets so locked in and goes on runs where he looks like he will never miss a fairway or misstrike a drive. He can hit that little five-yard cut every single time. It’s awesome to watch.
He broke his driver shaft while attempting a speed training session. It was one of those challenges where you try to hit shots as hard as you can. At the time he was playing a Project X RDX Black and we were in Mexico in 2021, a place where we didn’t have too many alternatives. Another player very kindly lent him a Fujikura Speeder 661; he won with the shaft in his driver that week and he still plays the same model today. That’s how he came to play that particular part.
Fitting Viktor Hovland for fairway woods
Unfortunately, the Ping fairway wood was under-spinning for him. Viktor is not contracted to play 14 Ping clubs, so he will always have options and a degree of wiggle room. He played a G430 fairway for six months, but for 85 percent of the time he’s played on the PGA Tour, he’s played a TaylorMade. Any new club we introduce to our tour players has to be better, because if it’s remotely the same, there’s so much value in a player knowing a particular product has already delivered for them when they’ve been under the gun. That’s added value that any new club just doesn’t have. From a numbers, feel or looks standpoint, new products have to improve something.
He only plays one fairway so he has to manufacture shots with it. The one thing he really likes to see from his fairway wood is height; shots have to get in the air and he will get concerned when spin drops and the height comes down. Spin and height allow him to manufacture shots of different distances into par 5s, as well as hit the shot he wants off the tee. For him it’s no good just having one fairway that’s spinning low (2,000-3,000rpm) and going 280 to 290 yards; that’s just too one dimensional.
Viktor uses a utility long iron, but it can be switched out for a 7-wood. Depending on the golf course set-up, like the 13th and 15th at Augusta, he will look to land and stop long approaches with the higher ball flight and steeper landing angle of a 7-wood. He sees 30 feet of height difference between the pair, which really helps with holding some of the greens out on tour.
He used a hybrid… but only for a few weeks. He was trying to settle on a set-up for a whole year and he went back and forth between the driving iron and a 7-wood a lot, almost every week. He thought a hybrid would be a good club to take the place of the 7-wood and utility iron, as it’s a mix of both. But thanks to its construction, the hybrid didn’t have the height of the 7-wood, so he couldn’t hit the shots he wanted and it didn’t have the consistency or precision of the iron. He quickly fathomed he wasn’t getting much that he wanted from it.
There’s a lot of value in keeping the top end of your bag very simple, like Viktor does. In the 250-310-yard range, his choices are very straightforward. It’s really clear to him which shot to hit, he will always have a plan, so there’s never any confusion around multiple shots to be considered from any given distance.
Fitting Viktor Hovland for irons
He has fallen in love with the feel and flight of his i210. It’s the spin and how they get shots into the air that he loves, plus how the sole interacts with the turf. From 2020 he’s gone through three or four sets of them. He loved the look of the Blueprint S when we tested them and he wanted to play them, but thanks to a narrower sole, they did go through the turf slightly differently. The S was a mid-season launch for us and that always makes it a little tough for players to switch.
Iron changes are by far the hardest to make. Driver is much easier as essentially you only hit it off the tee and try to hit it long and straight. Whereas irons are hit from the ground, from different lies, in different winds… so players want to hit different types of shots. The i210s flight shots higher for Viktor, and that’s what he likes about them. The Blueprint S have a slightly higher centre of gravity, so they don’t spin quite as much. If you’re a low to mid-spin player, that spin reduction isn’t advantageous, especially when it comes to playing at Major venues. The extra spin is the biggest reason why he’s stuck with his i210s.
Viktor’s stuck on the performance of the i210, not the i210 itself. He loves what these irons are doing for him but he also loves the shape and feel of the Blueprint S. In the off season, if we have a couple of days to talk him through the new models and have the chance to introduce some added value for him, which I think we can, I can definitely see him moving on. Like 80 percent of our staff players, Viktor plays the pitching wedge to match his iron set rather than our lowest loft S159 wedge. That’s a complete role reversal to a decade ago, when lots of pitching wedges matched a player’s specialist wedges.
If it’s not broke, I’m not going to try and fix it. For as long as we’ve known him, Viktor has always played the KBS Tour V iron shaft. He’s tried a few others, but he’s always come back to this model as he just knows how it’s going to kick through impact and how shots are going to fly through the air. He can rely on how the shaft spins, so even though we’ve tried other models to help increase spin, he’s never come remotely close to playing any other iron shaft. He’s not looking for change the way some players do.
Fitting Viktor Hovland for wedges
We did a commercial shoot a year ago and he wanted to play Ping’s new S159 wedges there and then. At the time they weren’t remotely ready, we didn’t have any production models available and the launch was some time off, so he just couldn’t! But when the S159s were revealed, it made the switch pretty simple. He came to our Phoenix HQ, worked with us on the new models and they’ve gone straight in the bag.
He feels like the Dynamic Gold is a softer feeling shaft in his wedges. He used to play KBS right the way through his bag, but that was the only switch we made for him as he moved into the S159s. He plays the Glide 2.0 60°, while the 50° and 56° are S159s. He feels like the Glide is a fraction softer on partial shots, so he sees slightly better results on his most delicate shots close to the green.
He’s a meat and potatoes guy. Viktor has never asked me for any wedge stampings, unlike some players. If I offered stampings I don’t think he’d care; it’s just not something he’s bothered about.
Fitting Viktor Hovland for a putter
The DS72 is a model Viktor designed with our putter engineer, Tony Serrano. Ping staffers have to play a Ping putter, but when he joined us we had to give him a grace period to switch. He came out to our putter lab in Phoenix and we pieced it together for him. He told us which bits of his previous gamer he liked, we discussed every corner, radius, edge detail and line – and the DS72 was what we came up with for him. It took us about a month to make, but he’s still playing the original head we created for him back in 2019.
The face grooves go pretty deep to reduceball speed. His previous putter had a soft insert, so by using our 2019 PLD face groove configuration, we were able to replicate the softer feel he was used to in a fully CNC-milled head. His putter is 36in long with a 15in grip. It’s not counterbalanced in any way, but because the grip weighs in at 100g, it does have a slightly counter- balanced feel. It’s unusual to have such a long grip on a putter of this length, but he just grounds it and grips it where it’s comfortable. There’s no tungsten in the head; it really is just a piece of beautifully machined steel.
His raw putter finish has taken on a life of its own. He likes how it has developed some rust marks; it’s a lot darker now than when we first made it for him. In the time he’s been with us he’s used a back-up putter for about a week, then he went straight back to the original DS72. So it seems we did an awesome job of getting the putter right for him.
In some respects Viktor is the perfect tour pro as he doesn’t like changing his equipment often. It’s my job to ensure our players have the equipment to play their best. As long as it says Ping on it we’re going to be pretty happy.
About the Author
Rob specializes in the DP World Tour, PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the Ryder Cup, spending large chunks of his days reading about, writing about, and watching the tours each month.
He’s passionate about the equipment used by professional golfers and is also a font of knowledge regarding golf balls, golf trolleys, and golf bags, testing thousands down the years.
You can email Rob or get in touch with him on X.
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What's In The Bag: Viktor Hovland
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Viktor Hovland with the Hero World challenge trophy.
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Viktor Hovland is one of the best golfers in the world.
