WATCH: Hit your driver longer with the Viktor Hovland "pump fake" action
01/06/2025 02:00 PM
Viktor Hovland endured an unsettled 2024.
A superstar in 2023, when he won three times on the PGA Tour including the Tour Championship and starred Europe in the Ryder Cup, he changed his coach in the close season and it didn't go well.
In fact, he failed to land a top 15 finish in his first seven starts of 2024 and so returned to his old coach ahead of the PGA Championship.
He promptly finished third but, although he added a second place late in the summer, it was not a year to remember for the Norwegian.
New Year, therefore, offered him the chance to press the reset button and, although he broke his little toe in a bedroom accident over the holiday period, he has already unveiled a return to old ways in the season-opening event in Hawaii.
A return of the double-pump for Viktor Hovland. https://t.co/4Tyexz5LQjpic.twitter.com/FrDiLwNCiy
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 4, 2025
In round two of The Sentry, Hovland took aim at the green on the 306-yard par-4 and shocked TV viewers and commentators with his fake pump, a move that sees him pause at the top of the backswing, fake his downswing, and then deliver the real thing second time around.
"We haven't seen that in three seasons," gasped the announcer as the ball bounded up to the putting surface leaving the Oslo-born player with a 17-foot eagle putt he would drain minutes later.
On X, the PGA Tour revived a video from 2019 in which the then-rookie Hovland explains why he sometimes uses this action.
"My normal kind of driver swing creates a little cut," he explained before going on to reveal why he sometimes takes a different option.
"If I have a hole that's a dog leg," he said. "Or I need to kind of feel at least like a right-to-left shot, or if it's a long par-5 that is super wide, I take out the double pump."
The reason? "I hit it a little further."
In fact: "My good ones will go up to 15 yards further and it doesn't go a whole lot more off-line so I figure why not?"
What driver does Hovland use for his normal swing and the fake pump?
His weapon of choice from the tee is the PING G425 LST Driver with the following specifications: @8.5 (Flat Standard), 45.75", Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX, tipped 1", D5+, 14g CG shifter in neutral setting, Golf Pride Multicompound Black/Blue 60R +1 wrap.
READ MORE:2025 first look – what do we know about the new Ping G440 driver?
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