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World Hero Challenge’s wild Sunday ends with Viktor Hovland’s victory

AP photo by Fernando Llano / Winning golfer Viktor Hovland, right, and tournament host Tiger Woods pose with the championship trophy after the final round of the Hero World Challenge on Sunday at Albany Golf Club, in New Providence, Bahamas. Hovland won the PGA Tour event by a stroke for his third victory of the year.
AP photo by Fernando Llano / Winning golfer Viktor Hovland, right, and tournament host Tiger Woods pose with the championship trophy after the final round of the Hero World Challenge on Sunday at Albany Golf Club, in New Providence, Bahamas. Hovland won the PGA Tour event by a stroke for his third victory of the year. AP photo by Fernando Llano / Winning golfer Viktor Hovland, right, and tournament host Tiger Woods pose with the championship trophy after the final round of the Hero World Challenge on Sunday at Albany Golf Club, in New Providence, Bahamas. Hovland won the PGA Tour event by a stroke for his third victory of the year.

By DOUG FERGUSON / The Associated Press 5 min read

NASSAU, Bahamas – A 24-year-old rising star in golf put a nice ribbon on a three-win year by posing with tournament host Tiger Woods at the trophy presentation Sunday in the PGA Tour’s Hero World Challenge. It just wasn’t the winner anyone imagined.

Not even Viktor Hovland thought it was realistic he could rally from six shots behind Collin Morikawa, the steady hand who was poised to reach No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking with a victory. Instead, the young Norwegian did the unthinkable in a final round at Albany Golf Club that was pure chaos.

He looked up from a greenside bunker on the ninth hole and saw Morikawa sliding fast with a pair of double bogeys. Hovland seized on the opportunity with back-to-back eagles and closed with a pair of bogeys he could afford for a 6-under-par 66 and a one-shot victory at 18-under 270 over Scottie Scheffler (66).

Sam Burns (69) and Patrick Reed (69) shared third at 15 under, and Morikawa (76) dropped to fifth alongside Justin Thomas (64) at 14 under.

“I didn’t think a win was going to be very possible,” Hovland said. “But I know this course is tricky. You can make birdies, but it’s easy to make bogeys and doubles. If I put a good score up there, you never know what’s going to happen.”