Viktor Hovland Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

It doesn't feel great paying more for Hovland than the likes of Sungjae Im and Tony Finau, but his game is seriously trending toward a win in the near future. Since hiring Pete Cowen as his short game coach, he is dead even with the field when it comes to strokes gained around the green in the last three events. That doesn't seem like much, but he lost a combined 12.3 strokes around the green in his previous four events. Additionally, his ball striking has been fire, gaining 7.2 strokes at the RBC Heritage and 10 strokes at the Travelers Championship. His best putting surface thus far has been bentgrass (featured this week) and he played well here last season finishing in a tie for 13th.

During the break, Hovland tried to improve on his biggest weakness -- his short game. He hired Pete Cowen, who said he'd rate Hovland's chipping a one out of 10. To prove how bad he's been in the past, there are only three golfers in this field that have lost more strokes around the green over the last 50 rounds. It looks like the coaching hire is paying dividends though, as the last two weeks have his best two around the green performances in his last seven events. We know the ball striking is elite and the soft course should help him hit plenty of greens. In his debut here last season, he made the cut and finished T54.

No course history? No problem. If you haven’t been plugged in to the DFS golf landscape over the last four or five months, it’s time to get yourself acquainted with perhaps the best young golfer on Tour. He rolled off finishes of 13th, 13th, 16th, and 4th to close out the summer season, and he started the fall swing with a top ten at the Greenbrier before fading a bit during the Asian swing. Look for him to get back on track here on North American soil in Mexico. If you tally up his 48 PGA Tour rounds, he actually leads this field in strokes gained tee to green and ball striking. His game is fantastic throughout the bag, and I’m definitely willing to spend up for him in this relatively modest field. A win is coming soon, and this could be the spot for his breakthrough.

It would have been a travesty if Hovland wasn’t able to get a PGA Tour card in the Korn Ferry Tour finals. Luckily, he played well enough in the first two that he didn’t even need to tee it up for the finale. He will forever be compared to Matthew Wolfe and Collin Morikawa, but I’ve got my money on Hovland being the best of the three. He’s the most consistent ball striker of the three, he just needs to make small improvements with his short game. Look at his statistics in this week’s field — he’s ranked first in strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained approach, greens in regulation, and birdie or better percentage. I will be betting Hovland and playing him in DFS early and often this season because it’s only a matter of time before he gets his first win. Before the Korn Ferry Tour finals, he posted four straight top 16 finishes in some very good fields on the PGA Tour. In my humble opinion, he’s the most talented golfer in this field and that might not even be a hot take at this point.

This guy is simply something special. After just missing out on securing his PGA Tour card in only a handful of summer starts, Hovland breezed through the Korn Ferry Tour finals in order to secure his spot. He finished his summer with four consecutive top 16 finishes, and he leads the Tour in ball striking over the last year (though he didn’t have enough rounds to get on the official leaderboards). Even though he hasn’t played this course before, he’s a perfect fit for the layout, and I expect him to contend. The talent level is through the roof, and it’s only a matter of time before he is hoisting the hardware. In fact, Hovland is my pick to do just that here at the Greenbrier. With his card secure, he should play with a lot of confidence and swagger.

The new young golfers on the PGA Tour continue to make a name for themselves, as both Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa have already won a Tour event, with Morikawa winning last week’s Barracuda Championship. I actually like Hovland more this week, as he should be motivated to try to join the crew with a victory. It’s also not like Hovland has been playing poorly, either, as he has logged three straight top 20 finishes on his resume. He has closed well in each of those events, too, shooting 65 or better in the final round of each of them. He doesn’t have enough rounds to qualify statistically yet, but he’s solid throughout his bag and makes plenty of birdies. I like his chances of contending this week, and he’s one of my favorite GPP plays.

Wolff and Morikawa had their coming out party last week, battling down to the wire before Wolff pulled out a win with his incredible eagle on the final hole of the tournament. That will have those two garnering more DFS attention this week, especially since Hovland is at the same or a higher price tag on almost every site (Hovland is $100 cheaper than Morikawa on FanDuel, but that difference is negligible). Recency bias will make some lean toward Wolff and Morikawa, and this is a spot where I really like Hovland. You know he is hungry for a debut win after what Wolff did in Minnesota, and Hovland has been playing well in his own right, with six straight cuts made on the PGA Tour. That includes solid performances at The Masters (32nd) and the U.S. Open (12th), with back-to-back top 15’s on the resume since that U.S. Open finish. Hovland was over 80% in driving accuracy and greens in regulation a week ago, to go along with plenty of distance off the tee. He doesn’t have enough rounds to qualify for full season statistics just yet, but rest assured that he is the real deal.