Hovland captures Tour Championship, wins first FedExCup for $18m payday

Long seen as a rising star on the PGA Tour, Viktor Hovland has officially arrived. The Norwegian ran away with the Tour Championship and lifted the FedExCup for the first time in his young career on Sunday in Atlanta.

Hovland entered the day with a six-shot advantage over Xander Schauffele and never let that margin become smaller than three.

He turned in a final-round 63 at East Lake Golf Club to finish at 27 under, while Schauffele fired an eight-under-par 62 — the lowest round of the day — but landed at 22 under for the week.

Hovland, 25, won the PGA Tour’s season-long points race and $18m in the process. He shot a final-round 61 last week to win the second leg of the FedExCup playoffs, the BMW Championship, which vaulted him to second place (eight under) to start the Tour Championship.

Jordan Spieth (2015) and Justin Thomas (2017) were the players younger than Hovland to win the FedExCup.

“I feel like I’ve taken a lot of steps this season,” Hovland said. “Contending in more major championships, I finally won in the US, I won a big tournament, Jack’s event [the Memorial Tournament], and honestly, after that, I felt like I’ve got so much better and it was very pleasing to see.

“And then, obviously, the last couple of weeks have just superseded that.”

Hovland and Schauffele each birdied four of their first six holes on Sunday to separate from the rest of the field. Schauffele found an even higher gear, making putts of 11, 18 and 12 feet for three more birdies at Nos 8, 11 and 12 to close the gap.

But Hovland held his ground by saving par for nine straight holes. The most critical may have been at the par-four 14th when Schauffele was already in with a four and Hovland sank a curling, right-to-left par putt from 23 feet out.

“I think I was four under through six, and even then Xander just kept pouring it on and suddenly after I missed those couple of short birdie putts early on the back nine, suddenly the lead was at three, and if I miss that putt on 14, it’s suddenly two,” Hovland said.

“So what [Schauffele] was doing today was very special. Certainly, it made this day a lot more stressful than I felt like it should have been after that start.”

Hovland slammed the door with birdies at Nos 16, 17 and 18, and Schauffele’s birdie reservoir ran out until the 18th.

Schauffele recorded his 28th consecutive round of par or better at East Lake, but it was not enough to help him overtake the entire field. He began the week seven shots off the pace at three under. He settled for a $6.5m second prize.

“I’ll hold my head up high,” Schauffele said. “It was the most fun I had losing in quite some time. It’s such a weird feeling. I shot 62. I lost by five. Just kudos to Havi.”

US Open champion Wyndham Clark shot a 65 to finish third at 16 under and win $5m.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, last year’s FedExCup champion, birdied five of his final seven holes to post a 65 and place fourth at 14 under. Patrick Cantlay (66) was fifth at 13 under.

The season will resume with the “FedExCup Fall” series, on September 14-17 at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California. But the big event of the northern autumn is the Ryder Cup, scheduled for September 29 to October 1 in Rome. Players such as Schauffele, Hovland and McIlroy have already earned spots on their respective teams.

“The other 11 guys on the European team I don’t think would have an issue if they went out with Viktor,” McIlroy said.

Field Level Media