On a Sunday when numbers were swirling in the warm Chicago sunshine, none mattered more than 61.
That’s the remarkable number Viktor Hovland posted in the final round at Olympia Fields, storming from behind to chase down Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick to win the BMW Championship while thrusting himself into position to possibly win the FedEx Cup title this week at the Tour Championship.
The round Hovland played Sunday had a legendary brilliance about it. Four strokes off the lead when he made the turn, Hovland made eight 3s and a 4 coming in for a closing 28 to shoot the lowest final round in FedEx Cup playoff history.
“It definitely has to be the best round I’ve ever played given the circumstances, a playoff event, this course. To finish the way I did is pretty special."
Viktor Hovland
“I was marking his card in there, and I'm like, ‘Oh, you only made one 4 on the back nine, the rest 3s,’ so it adds up to a nice little 28 for him,” Rory McIlroy said.
The longest of Hovland’s seven birdie putts on the closing nine was 13 feet, with five of them from 9 feet or closer.
“It definitely has to be the best round I’ve ever played given the circumstances, a playoff event, this course. To finish the way I did is pretty special,” said Hovland, a 25-year-old Norwegian who has not missed a cut in 22 PGA Tour events this season.
Hovland, who won the Memorial Tournament in June, already has clinched a spot on the European Ryder Cup team, and his aggressive style of play, which sometimes has hindered him, was in full bloom outside Chicago.
He has talked at times about adopting a slightly more conservative approach, and he played a near-flawless final round.
“I wouldn’t say making seven birdies (on the back nine) is trying to play more conservatively going into the green,” Hovland said. “It was more of a mindset thing. What is the right decision right here? Now commit to it. I hit some great shots, and the putts went in.”
It snatched the tournament from Scheffler, who led for much of the final round, only to see his hopes evaporate when he bogeyed the par-4 17th after having a pitching wedge second shot into the green from the fairway.
The consolation prize for Scheffler is he will start the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club with a two-stroke lead over Hovland based on the weighted scoring system used for the finale. Scheffler was the leader going to the 2022 Tour Championship as well.
“Pretty amazing round of golf to win this tournament like that,” Scheffler said.
“I still don't understand how the scores were so low this week. I don't know. This place seems pretty hard to me, but guys are just ripping it up. Sixty-one is a fantastic round, especially with Sunday pressure, and the way he finished was a really fantastic round.”
Scheffler will start at 10-under-par, followed by Hovland at 8-under. Rory McIlroy, chasing a fourth FedEx title, will start at 7-under, followed by Jon Rahm at 6-under, Lucas Glover at 5-under and Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark and Fitzpatrick at 4-under. The rest of the 30-man field will start between 3-under and even par based on their standing.
Sliding into the top 30, which not only comes with a spot in the Tour Championship but tee times in three of the major championships (Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship) next year, became a story within the Sunday story.
The last two players to qualify for East Lake were Jordan Spieth and Sepp Straka, both of whom thought they had bogeyed their way out of the top 30 on the finishing hole.
Instead, it was Sahith Theegala, who bogeyed the 72nd hole to drop from inside the line to the first man out, where he was when the week began.
Ron Green Jr.