If your bracket is busted, here’s a nice palate cleanser to forget about the upsets that weren’t or your predicted National Champion that didn’t make it out of the first weekend.
Viktor Hovland Wins The Valspar Championship
After the 2023 Ryder Cup, no one could’ve predicted the downward spiral Viktor Hovland would go through. At the majors last year, Hovland missed three of four cuts and had a solo third finish at the PGA Championship. In PGA Tour events, Hovland had a solid year but didn’t have any standout performances. In the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Hovland had a T-2 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and made the Tour Championship, where he finished T-12. This year has been a nightmare. He missed the cut at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour and missed the cut in his last three events.
Hovland has been pretty outspoken about his struggles, talking about it with the media regularly. To have that candidness about such severe struggles is admirable from Viktor. Not everyone has the courage to open up about poor play. Some players don’t seem to get it (looking at you, Colin Morikawa) and believe they “don’t owe anyone anything” when talking about non-triumphant outings. Viktor makes him easy to root for, and people love a good comeback story despite him being 19th in the OWGR.
Hovland’s success was predictable. He was the low amateur at The Masters in 2019, which was largely overshadowed by Tiger Woods winning his fifth green jacket. Hovland’s three major stretch from The Open in 2022 to the 2023 PGA Championship was stellar. T-4 at The Open, T-7 at The Masters, and T-2 at the PGA Championship. He capped his 2023 season off with a scintillating final round 61 in the BMW Championship and, the next week, winning the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup. At the Ryder Cup, he helped dismantle Team USA, going 3-1-1, featuring a stunning 9&7 win with teammate Ludvig Aberg over Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka. It seemed like golf had its newest superstar.
It’s very hard to maintain greatness for an extended time. Even Tiger Woods went through some struggles after his 1997 historic win at The Masters, before winning five of six majors and altering the future of golf. Hovland has the capability to be the next European superstar. He’s unequivocally one of the most talented players in the world when his game is humming. It’s one thing to be great at your sport. It’s another to be great while balancing money, fame, expectations, public pressure, internal pressure, maintaining relationships, and everything else that comes with being a professional athlete. In an individual sport like golf, it makes the task even harder. You don’t have a running back to lean on for a game or a great pick-and-roll game to split the balance between two basketball stars. It’s all you. It’s an extremely lonely feeling, with millions of eyeballs locked in on you.
Hovland still didn’t sound too pleased with his game despite closing out the win and having good stats to back him up. According to Data Golf, Hovland was second this week in strokes gained putting, eighth in strokes gained off the tee, ninth in strokes gained approach, and 11th in strokes gained tee to green. Viktor surely is going in the right direction at the right time. With the major season right around the corner, Hovland could be in contention for his first major championship, and possibly winning multiple, like Xander Schauffele did last year.
Justin Thomas had another competitive week, finishing second, but stumbled to the finish with two bogeys on the final three holes. Thomas hasn’t won since his 2022 PGA Championship, but his performances lately make it seem like that streak will end shortly. Since taking his second major championship, Thomas hasn’t had the best run at the majors. His best finish was T-8 at last year’s PGA Championship. JT has made every cut this year and has three top 10s in 2025. With Quail Hollow being the host of the PGA Championship this year, Thomas could be hoisting the Wannamaker Trophy for the second time in Charlotte.
Bud Cauley has had himself a great couple of weeks. Cauley finished T-6 last week at The Players and was in the mix for the majority of the championship. This weekend, he finished T-4, putting himself in contention once again, finishing three strokes behind Hovland. Cauley is also 35th in the FedEx Cup Standings, which is right below the cut line for the Tour Championship. Obviously, there’s a lot of golf to be had this season, but his trajectory is on a great path to not only secure a spot in the playoffs, but maybe earn a big chunk of change in Atlanta.
The Valspar, like The Players, put on a good show this week. The course was hard but not egregious while giving players scoreable holes. There was also a nice mix of top players, like Hovland, Thomas, Billy Horschel, Lucas Glover, and Xander Schauffele, combined with players who aren’t normally in the spotlight, like Jacob Bridgeman, Ryo Hisatsune, and Davis Riley.
The PGA Tour is having a good stretch of golf in March, filled with positive storylines. This is exactly what the PGA Tour needs, as it continues negotiations with the PIF. Perhaps, the two leagues can co-exist without a formal agreement. If LIV can be successful globally, and the PGA Tour has a strong presence worldwide while maintaining audiences domestically, there might not be a need to have an agreement and the two sides can cordially exist without needing to “merge”.
Eastern Washington Men’s Golf Making Their Return
This fall, Eastern Washington will bring back their men’s golf team and return to competition. The team last competed in 2002 and brings back another Division 1 team to Washington. This is wonderful to see, as lots of schools across the country are cutting programs and teams for various reasons, mainly financial. Another pro is this allows more players to play Division 1 golf.
EWU announced its fall schedule, which will feature four tournaments across three states in September and October. Their first two events will be in Washington. The first is the Palouse Collegiate, hosted by Washington State at Palouse Ridge Golf Course. The University of Washington hosts The Tindall, which will be set at Gold Mountain Golf Course in Bremerton. The Eagles will fly to Colorado and Oregon to round out the fall schedule.
The 2025 Division 1 Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships will be held in Carlsbad, California, at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa for the second straight year.
TGL Finals This Week
TGL wraps up its inaugural season this week with the TGL Finals. There were more upsets last week on TGL than in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, with the fourth-seeded NYGC taking down top-seeded LAGC 6-4. In the other semifinal, the three seed, Atlanta Drive GC, crushed The Bay Golf Club, 9-3. The Finals are a best-of-three series, starting tonight on ESPN 2 at 6 PM. Tomorrow will be the second and third matches, with the third match if necessary. Match two starts at 4 PM on ESPN tomorrow night, and if the tiebreaking match is needed, it will begin at 6 PM, also on ESPN.
TGL has been a nice change of pace from traditional men’s professional golf. There have been some laughs mixed in with true competition. The fans really enjoy the hammer (brought to you by FedEx), and when it’s a close match, the SoFi Center turns into a fun atmosphere. Most of the players have done a great job of leaning into that fun aspect of TGL and have let their personalities be on full display. Some players have the personality of a cinder block and won’t ever give that up.
Regardless, TGL has had a successful first season, minus a few hiccups along the way, but that’s expected when creating a completely new product. It’ll be interesting to see if they add more teams and if there’s interest among players to join the league.
Two Weeks Away From The Masters
During March Madness, numerous ads for The Masters were shown. It was a reminder of how the 2025 season is flying by. This season has been a season where the top players appear to be peaking at the right time. Rory McIlroy recently won The Players, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, and Joaquin Niemann are finding their form on LIV, Justin Thomas is playing consistently, and Ludvig Aberg has an early win. That’s just the start of it, not to mention Scottie Scheffler plays Augusta very well, Sepp Straka is elevating to be a star, and there always seems to be someone who comes out of nowhere to put them on the first page of the leaderboard.
There are still a few tournaments where guys can find their form as players embark on the yearly trip to the Georgia/South Carolina border. With the top players in the world collectively playing really good golf, this year’s Masters has the makings of a memorable one. Perhaps a playoff is on the horizon. The last playoff occurred in 2017 when Sergio Garcia, another player who’s having a successful 2025 season, took down Justin Rose for his first and only major championship. The five Masters this decade have featured only one one-stroke winner when Hideki Matsuyama won over Will Zalatoris. Take that with a grain of salt, as Matsuyama bogeyed three of the last four holes, and wasn’t really challenged all day on that Sunday.
Whatever happens next month at The Masters, it should be another memorable week at the greatest tournament the game has to offer.
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