Viktor Hovland shared the 2023 Tour Championship after Round 1 on Thursday (August 24). The golfer shared T1, at East Lake in Atlanta, with Collin Morikawa and Keegan Bradley after the trio shot scores of -10. Hovland will now tee off at 1:49 pm ET with Scottie Scheffler ahead of Morikawa and Bradley at 2:00 pm ET on Day 2.
Hovland fired off a bogey-free 68 on Thursday to claim the lead. Opening up on his performance, the 25-year-old Norwegian golfer later stated that it felt ‘nice’ to play bogey-free but added that he still had room for improvement.
Speaking after his Round 1 outing, Viktor Hovland was quoted as saying by SB Nation:
“Obviously bogey-free is always nice, especially around this track. I did feel like I left a couple putts out there — yeah, I felt like I played a little bit better than the score, but hopefully that comes tomorrow or the rest of the week."
It is noteworthy that Hovland made his first birdie on the par-4 10th and later made another on the par-4 13th.
He said:
“You want to make a lot of birdies and separate yourself. That’s not always so easy. So it’s a lot easier just to make a lot of pars — keep it stress-free. Then when the putter starts getting hot, then you can feel like you can put four, five, six birdies together in a span of nine holes. That’s definitely doable out here. But it’s so easy to go the opposite way as well. That’s what makes this place such a great golf course.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the five-time PGA Tour winner fares on Friday with his aggressive approach to the FedEx Cup Playoffs final.
Viktor Hovland’s Tour Championship Round 2 tee times and pairings
Viktor Hovland will tee off Round 2 of the Tour Championship at 1:49 pm ET with fourth-placed Scottie Scheffler. The duo will tee off ahead of the Norwegian’s co-leaders Collin Morikawa, who will tee off with Keegan Bradley at 2:00 pm ET.
Here are the complete tee times and pairings for the second round of the 2023 Tour Championship (All times Eastern):
- 11:26 am - Nick Taylor, Emiliano Grillo
- 11:37 am - Sungjae Im, Taylor Moore
- 11:48 am - Tommy Fleetwood, Jordan Spieth
- 11:59 am - Si Woo Kim, Tony Finau
- 12:10 pm - Lucas Glover, Corey Conners
- 12:21 pm - Sam Burns, Max Homa
- 12:32 pm - Sepp Straka, Jason Day
- 12:43 pm - Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay
- 12:54 pm - Brian Harman, Tom Kim
- 1:05 pm - Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark
- 1:16 pm - Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton
- 1:27 pm - Matt Fitzpatrick, Rory McIlroy
- 1:38 pm - Adam Schenk, Russell Henley
- 1:49 pm - Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler
- 2:00 pm - Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley
Tour Championship Round 3 tee times will be updated after Friday's Round 2.