Viktor Hovland hopes he has put an end to his swing troubles as he tees up at the 2026 Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
The Norwegian failed to make the cut at Emirates Golf Club 12 months ago amid the long process of a swing change.
However, he picked up form towards the back end of the 2025 DP World Tour season as he tied fifth at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club and recorded a sixth-placed finish at the DP World India Championship in addition to being part of Team Europe's Ryder Cup victory at Bethpage Black.
He opened the 2026 campaign with a top-25 finish at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player in December, and despite remaining in the evolution of his swing, Hovland, who won this event in 2022, is optimistic for the season ahead.
"I would say I managed things better towards the end of year. I had some better results and found a bit more consistency," Hovland said.
"But I still didn't feel like technically it was that much better.
"I took a few weeks off at the end of the year, and been out here the past couple weeks just practicing and getting ready.
"It was pretty rough, and weren't really happy with how things were looking, either.
"But Grant (Waite) came out here last week, and I think we really got down to, how do I actually solve this problem?
"And as soon as I found the feel for it, it started looking almost like it did back in the day.
"That was really nice to see. Because conceptually, I've understood what I was doing, but it was so difficult to recreate it for some reason.
"I just couldn't understand what I needed to feel or what it needed or how I accomplished it, and I would say on the Saturday last week really started to look a lot better. It's been a slow and steady progress every single day.
"It might be a little bit too quick this week, but I'm really happy with just how things are trending. I think this year is going to be a good one.
"I know at the end of the day, I have to solve these problems, solve these issues.
"And if I happen to play well out there, then that's a bonus. So that's kind of how I frame that in my own head.
"I have conceded kind of that when you're struggling and you're in a rut, and you feel like you're in a hole, a bad attitude just amplifies that.
"So I think it can really kill you with a bad attitude.
"But just having a good attitude is not going to get you out of the soup.
"You actually have to solve the problems and see progress in practice, and then you can start to believe."
Scandinavian golf has boomed over recent years, with the likes Hovland, the Højgaard twins, Niklas Norgaard, Kristoffer Reitan and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, among others, entering the winner's circle.
The latter two secured dual PGA TOUR cards after finishing in the top ten players on the final 2025 Race to Dubai Rankings, not otherwise exempt, leaving Hovland delighted.
"It's amazing how many Scandinavian golfers we have now playing worldwide, and also another cowboy on the PGA TOUR," The 28-year-old said.
"There's so many of us that are playing out there, and also Kris Ventura has status.
"So it's nice to have a lot of familiar faces out there. It just seemed Rasmus' play the last couple of years have been very inspiring.
"Kris Reitan, obviously, had an amazing year last year.
"Played so consistent and just kind of seeing where he was a year and a half ago, two years ago, could hardly finish a round of golf, and now he's one of the best players in the world. It's really cool to see."
