Viktor Hovland eyes imperfect route to victory in South Africa

Ryder Cup star Viktor Hovland is hoping to conquer his swing demons and maintain his recent good momentum as he prepares to make his debut at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player.

The Norwegian is the highest-ranked of the 66 players teeing it up in Sun City but has been open about his many swing changes in recent seasons as he looks for the gains to take his game to even greater heights.

He branded Gary Player Country Club “no joke” after tackling it for the first time this week, perhaps suggesting it is not the best place to arrive without your A-game.

But despite his self-confessed struggles, he starts his season in South Africa off the back of four consecutive top 12s and without a missed cut since his victory at the PGA TOUR’s Valspar Championship in March.

“A little better,” he said of the current state of his game. “It's kind of been a challenging period throughout the last two years but I think, even though I haven't been super happy with the way I've swung it the past, even couple of months, I've started to get some consistent results.

“Played nicely at Wentworth, even had a nice finish to the FedExCup playoffs in the States, and in India, just about a month ago, another sixth place finish.

“So, things are trending in the right direction, and hopefully it just continue to build on that.”

Last year’s winning score of five under represented the toughest scoring at this event since it joined the DP World Tour schedule in 2013 by six shots as the Player-designed layout showed its teeth.

And Hovland is expecting to see every aspect of his game tested as he looks for a third DP World Tour victory.

“This is no joke, this place,” he said. “You’ve really got to do everything well but particularly off the tee, it's very challenging. And I drove it really well today, so that was nice. Hopefully I can keep that going throughout the week.

"It's everything. You can't really fake it around here. The rough is pretty juicy.

“Sometimes when you miss it and it sits up, you can kind of get away with it, but the greens are so firm that it's hard to stop it, even though you can land it on the green, but it's most likely going to roll over.

“Sometimes if the ball's buried in the rough, I mean, it's just a chip out. And then even if you do hit the fairway, it's no cakewalk from there.

“The greens are tiny, even if you're going to the middle of the green. It's small areas, but of course, they're going to tuck the pins and then you're looking about just five or six steps around the holes there. So, yeah, it's going to test every single part of your game.”