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Viktor Hovland Suffers an Extremely Unfortunate Situation at the Mayakoba Golf Classic

Published 11/05/2021, 2:48 PM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

The Mayakoba Classic is currently underway at the El Camaleon Golf Club. There are quite a few stars competing this week, like Viktor Hovland, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and others. Meanwhile, Viktor Hovland is the defending champion of this event and is looking to retain his crown at the Mexican tournament.  

Hovland gained a lot of experience on the tour owing to his active participation and most importantly, the Ryder Cup. However, he faced an unfortunate situation recently in Mayakoba Classic during a practice round on Wednesday. So let us have a look at what exactly was that unexpected incident.  

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Viktor Hovland shares an unfortunate situation he faced at Mayakoba golf classic

Hovland had a decent round one as he made five birdies and a bogey to remain four-under 67. Moreover, he is currently six shots behind the leader, Matthew Wolff. Furthermore, he missed just two of the 14 fairways, but unfortunately, none with his driver. He used James Hahn’s driver as he faced an unfortunate situation. 

via Reuters

Danny Lee, a golfer from New Zealand, and Viktor Hovland were next to each other on Wednesday on the range. And that’s when Lee hit a tee shot with Viktor Hovland’s driver and it shockingly snapped into three different pieces.

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“I mean, he was just doing a speed session behind me, and we were just talking,Hovland said. “He asked me if I could hit some on his quad, and I hit some drives as hard as I could, and then he went back to hitting his and like I was just kind of a — I was just curious; I wanted to see if he could get his ball speed up with my driver that was a little longer. Yeah, and then the rest is history.”

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“Yeah, I don’t know where it snapped or how he snapped it, but I just look up after he hit the shot, and it was in pieces.” Meanwhile, Hovland’s driver broke due to Lee’s recoil on his driver swing, according to PGA Tour’s website. 

James Hahn offers his backup driver to Hovland

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Meanwhile, after this unfortunate incident, another Tour pro, James Hahn, offered his backup driver. However, even though this was identical to Viktor’s original driver, it was slightly shorter. 

via Reuters

“James Hahn was in front, and he was nice enough to lend me one of his backups,” Hovland said. “It’s a little bit shorter. It’s a different shaft, but honestly, almost helped me this week because it’s a little shorter. It probably goes 10 yards shorter, but I just felt like I could really hit it a little lower and a little straighter.”

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Hence, after this unfortunate incident, which took place just a day before the first round, Hovland had to go ahead with a shorter driver. But this seems to be going well so far, and he will be hopeful of continuing it through to the weekend. 

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Amey Kulkarni

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Amey Kulkarni is a Golf writer at EssentiallySports. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in mass media from HR College, Mumbai. Before joining EssentiallySports he used to write articles on Golf and Cricket on his personal blog cricgolf.
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