Viktor Hovland tamed the Snake Pit, making birdies on two of the final three holes at the Copperhead Course to edge Justin Thomas by one stroke and win the 2025 Valspar Championship on Sunday in Palm Harbor, Florida.
Hovland closed with a final-round 4-under 67 at Innisbrook Resort to win for the seventh time on the PGA Tour and first time since 2023, a span of 21 starts during which he recorded just two top 10 finishes.
"It feels unbelievable. It's been quite the struggle the past year and a half, so for me to come back and win this tournament is quite incredible," he said. "I was not very hopeful with my game leading into this week and, yeah, just goes to show this game is pretty crazy."
Mired in a slump since winning the 2023 FedEx Cup and starring at the Ryder Cup in Rome later that year, Hovland shared the 54-hole Valspar lead and came out roaring in the final round with birdies on two of his first three holes. He poured in a left-to-right bender at the first to grab the lead at 8-under and stretched it to two strokes with an 18-footer at three. His lone bogey on the front nine at No. 7 dropped him into a four-way tie for the lead – nine different players held a share of the lead on the day – but Hovland remained patient even when he trailed by as many three strokes on the back nine.
"I played this week like a veteran, like I've been out here for 20 years," Hovland said of how he plotted his way around the challenging Larry Packard-designed layout.
Thomas, who opened with a 4-over 40 on the front nine Thursday and had to sweat out the 36-hole cut on Friday, charged into contention on Saturday with a tournament-best 65.
"I felt like if I made this cut I was going to have a chance to win the tournament. And I had a really good chance," said Thomas, who shot a tournament record 131 on the weekend.
Thomas was seeking to end an even longer winless drought, dating to the 2022 PGA Championship. In the final round, his putter, which has been responsible for his dip in performance, was rock solid. He birdied three of the first six holes and was the first player to reach double-digits-under par for the week after a birdie at No. 12, his fifth of the day. He tacked on birdies at Nos. 14 and 15 and held a three-shot lead before Hovland birdied the par-5 14th too. Entering the Snake Pit, Thomas held the edge but missed the fairway at 16 and 18 — both to the left — and made bogeys, signing for 66 and a 10-under 274 total.
"It sucks not winning when you're that close and have a great chance, but I just hopefully put myself in the same position in [three] weeks at Augusta and finish it off better," he said of the Masters, the first men's major of the season.
Hovland made birdie at the first two legs of the Snake Pit, sticking his approach at 16 to 6 feet and to 12 feet at 17. Hovland gave a window into his soul in describing how despite hitting the closest approach shot of the day at 16, his swing still feels unreliable. “I sound like a complete lunatic and I’m aware of that but I’m standing over the ball at 16 and it feels like I’m essentially stalling my body waiting for my hands to go down to time it up perfectly at the ball,” he explained. “As soon as I looked up, I’m like, ‘Please, be straight’ and it just happened to go straight at the pin.”
Thomas’s dropped shot at the last meant Hovland could afford a wild drive right at 18 that resulted in a bogey and still win with a 72-hole aggregate of 11-under 273 total.Somehow Hovland pieced his swing together a week after shooting a first-round 80 at the Players Championship.
"I hit a lot of disgusting shots but they just happened to go where I was looking," he said. "I can still hit good shots but there are also some bad shots in there. It’s still the same tendencies."
During Hovland's 15-month slump, his world ranking dipped from fourth to No. 19 entering this week. [The victory propelled him back to No. 8.] Hovland is his own worst critic and a perfectionist at heart. With mounting insecurity and doubt, he compared his struggle to regain past form to a person drowning. "You're running out of air," he said. "Yeah, it's tough to get excited to go and play because you just don't feel like you have the confidence to succeed."
He missed his third straight cut for the first time in his career last week at the Players and hadn’t made the weekend in a tournament with a cut yet this season. After each setback, his mother would point out that other players missed the cut too, but he laughed and noted, "it doesn't console me."
Hovland hasn't been shy about seeking new answers. After missing the cut two weeks ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Hovland switched coaches, returning to Grant Waite, who he worked with briefly last March, his sixth different coach in the past year.
“I’m trying to get to the bottom of this," he toldGolfweekon Wednesday on the eve of the tournament. "From the outside, it looks kind of chaotic but to get to the bottom of stuff you have to make decisions like that.”
Hovland said he nearly didn't play this week but since he was already in Florida and his new coach could spend time with him, he decided to go ahead and compete. It was a decision that paid quick dividends.
“Wasn’t sure I was going to show up but I’m glad I did,” Hovland said.
