Viktor Hovland Makes Surprising Coaching Change On Eve Of New PGA Tour Season

Viktor Hovland made the surprising decision to part ways with his coach Joe Mayo on the eve of the new PGA Tour season, according to the Golf Channel

Viktor Hovland and former coach Joe Mayo
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
By Paul Higham
published

Viktor Hovland has somewhat surprisingly split with his coach Joe Mayo on the eve of the new PGA Tor season - severing ties with the man credited with helping the Norwegian's massive short game improvements.

Hovland famously said "I just suck at chipping" in 2020 after capturing his maiden PGA Tour title, but saw huge improvement in 2023 as he went on to win the FedEx Cup.

Mayo began working on Hovland's short game in February last year, after four seasons on the PGA Tour where he failed to finish higher than 124th in Strokes Gained around the greens.

And from finishing 191st out of 193 players in 2022, Hovland shot up to finish 86th in 2023 and also finished 48th in scrambling and 36th in scrambling from the rough.

Just to highlight his improvement in what was by far the weakest part of his game, Hovland then produced a memorable chip-in on the first hole at the Ryder Cup.

Despite working on all those improvement with Mayo, though, Hovland has decided on making a coaching change, according to Golf Channel's Todd Lewis.

Hovland "did not want to get into details regarding the split" according to Lewis, with the news coming just before the start of the new season.

The Sentry in Hawaii marks the start of the 2024 PGA Tour campaign, where Hovland is looking to pick up where he left off last year when winning the BMW Championship and Tour Championship.

Hovland, who labels himself as a perfectionist, starts the year at No.4 in the world and having gone close a couple of times last year is eyeing his maiden Major title in 2024.

Having finished last year as the hottest player on the planet, a Major victory and even the World No.1 spot are both within his grasp, but he obviously feels he needs another coaching change to take that final step.

Paul Higham
Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush. 

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