Every star athlete starts somewhere small. For Viktor Hovland, that somewhere was an indoor driving range in Oslo, hitting balls through Norwegian winters most people would not survive. Fast forward to today, Hovland can’t book a tee time in his own hometown. And that’s the price of turning an entire country on to golf. The PGA Tour shared a clip of Hovland explaining why exactly that sometimes becomes a problem. It’s equal parts funny and telling.
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“Back home, even when I’m back home, I can hardly practice because there are no tee times available. There are just people out always playing, and with how late the sunlight stays out in Norway in the summer. I mean, there’s guys playing until 10 p.m. at night, and it’s, yeah, it’s sometimes annoying to [be] out there and not get a tee time. But it’s cool to see so many people play golf and talk about it, and people think it’s cool, which is something that it hasn’t been regarded as before. So I think that’s all just really cool to be a part of.”
The eight-time PGA Tour winner grew up in Oslo, where summer daylight stretches well past 10 p.m. While that may sound difficult for some, Norwegians have used it to their advantage, playing more golf than ever.
Moreover, this isn’t the first time Hovland’s fame has jammed up a tee sheet. Back in 2021, his name quietly showed up on a booking app for a sunset round at Larvik Golfklubb. Within hours, 200 to 300 fans showed up just to watch him play. Some even drove over seven hours from Bergen. One fan was also reported to have flown in after cancelling his entire workday.
It’s a funny, annoying complaint by Hovland, but it’s rooted in a real change. Norway isn’t a golf nation by tradition, but Hovland’s impact has changed that. The Norwegian Golf Federation has the numbers to prove it. Membership sat around 90,836 in 2019, but a year later it had crossed 100,000, years ahead of the federation’s own target. Officials pointed straight to Hovland’s rise, alongside Suzann Pettersen’s Solheim Cup heroics, as the spark. Kristoffer Ventura and Kristoffer Reitan have also added depth to Norway’s pipeline, but Hovland remains the reason parents now see golf as a real path to the top.
As for Viktor’s childhood, it traces back to his father. Harald Hovland picked up golf while working as an engineer in St. Louis. He brought a set of clubs home to Oslo and taught 11-year-old Viktor the game. With brutal winters limiting outdoor time, young Viktor spent most of his hours grinding in an indoor range, reportedly inside a converted aircraft hangar, just to keep swinging. He has gone from there to a U.S. Amateur title and a top-three world ranking over the years.
Jon Rahm Turned Home-Country Golf Into a Movement
Notably, like Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm has had a similar effect in his hometown in Spain. One of the biggest moments came at his 2022 Open de España win. It pulled thousands of young fans to Club de Campo, prompting Thomas Bjorn to say he hadn’t seen that many kids at a Spanish event in years.
Rahm has never hidden how much the connection to his Spanish fans means to him. He calls it his duty to show up for Spanish crowds whenever his schedule allows, even skipping bigger paydays elsewhere just to tee up at home.
“As a Spanish player it is my duty and if I can only come to one, then I will come to one,” he said at Open de España. “I will try what I can to play and to support my country. I am aware of the impact a player like me can have and I have seen it every time I come, so like I said, I take it upon me as a duty to be able to come and try to perform and give them four days of entertainment and something to look forward to.”
He has echoed that sentiment year after year, insisting the emotion of playing in front of Spanish fans hits differently than anywhere else on the tour.
Rahm has also taken the initiative beyond his own schedule. The Spaniard has run youth clinics through the Seve Ballesteros Foundation, drawing in over 600 children for the “Golf for Kids” program built around his name and Seve’s legacy. Even local coaches in his hometown region have pointed out that more young golfers show up to try the sport every year because of the program.
In Hovland and Rahm, two different countries have found the same story: a homegrown star making golf cool at home, just wearing a different flag.