Viktor Hovland sets low amateur record at U.S. Open
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Low amateur Viktor Hovland broke a U.S Open amateur scoring record at Pebble Beach
Viktor Hovland, who won the U.S Amateur championship last year at Pebble Beach, claimed low amateur honours at the 119th U.S. Open after finishing tied for 12th place at four-under-par.
But low amateur honours was not the only accolade he won this week: Hovland’s 72-hole total of 280 is the lowest 72-hole score by an amateur in U.S. Open history, breaking a record previously held by Jack Nickalus (282) in 1960.
The 21-year-old from Norway, who had his college coach on the bag this week, impressed from the beginning.
He could have been intimidated but instead matched his playing partner of the first two days, none other than two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka, with an opening round 69, before falling back after a 73 in round two.
A level par 71 followed on Saturday as fellow amateur Brandon Wu looked to be in the driving seat for the low amatuer medal, but Hovland went on to secure it – and a new low amateur record – with an impressive final day at Pebble Beach.
With four birdies on his front nine and a level par back nine (two bogeys, two birdies), Hovland tied the lowest round of the day with Webb Simpson, and his scoring throughout the week was backed up by outstanding statistics.
Although he is an amateur, Hovland led the entire U.S Open field in fairways hit (47/56) and SG: Off the tee (+8.40), as well ranking T3 for greens in regulation for the week.
“Yeah, that was fun,” Hovalnd said afterwards. “I hit a lot of greens and hit a lot of fairways this week. Got off to a great start on the first round but wasn’t quite able to capitalize on it. I had another great start today, and it was nice to finish with a birdie and shoot 4-under at a course that I really like.
As for the future, Hovland hopes it will be a good springboard for his professional career.
“It’s obviously cool to perform such a thing,” he said. “And I hope that this will feed or I can feed off of this going into my professional career and do more things like this and be in contention of winning tournaments.”
Hovland is turning pro next week, and if his latest performance was anything to go by, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. If the U.S. Open wasn’t enough to convince that for you, all you need to know is the list of previous of U.S. amateur champions include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Peter Uihlein – and they’ve all done O.K.
