What do you do when your drive goes into Pebble Beach’s most famous tree? Well, you try to get it back with the club. But Viktor Hovland had a different idea during the Sunday round at the AT&T Pro-Am.

Fore Play shared a clip on X that shows a crowd gathered beneath the tree, everyone staring upward, when the 28-year-old grabbed his umbrella and hurled it into the branches. The umbrella went up. Nothing came down.

After the failed umbrella mission, Hovland walked back to the tee box, hit another drive, stuck his approach to 16 feet, and two-putted for bogey.

However, the chaos started earlier in his round.

Viktor Hovland was cruising through the middle of the pack on Sunday when he reached the historic 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links, his ninth hole of the day. Coming off a birdie at 14 and a bogey at 17, he launched his drive into the iconic tree that sits in the fairway. The ball didn’t fall. Nobody could see it. Somehow it just stayed up there, hidden in the branches.

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Later, he closed with an even-par 72, eight pars and a birdie over his final nine, to finish tied for 58th at a six-under-par total.

The Norwegian’s Pebble Beach performance wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the breakthrough he’s hunting for in 2026. He entered the week off a top-10 finish at the WM Phoenix Open, where he ranked fifth in the field for Strokes Gained: Approach. His history at Pebble Beach runs deep. He won the U.S. Amateur there in 2018 and became low amateur at the 2019 U.S. Open, finishing 12th. Even during his struggles in 2025, he managed a top-25 finish at this event.

But this time, consistency just wasn’t there. Collin Morikawa ultimately won the tournament at 22-under, birdieing the final hole to edge out Min Woo Lee and Sepp Straka by one stroke.

The umbrella toss wasn’t Hovland’s only head-scratching moment. Earlier in the week at Pebble Beach, the former FedExCup champion was spotted on the driving range using child swimming floaties strapped to his arms during a practice session.

The floaties, yes, the kind kids wear in pools, are actually a legitimate training aid designed to keep the arms connected to the body during the swing, promoting a more compact and repeatable motion.

Viktor Hovland’s unconventional approach to the game extends beyond pool toys and umbrella throws. He’s been tinkering relentlessly with his equipment, testing different driver lengths at Pebble Beach and making putter grip changes in recent weeks.

However, Viktor Hovland wasn’t alone in creating memorable moments at Pro-Am.

When Pro-Am chaos takes center stage

The tree-lined 18th hole at Pebble Beach has led to strange rulings in the past. In 2018, PGA Tour pro Troy Merritt famously hit his ball into a big cypress tree on the 18th hole. This led to a discussion about the rules for a ball stuck in a tree and what players could do to get it out.

The Pro-Am has been unpredictable in recent years. In 2025, Shane Lowry accidentally hit a marshal with a bad tee shot on the 15th hole during the final round. This shows how quickly tight corridors and crowded galleries at Pebble Beach can turn normal shots into tense situations.

Unexpected moments have also included famous people, a key part of the event’s format since its Bing Crosby beginnings. Every February, amateurs and famous guests play the course with professionals.

But whether it was instinct, improvisation, or pure Pebble Beach unpredictability, Viktor Hovland’s strange moment only added another memorable chapter to the tournament’s long history of unexpected twists.