PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Oklahoma State coach Alan Bratton turned to Viktor Hovland on the 18th green and said, “You’re part of the walls here.”
That was before Hovland added to his Pebble Beach resume by breaking a record set by Jack Nicklaus. Hovland birdied the 18th hole to shoot 4-under 67 and set a new 72-hole scoring record for an amateur in the U.S. Open.
Hovland’s 4-under 280 total breaks Nicklaus’ 282 mark set in 1960 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Englewood, Colo. It also gives Hovland low amateur honors at a major for the second time this year.
“It’s obviously cool to perform such a thing,” said Hovland. “And I hope that this will feed or I can feed off of this going into my professional career and do more things like this and be in contention of winning tournaments.”
Hovland won the U.S. Amateur here last summer, tying the record for fewest holes of match play by a champion since 1979 with 104.
That victory earned him a spot in the 2019 Masters, where he also took low-amateurs by finishing in a tie for 32nd.
Hovland became the first player since Matt Kuchar in 1998 to earn low amateur honors in the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year.
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Hovland will make his professional debut next week at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut alongside OSU teammate Matthew Wolff. It’s the start of four consecutive weeks of PGA Tour golf for the 21-year-old Norweigian.
“You couldn’t ask for a better jumpstart into professional golf,” said Bratton. “To come off of a confidence boost like this is awesome.”
Four amateurs made the cut at the U.S. Open. Hovland finished five strokes ahead of Stanford’s Brandon Wu, who missed his college graduation on Sunday but was awarded his diploma by the Pacific Ocean after the round. Wu finished a 1 over for the tournament. Duke senior Chandler Eaton (+5) and Michael Thorbjornsen (+20) rounded out the foursome.
