Hovland wins FedEx Cup 2023
The race for the full-season championship of the PGA Tour 2022-2023 closed this morning, August 28, according to the results of the Tour Championship. In this tournament, Hovland birdies all three last holes, thus setting the winning milestone -27 and dropping five strokes from the runner-up position of American golfer Xander Schauffele. Hovland took home $18 million, while Schauffele received $6.5 million.
"Viktor is so sharp it's unbelievable," Schauffele said of Hovland's form in the last Tour Championship.
From 2019, the Tour Championship is only available for the top 30 FedEx Cup tables. According to the rules, the top of this group entered the grand final with a score of -10, second place -8 and then a point decreasing to fifth place. After that, that reduction step will gradually return to even par, applied to the next five groups. FedEx Cup results will combine the starting point and the actual battle.
This time, Hovland, thanks to winning the penultimate championship - BMW Championship, got a starting point of -8. With that advantage, he finished T1 in the first two rounds and then monopolized the lead at -20 by the end of the third round. At that time, Schauffele was right behind but six strokes away. However, such a competitive situation does not necessarily lead to an easy victory for Hovland. Because last year, Scottie Scheffler also led six strokes after the penultimate race but ended up in second place, and the grand final and FedEx Cup championship both belonged to Rory McIlroy with a -21 victory.
But this year, Hovland did not miss the opportunity to become the king of the first-class golf arena in the US. In the final round, he added seven points, just one point behind Schauffele. Neither of them bogey in the finish line.
During the actual battle, Hovland always led, at least three strokes. This gap occurred at hole 12, when Schauffele recorded the seventh birdie, to -21 and Hovland kept par to keep -24.
At the par4 14 hole, Hovland's advantage seemed to be two strokes or less when he, after the third shot, had to put 7.6 meters from the hole. But Hovland accurately shot to avoid bogey and anchored -24.
On the 15th hole, Hovland maintained both points and an advantage over Schauffele by finishing par like his opponent. The remaining three holes, Hovland earned three more points thanks to continuous birdie and Schauffele "stomped on the spot" because of all par. With that ending, Hovland took the FedEx Cup, and Schauffele came in second. But if we give up the starting point to consider the Tour Championship separately, both will return to T1 (-19).
The FedEx Cup 2023 summary recorded the remaining three positions in the top 5, respectively, including the defending major US Open champions - Wyndham Clark, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay with their respective bonuses reduced from five to three million USD.
Hovland is 25 years old this year, playing professionally since 2019, so far won six cups on the PGA Tour, including the recent Tour Championship.
