Hovland Caps Amateur Career With US Open Silver Medal

The 21-year-old makes his professional debut this week at the Travelers Championship

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Hovland Caps Amateur Career With US Open Silver Medal

Viktor Hovland began the US Open final round two behind fellow amateur Brandon Wu, knowing that it was to be his last ever round as an amateur.

The Norwegian was favourite for the non-professional honours from the start of the week, but American Wu was two ahead of him heading into the final round.

Hovland went on to shoot a brilliant 67 (-4) on the final day, whilst Wu carded a two over par 73 to finish four short.

Hovland won the 2018 US Amateur at Pebble Beach

Hovland now turns professional after an incredible 12 months that have seen him win the US Amateur, Masters low amateur honours, US Open low amateur honours and reach the number one spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

He’ll make his debut this week at the Travelers Championship, and much like fellow European Jon Rahm, he is expected to continue where he left off and make huge waves in the pro game.

Hovland with the Silver Cup after winning the low amateur honours at the 2019 Masters. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Hovland may only be 21, but he is without doubt a star and will surely lift many trophies as a pro and be a key member in future Ryder Cup teams.

He finished the US Open in a tie for 12th with a total of 280, the lowest score ever recorded by an amateur in the tournament’s 119-year history, beating Jack Nicklaus’ 282 total from 1960.

“Yeah, that was fun,” he said of performance at Pebble Beach.

“I hit a lot of greens and hit a lot of fairways this week. Got off to a great start on the first round but wasn’t quite able to capitalise on it. I had another great start today, and it was nice to finish with a birdie and shoot 4-under at a course that I really like.

“It’s obviously cool to perform such a thing. And I hope that this will feed or I can feed off of this going into my professional career and do more things like this and be in contention of winning tournaments.”

Watch his highlights from the week –

He also led the field for the week in Strokes Gained: Off the tee, a truly remarkable feat for a 21-year-old amateur teeing it up with the world’s best players.

Another former amateur sensation Matthew Wolff joins Hovland in making his pro debut this week at the Travelers Championship.

Wolff and Hovland were teammates at Oklahoma State University and both look set to take the Tour by storm.

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