Signature Scroll: Viktor Hovland takes title at Travelers Championship, Scottie Scheffler settles for another runner-up

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Nothing better than a little Monday morning golf ...

Viktor Hovland reemerges at last

Golf is the perfect game for Viktor Hovland because golf can’t be solved. It’s a maddening, confusing, and glorious pursuit, and its genius lies in its inability to be solved, no matter how hard one tries.

Oh, and Hovland has tried.

It pushes Hovland more than the results, which is why he was sheepish when he won last year’s Valspar Championship. Sure, a trophy is great, but his game didn’t feel solid, and he extracts far more fulfillment from the latter than the former.

Yet you get the sense that if he ever did finally perfect the game, nab that carrot, summit that mountain, or insert your next favorite cliché here, it still wouldn’t fulfill him.

See, Hovland needs something to chase. He finds purpose in the pursuit, and perhaps this week’s Travelers Championship was a blueprint back to top results and top form.

“Obviously I know how good I can get and I keep pushing myself and I keep wanting to get better and then when I fall short it really pisses me off,” Hovland said standing on the 18th green, “but I really did a good job of, I didn't get off to a great start on Thursday and I just kind of didn't let it bother me as much.”

Hovland’s playoff victory over Scottie Scheffler on Monday morning at the Travelers Championship was a reminder of the Norwegian’s talent and a notable bookend to his last big-time victory. He bested Scheffler nearly three years ago with a final-round 61 at the BMW Championship that seemed like Hovland’s coming-out party. He won the FedExCup the next week and appeared ready to take the reins as the best player in the world. He looked the part the next month at the Ryder Cup.

But Hovland’s fickleness and curiosity got in the way. He thought there was more to be mined and that changes were needed. Change can hurt just as much as it helps, and Hovland’s unending push for more sent him down a rabbit hole he has struggled to climb out of.

To Hovland’s credit, he’s remained open throughout. He will willingly let you in on every swing thought and nerdy detail, but each time he did, you got the sense that it wasn’t good for him. He was swinging more than he was golfing, and until he could separate the two, it felt difficult to see the road at the end of the tunnel.

Hopefully, this week helped him unlock that.

“I just proved a lot to myself that I have got the game now, and I really made some big strides in just the way I've driven it all week," Hovland said. “That's been kind of one of the weaknesses this year. This week I drove it amazing. I did a lot of good stuff the whole week.

“I just want to continue that trend. Whether I win or lose or whatever, I just want to play good golf and have fun out here again.”

Playing through

• 📺 Catch up with full Round 4 highlights ...
• 🙏 Collin Morikawa manifests Sunday 61, nearly gets into the playoff ...
• 💰 Hovland won $3.6 million. Here's what the rest of the field earned.
  

Scheffler close again

To hear Scheffler describe it, his year has been “a touch dull.”

Scheffler’s stats are great. He leads the FedExCup. He has the best scoring average on TOUR. He’s still the best player in the world. He just isn’t winning at the clip we are used to. He’s missing a crucial putt here and failing to get up-and-down there and that has added up to a single win – his season debut at The American Express – that feels unrepresentative of the season he’s had.

The latest example was Monday’s sudden-death playoff. Scheffler hit his approach on the 18th inside of Hovland’s. Hovland’s putt lipped in for birdie, and Scheffler’s grazed the edge with too much pace to drop. Ball game.

“I struck the ball really nicely and it's just one of those weeks where I was close, but just wasn't quite good enough,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler now has four runners-up this season and four other top fives. His worst finish this year is a tie for 24th. I’m finding it harder to describe Scheffler as this winless drought extends. Everyone seems eager to try to find something wrong with him. To declare that Scheffler isn’t what he was. The second part of that is true insofar as he’s not winning at the same clip, but I don’t see much of a difference. The margins of golf are tight, and he’s found himself on the wrong side a few times this year.

Is that frustrating? I’m sure it is for him. I’m not ready to definitively declare much else.

Parting shots

• ❓Has Collin Morikawa’s back injury helped him? Of course, he would prefer not to be inhibited, but if there’s a criticism to lob Morikawa’s way, it can be that he often plays golf swing and can get in his own way in pursuit of perfection. The injury has forced him to keep things simple. He played great at the Masters and RBC Heritage, finished top 20 at the U.S. Open, and backed it up with a solo third this week.
• 🫷We break from regularly scheduled programming to say, “BLOCKIE?!!!” Michael Block, yes, that Michael Block, nearly won in his PGA TOUR Champions debut. Block shot 67 on Sunday to rocket up the DICK’S Open leaderboard but fell five shots short after making a triple bogey at the last. We might have a new threat on the senior circuit. Is a win coming?
• 😬 Will we see Jordan Spieth with a new putter soon? He was testing new options during practice rounds this week, but ultimately kept his longtime gamer in the bag. But he didn’t putt well this week – 64th of 72 players in Strokes Gained: Putting. He’s playing the John Deere Classic.
• 🔥 When you’re hot, you’re hot. Fresh off a masterful putting performance at Shinnecock Hills, Wyndham Clark led the field in putting at TPC River Highlands and finished fifth. Heck of a result considering he was running on fumes. He hit only 20 putts on Sunday, the fewest on record at this event.
• 👋 This might be the last of Sam Burns we see for a while. According to The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig, Burns does not plan to travel overseas for the Genesis Scottish Open or The Open Championship as he awaits the birth of his second child. He is not in the field next week.
• 🎯 Matt McCarty’s week was quite weird. He lost strokes in every category but approach, in which he was best in the field. McCarty gained more than seven strokes on approach, a great showing after missing three of his last four cuts.