Ahead of the India Championship on the 2025 DP World Tour, Viktor Hovland talks Mayakoba and the Ryder Cup controversy.
The PGA Tour stopped it annual visit to Mayakoba after 2022, but the topography of the El Camaleón Golf Club still holds the attention of Viktor Hovland. The championship design by Greg Norman in Riviera Maya, Mexico, forms a significant chunk of Hovland’s triumphs on Tour with two of his early wins coming here.
Viktor Hovland finds familiarity in the unknown at the India Championship on the 2025 DP Tour
Those heady days were in 2020, with a repeat the following season. The tournament changed over time with the Mayakoba Golf Classic getting renamed the World Wide Technology Championship. Amid the changes, there was one constant.
The central theme of the two editions was Hovland’s triumphant run, one that was good enough to enter the record books for the way he went about it.
Seated in the media centre of the DP World India Championship, Hovland’s trip back in time was a lot more about reviving the memories of a venue that holds a special place in his seven wins to date.
How he planned his successes in Mexico is another tale. When Hovland tees off at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) on Thursday, he will be drawing comparisons between this quaint venue with his turf of success in Mayakoba.
The tight fairways and dense vegetation on both sides evoked nostalgia, but he spotted the startling resemblance the moment he arrived at the DGC on Tuesday. With little time to acclimatise, he stands thankful that the old-style design has retained its original character after the redesign, an aspect that will help the troublesome neck.
“It gives me a Mayakoba feel, and I’ve had some success there, so already good vibes being here. It has a cool feel, especially seeing some old buildings and some ruins (referring to the mausoleums that dot the course),” said Hovland.
This course is known to cut out all attempts at flamboyance off the tee, so for first-timers here, like Hovland, a prudent step will be to keep the driver out of the bag.
Ryder Cup angst
Not touching the driver, or for that matter, any club in his golf club, was the way he made the trip to India.
“I took about a week-and-half off after the Ryder Cup and didn’t touch a club. I was kind of running out of time a little bit to make a decision if I wanted to come here or not. I played two 18-hole rounds in a row back-to-back, and my neck felt okay, so I decided to fly over here and give it a chance,” said Hovland.
Despite the acrimony in New York, the Ryder Cup ended in glory for Europe despite the acrimony in New York. While Hovland was fully keyed in towards the team’s cause, his body wasn’t as willing. His struggles through Friday and Saturday were obvious, but he kept trying hard all through — that superb putt on the 17th that contributed towards consolidating Europe’s lead.
When the pain breached the barrier, Hovland was forced to withdraw from Sunday’s singles against Harris English. Under the controversial envelope rule, Hovland gave his team half a point without turning up, leading to an outcry on the other side.
Hovland chose his words carefully, but it was clear which side of the debate he was on.
“We’re so used to in sport that if you can’t play because you’re hurt, that should be a loss of point. But in the spirit of the Ryder Cup, spirit of the game, and the history of it, knowing that this Ryder Cup is just a part of many Ryder Cups to come, it’s more of a gentlemen’s agreement that ‘okay, you were hurt this time and maybe the next time there’s a guy on the US team and we’re all sympathetic about the person being hurt and not being able to play’.”
Sandwiched between the outcry, in light of the narrow 15-13 final outcome against the Americans, there have been noisy calls for changing this rule. Hovland was posed with the question, but he didn’t have a plausible solution.
“If you do change the rule and give away a point, there’s also the angle that okay, knowing that the other team is going to put out their best player most likely in the first few groups, they can just kind of put me out as a sacrificial lamb and take the L (loss) against their best player.
“I don’t think there’s any ideal way to do it, and even though it’s a tough situation, and at the end of the day, we’d all be wanting to go out there and play.”
