Viktor Hovland holds a one-shot lead at the Puerto Rico Open entering the event’s final round at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club.
Viktor Hovland shot 8-under 64 during the third round of the Puerto Rico Open to take the solo lead entering the final round.
Hovland, who was one of four co-leaders to start the round at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club, finished Sautrday with a clean scorecard. The 22-year-old’s round featured five birdies on the back nine, including three of the final four holes.
Hovland leads Martin Laird, who fired 63, by one shot entering the final round. Josh Teater is in third at 16 under and Emiliano Grillo sits in fourth at 13 under.
Grillo, Teater and first-round leader Kyle Stanley shared the lead with Hovland after 36 holes at 10 under. Stanley tumbled to T-7 at 11 under Saturday along with four other golfers after shooting a 71. Eight others sit T-12 at 10 under.
Hovland, from Norway, and Laird, from Scotland, are paired in the last group of the Puerto Rico Open’s final round. Their pairing marks only the second all-international final grouping of the season after Sebastian Munoz and Carlos Ortiz were paired for the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship. Hovland is seeking his first PGA Tour title while Laird is chasing his fourth Tour title and looking to return to the winner’s circle for the first time since the 2013 Valero Texas Open.
Final-round television coverage of the Puerto Rico Open begins Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.
Kyle Stanley and Viktor Hovland are two of four golfers tied for the lead after 36 holes at the Puerto Rico Open.
Some say it’s lonely at the top, but that’s not currently the case in Puerto Rico.
Emiliano Grillo, Viktor Hovland and Josh Teater joined first-round leader Kyle Stanley at 10 under Friday to split the 36-hole lead at the Puerto Rico Open.
Stanley, who shot a first-round 64 and held the solo lead entering the second round at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club, finished Friday with a 70. Grillo and Teater each shot 68s while Hovland posted the low score for the day among the leaders with a 6-under 66.
After a first-round 68, Hovland got hot quickly on Friday. The 22-year-old was 5 under on the front nine— the best front nine score of his professional career so far— after carding an eagle on No. 2 and birdies on 4, 8 and 9. He was 6 under on the round after a fourth birdie on 11, but notched his sole bogey of the day on 15. The former Oklahoma State golfer recorded his fifth birdie of the day on 17 to share the lead. Hovland entered the day T-14 at 4 under.
Analyzing the golf betting odds to win the 2020 Puerto Rico Open, with PGA Tour betting odds, picks, predictions and best bets.
With many of the world’s top golfers in Mexico for this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship, an alternate field of up-and-comers led by Viktor Hovland are participating in the 2020 Puerto Rico Open at Coco Beach Golf and Country Club. Below, we’ll analyze the golf betting odds, while making our picks to win the 2020 Puerto Rico Open.
This week’s winner will not receive an invitation to the 2020 Masters Tournament.
The key stats for the 7,506-yard, par-72 Coco Beach Golf and Country Club are:
Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee
Strokes Gained: Approach
Birdies or Better Gained
Good Drives Gained
Puerto Rico Open – Tier 1
Aug 4, 2019; Greensboro, NC, USA; Viktor Hovland studies a putt on the first green during the final round of the Wyndham Championship golf tournament at Sedgefield Country Club. (Photo Credit: Rob Kinnan – USA TODAY Sports)
At No. 25 in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings, Hovland is the top golfer in attendance. While the win won’t get him to Augusta National, it could propel him to better play, as was the case with Collin Morikawa‘s victory at the 2019 Barracuda Championship. That ran as the alternate event to the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
Hovland is No. 1 in my stat model this week at Fantasy National. He missed the cut in three of his last five events against stiffer competition on the PGA and European Tours, but he tied for 38th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and is definitely the class of this field. He’ll look to follow suit of Tony Finau and his breakout win in 2016.
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Patrick Rodgers (+2200)
Rodgers tied for ninth at the star-studded Farmers Insurance Open for his best result since 2018. He followed it up with a T-16 at the Waste Management Open before missing the cut at Pebble Beach, but he rebounded for a quality T-30 showing at last week’s Genesis Invitational. He’s playing his best golf right now, and could finally break through against weaker competition.
Puerto Rico Open – Tier 2
Jul 18, 2019; Portrush, IRL; Kiradech Aphibarnrat after hitting his tee shot on the 5th hole during the first round of The Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Portrush Golf Club – Dunluce Course. Mandatory Credit: Ian Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports
Kiradech Aphibarnrat (+5000)
Aphibarnrat will make his debut at this event following a stretch of three straight missed cuts against stronger fields. He has been struggling around the greens, but he has the length to be able to handle Coco Beach.
Roger Sloan (+8000)
Sloan tied for second in 2019 in his first appearance since a missed cut in 2015. The Canadian has missed the cut in six straight events dating back to November’s Bermuda Championship, but his co-runner-up finish last year came on the heels of two missed cuts at Pebble Beach and the Farmers. He’s typically great around the greens and strong off the tee.
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Puerto Rico Open – Longshots
Jan 18, 2020; La Quinta, California, USA; Robbie Shelton plays his shot from the eighth tee during the third round of The American Express golf tournament on the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West. (Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez – USA TODAY Sports)
Robby Shelton (+10000)
Shelton skipped last year’s tournament following a missed cut in 2017 – the 2018 tournament was held as a team fundraiser event. He has struggled of late against strong fields, but he has two top 10s in the 2019-20 season: at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier and the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Those are much are more comparable to his competition this week.
Martin Trainer (+12500)
Trainer snapped a skid of five straight missed cuts with a T-47th-place finish at the Genesis Invitational last week. These odds represent far too great of value for the defending champion, despite his current form. He missed the cut of five of seven PGA Tour events in the build-up to his win last year.
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Brooks Koepka was among six golfers who fired golf balls on to a Formula 1 race track in the Middle East on Tuesday.
World No. 1 Brooks Koepka said his left knee still isn’t 100 percent, but it’s good enough to start playing again.
He was among six golfers who participated in a contest where they fired golf balls on to a Formula 1 race track in the Middle East on Tuesday.
Koepka underwent a stem-cell procedure last fall for a partially torn patella tendon in his left knee, which had been bugging him since last March.
He was joined by Louis Oosthuizen, Danny Willett, Bernd Wiesberger, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Viktor Hovland in the Hero Challenge (not to be confused Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge, held in the Bahamas last month).
Tuesday’s event was at the Yas Marina Circuit to promote the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in the United Arab Emirates. This Hero did not have any waste bunkers (insert Patrick Reed joke here) but did feature some pretty great shot-making:
Each of the golfers fired balls from a mat high up on a platform. It was like they were hitting off a cliff to a target down below that was 100 yards away.
An extra challenge was making sure not to plunk a Formula 1 car parked right in front the target.
Brooks Koepka at the Hero Challenge ahead of the 2020 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Your winner? Viktor Hovland, who called it “My first professional win.”
Hovland faced off against Louis Oosthuizen in the final round. Wearing blue jeans, Hovland won by a score of 190-55 and through three rounds, never missed the target.
Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland didn’t need to make any introductions when they found out they were paired together for the QBE Shootout.
Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland didn’t need to make any introductions when they found out they were paired together for the QBE Shootout.
The two have known one another for years. Well, maybe not “years” but relatively speaking if that can be the case for a 20-year-old and a 22-year-old, respectively.
“I would love to play with Viktor,” Wolff said when his agent presented him with the idea last year. “That’d be awesome because we played together so much in college and I’ve known him since he was — I was like 15 and he’s 16 and stuff.”
They couldn’t resist taking some digs at one another during their Wednesday media session.
“I think our games kind of complement each other where he has a lot of length and my strengths are kind of more consistency and I think we can really feed off of each other,” Hovland said when asked about the pairing.
“I’m not consistent enough,” Wolff added with a chuckle.
“My strength is more consistency,” Hovland said, smiling. “You bomb the crap out of it, is that what you wanted to hear?”
“Yeah, you make me feel so good,” Wolff said.
Both played at perennial national power Oklahoma State. And they more than added to the legacy that the men’s team already has.
Wolff made the putt to clinch the 2018 national title for the Cowboys, then won the NCAA individual title this spring. He turned professional and won his fourth event, the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota.
Viktor Hovland tosses his golf ball to his caddie during the QBE Shootout pro-am in Naples, Florida on Dec. 11, 2019. Photo by Chris Tilley/Special for Naples Daily News
Hovland, who is from Norway, spent the last two summers putting his name on leaderboards.
First, he won the 2018 U.S. Amateur, then this year he earned low amateur honors at the Masters (tied for 32nd) and the U.S. Open (he was 12th). The last golfer to be low amateur in both of those was Matt Kuchar in 1998. Hovland also broke Jack Nicklaus’ amateur record of 282 with a 280 in the U.S. Open.
So they’ve been ticketed for stardom and appear on their way.
Part of what they attribute to that is staying away from setting results goals.
Obviously, winning a golf tournament doesn’t fall into that, but there’s no way Wolff is shying away from that.
“If you win on the PGA Tour, it’s never a fluke,” Wolff said. “I’m sorry for anyone who might say it is. If you win on the PGA Tour, you beat the best players in the world and it’s the top tour in the world.
“But it definitely takes the stress off my shoulders. It frees me up. Playing in events like these, it gets you into that. It allows you to really give you the confidence that you can do it and know that you’re there for a reason.”
Hovland, who has two top-10 finishes since turning professional, sets his goals more on his game.
“It’s more process goals where, OK, if I’m struggling right now hitting a low cut with my irons, which is kind of the preferred shot that I like to hit, right now it’s launching a little too high and drawing maybe a little bit, that’s just what I had right now and that’s what I’m working on trying to get back to that little low cut,” Hovland said. “It’s not ‘OK, I need to make X amount of birdies and we need to finish so-and-so this week; I just care about my golf game. Week in and week out, that’s all I think about.”
And the other part of it for them is the success they’ve already had to lean back on.
“We know that our best is good enough to win,” Wolff said. “I feel like that’s why we don’t like to set goals of we need to do this, we need to win this many times, because we know if our game is where it needs to be, then the results will come.”
Wolff and Hovland don’t have a ton of experience with traveling to the same event and playing the same courses year after year, yet they didn’t really check in with each other that much.
And of course a question about that led to some more jabs.
“Not too much because we only see each other on the road and we were so used to seeing each other in college every day …” Hovland said.
“He’s sick of me by now is what he’s trying to say,” Wolff said.
“This is true. It’s going to be a long week,” Hovland said.
“It took a lot more convincing for him to play with me than it did for me to play with him,” Wolff said.
Analyzing the 2019 QBE Shootout and which teams of golfers are the best options for the event. Who will win at Tiburon Golf Club?
Twelve two-man teams will compete in the QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., this weekend. The 54-hole event runs three days, from Friday through Sunday.
The first round is played under scramble rules, whereby both members of each team will play every shot with the better ball being taken each time. Round 2 consists of greensomes, where both players tee off on each hole and the alternate shot is played from the spot of the better ball.
The final round is played under standard four-ball rules with each golfer playing the hole on their own and the best score being taken.
The 7,288-yard venue plays as a par 72. The teams compete for a $3.5 million purse, but it is not an official money event and no FedExCup points are awarded.
QBE Shootout – Odds, picks and best bets
Matthew Wolff. (Photo Credit: Rob Kinnan – USA TODAY Sports)
The two combine for just 42 years of age, making them younger than several of the individual golfers in this event. Hovland is expected to be a top contender for PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, while Wolff came up just short of the award last year.
Hovland, 22, placed solo fourth at last season’s Wyndham Championship for the best result of his young career. He’s ranked 96th by the Official World Golf Ranking, while Wolff, who got his first career win at the 3M Open last summer, is 117th in the world. Their odds are lower as fan favorites, but the youngsters have the length and putting, and the motivation for the early-career win in an uninspired field.
Charles Howell III-Bubba Watson (+800)
Watson, ranked 44th by the OWGR, is coming off a last-place finish at last week’s Hero World Challenge. Howell, ranked 54th in the world, missed the cut at the RSM Classic as his last event. The two combined for four victories in 2018.
Howell finished tied for third here last year with partner Luke List. Watson was sixth with Harold Varner III.
Charley Hoffman-Kevin Kisner (+1200)
Hoffman also finished T-3 a year ago (with partner Gary Woodland), while Kisner finished last with playing partner Cameron Champ. Kisner tied for seventh at last week’s Hero World Challenge exhibition. The two have plenty of length off the tee, and Kisner, who’s the defending match-play champion, can get hot and carry the team with his putter.
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Adam Woodard breaks down the top 10 male college golfers of the decade plus a few other honorable mentions.
College golf has increasingly become a window into the next generation of PGA Tour stars. It has helped tremendously that the NCAA Championship has been televised since 2014. That brought college stars right into golf fans’ living rooms, showing exactly the level of play that’s out there.
To reflect on the top college players of the past decade is to play a game of “remember them when.” The resumes are deep on these players, and each made a contribution to his team or his program that was beyond meaningful. These players raised the bar in college golf, and showed just how deep the talent pool is.
Here are the top 10 men’s college golfers of the decade followed by a few honorable mentions (in alphabetical order).
Top 10
Patrick Cantlay, UCLA
Patrick Cantlay during the 110th U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington.
Cantlay spent 55 weeks as the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, a record he held until Jon Rahm broke it in 2016. He turned pro in 2012 after his sophomore season at UCLA, but it was his freshman season that caught the nation’s attention. Cantlay won four events in the 2010-11 season, including the NCAA San Diego Regional, and finished second at the NCAA Championship, where he led the Bruins to match play. In two years Cantlay had 14 top 10 finishes and 24 rounds in the 60s.
Our field list for the Mayakoba Golf Classic lists each player with his Golfweek/Sagarin Ranking and Official World Golf Ranking.
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After an off week, the PGA Tour is back in action in Mexico for the Mayakoba Golf Classic at El Camaleon Golf Club.
Among the most notable names in the field is Viktor Hovland who will be paired with Kristoffer Ventura and Alvaro Ortiz for the event’s first two rounds.
Hovland also happens the be the highest ranked player in the field according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.
Analyzing the 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic and which golfers are the best options for the event. Who will win at El Camaleon GC? We break it down within.
The PGA Tour returns to North America this week for the Mayakoba Golf Classic at El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The course measures 6,987 yards and plays as a par 71 under tournament conditions.
Courtesy of historical data from Fantasy National, the stats best associated with success at this venue are:
Strokes Gained: Approach
Strokes Gained: Ball Striking
Opportunities Gained
Greens in Regulation Gained
My model looks at the most recent 36 rounds for each golfer in the field.
Hovland, 22, is tied with Jason Day, Matt Kuchar and Tony Finau as the tournament favorite, according to the sportsbooks. He is ranked 97th by the Official World Golf Ranking and is still looking for his first career win after turning pro in the summer. Hovland leads the field in each of the four key stats.
Emiliano Grillo +3300
Grillo is a course horse. He finished 15th last year, T-9 in 2017 and T-10 in 2016. He’s coming off a T-30 in a much stronger field at the Zozo Championship in Japan, and he placed T-26 at The CJ Cup the week before. He ranks second to Hovland in most key stats and shares the lead in SG: Approach.
Mayakoba Golf Classic – Tier 2
Photo Credit: Butch Dill – USA TODAY Sports
Chez Reavie +5000
Reavie participated in all three events the PGA Tour just played in Asia. His best result was a T-46 at The CJ Cup in South Korea. The 33rd-ranked golfer by the OWGR ranks sixth by the stat model and is in the top five of the field in SG: Ball Striking, SG: Approach and Opportunities Gained.
Stanley plummeted down the OWGR last season while missing the cut in 10 of 25 events and picking up just one top-10 finish with a T-8 at the Wells Fargo Championship. He was ranked as high as 26th at the conclusion of the 2018 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Mayakoba Golf Classic – Longshots
Photo Credit: Ray Carlin – USA TODAY Sports
Charley Hoffman +10000
Hoffman was the 2014 champion at El Camaleon. This number is too great for a winner from just five years ago as a $10 bet returns a $1,000 profit. He hasn’t made the cut in his last four appearances at this event, but he finished T-36 at The CJ Cup and certainly has experience on the course, even with the poor recent results.
Keith Mitchell +12500
Mitchell ranks just 73rd by the stat model, but he’s an excellent value as he has typically been priced much lower than this in more competitive fields. He made the cut here in each of his last two tries.
2019-20 winners: Joaquin Niemann – A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier (+2800)
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