Viktor Hovland has seen his world rankings plummet in the course of the recent struggle.
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Two twenties on the rankings entered Sunday at the Valspar Championships and were struggling to find something.
One is looking for his first PGA Tour victory. Another is trying to find his swing.
Not that you will know from the numbers.
From a strict perspective, from his scorecard, you wouldn’t guess Viktor Hovland has been lost in the wilderness lately, burning in the swaying thoughts and coaches. Because he posted a 70-under 70-shot neatness on Innisbrook’s demanding Copperhead course on Saturday, demanding a portion of the 54-hole lead.
“It’s golf, it’s a crazy game,” Hofland said.
Deceptive. Because judging strictly by appearance, you wouldn’t guess that Jacob Bridgeman had never held this position before. But he was also on Saturday, when a 25-year-old didn’t win the tour, heading alongside Hofland in the final group, overcame the crumbling start and ended the day with the first game.
Bridgeman will be playing again tomorrow with Nico Echavarria, who posted 68 times to join the three-way lead by 7 shots. Hofland will be ahead of them with Ricky Castillo.
“It’s going to be a cool guy as the experience grows,” Bridgeman said. “Never done it.
On the squeeze rankings including Justin Thomas and Shane Lowry, with only two shots, the leader isn’t the only group to watch. However, Hofland and Bridgeman are a study in comparison, partly the Bay experience, but also give them different paths recently.
The past 12 months have not been kind to Hovland, who is the six-time champion and the 2023 FedEx champion. The 27-year-old Norwegian star is known for tinkering like Thomas Edison, even though his game looks good, and he is frustrated in his frustration when describing his experiments with coaches and swings. He slipped from third to 19th place in the world since finishing third in the 2024 PGA Championship and Judge Fedex St.
Meanwhile, Bridgeman has been rising rapidly. After missing layoffs in the first four games of 2025, the former Clemson star stood out to a series of strong performances, including the T2 on the Cognizant Classic and the T15 in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which earned him a ranking of over 100 positions worldwide.
Bridgeman opened five on Saturday and hit the top nine with the front nine of two shots before stabilizing himself with a dead eye, who produced four birdies behind.
“I just lowered my head and polished the best I could do,” Bridgeman said. “I wasn’t great. I wasn’t panicked. I wasn’t really frightened, but I knew if I could get the ball on the fairway, I would be fine.”
