There is plenty Norway’s Viktor Hovland will not forget about winning the 2023 Tour Championship as he begins his defense of his FedEx Cup title this week at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
There is a significant portion that will not benefit him to remember.
Course changes at East Lake have been well documented and fairly significant, although the magnitude of the alterations did not hit Hovland until he played the front nine in a practice round Monday.
“I was kind of shocked,” Hovland said Tuesday about changes to the grounds under the guidance of renowned golf-course architect Andrew Green. “It looks nothing like it used to.”
Green has undertaken renovations at other revered major tournament stops like Oak Hills Country Club’s East Course in Rochester, N.Y., and the Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course in Bethesda, Md. Now his fingerprints are all over East Lake, after he redefined the course’s classic tree-lined design.
If there were secrets Hovland unlocked whole rolling to a five-shot victory over Xander Schauffele last year, their value is debatable 12 months later. Hovland’s 7-under-par 63 on Sunday last year was the lowest score by the winner in Tour Championship history. Schauffele also blistered the course in the final round by shooting a 62.
Hovland’s love of the East Lake’s classic layout is understandable. He said the course “looks pretty good” if he were only a first-time visitor getting an initial look at the design.
“But just from being here four or five times before and just remembering what it used to be, I just think it was a way more kind of simplistic golf course before, but it was still — it was simple, but it was very, very good. I’m still a little bit biased towards what it used to be,” Hovland said.
After moving tee locations, removing a significant number of trees and adding bunkers, Hovland said East Lake now resembles “a major championship golf course.”
“In my heart, it’s like, East Lake never had that (major championship) look, and it’s such a historic place,” Hovland said. “It’s like, should we really try to make East Lake look like a major championship golf course? That’s kind of the only place I’m at. But I don’t think he’s done a bad job. It’s just the style of it.”
Of chief concern for Hovland is his form this season. After winning three times on the PGA Tour last season, Hovland has not won a tournament in 2004 and has just two top-10 finishes. But he is 17th in the current FedExCup standings and is ranked No. 8 in the world.
He advanced into this week’s Tour Championship by finishing tied for 26th at last week’s BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colo., by finishing at 2 under.
“What’s really cool is that I’ve still made it to this week playing what I felt like is absolute garbage,” Hovland said. “I think that’s something that’s pretty cool to kind of have in my back pocket is that OK, we can struggle and we can still come out here and have a chance to win tournaments.”
Last year, Hovland said he entered the final round at East Lake in risk-adverse mode. He admitted he was trying to play a “boring” round to safely bring home the win. Schauffele’s play altered that strategy.
This year, there will be nothing boring about playing what is an essentially brand new course in Atlanta.
“I wouldn’t say East Lake ever had a lot of strategy off the tee before,” Hovland said. “It was always kind of tree-lined fairways, narrow fairways, and you had an occasional bunker here and there. But usually, you either hit driver or 3-wood, and you have to hit it straight. I really do appreciate that kind of golf because I think trees really add a lot to the strategy of the golf course.
“… I do think Andrew has done a great job with positioning certain bunkers in there. You really have to think, âOK, well, if I want to cover this bunker, I have to worry about the next bunker and what kind of angle I’m getting in there?’ I think he’s done a pretty good job with that.”
