Viktor Hovland overcomes doubts to claim seventh PGA TOUR win at Valspar Championship

Viktor Hovland overcame his recent swing demons with a stunning finish at the Valspar Championship to win his seventh PGA TOUR title.

The Norwegian has been candid in recent months about how he has been changing coaches and aspects of his swing in an attempt to improve a game that had already made him a Ryder Cup, Rolex Series and FedEx Cup winner.

To the outsider it appeared at times as if he was moving in the wrong direction and after arriving at Innisbrook Resort off the back of three missed cuts, he admitted he was not even sure if he would tee it up.

But play he did and after rounds of 70-67-69, he shared the 54-hole lead in seach of a first worldwide victory since the 2023 Tour Championship when he clinched FedEx Cup glory.

He did not have it all his own way on Sunday, however, and with five holes to play he was three behind a surging Justin Thomas.

But he birded the 14th and then the 16th and 17th on the Copperhead Course's renowned Snake Pit finish, allowing him the luxury of a bogey on the last as Thomas bogeyed the 16th and 18th.

"It feels unbelievable," said Hovland after a closing 67 handed him an 11 under finish and a one-shot victory. "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.

"I was not very hopeful with my game leading into this week and it just goes to show this game is pretty crazy.

"The last year and a half has been, 'OK, I know my golf game is not very good, I know I have some issues', and just because you have one bad round of golf or one bad tournament you would like to think that, 'Oh, OK, next week is another week', you'll figure it out.

"But when the problems remain and linger... you don't become more hopeful, it's like you keep drowning and you're running out of air. 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 added: "I just tried to go out there and play my game and I knew I didn't feel super comfortable or confident but I was really patient and just tried to play really smart and I think that's a credit kind of to myself.

"This week I almost felt like I played like a veteran, like I've been out here for 20 years. Just really plotted my way around the course really nicely.

"I hit a bad shot and it didn't really faze me all that much. I leaned on my putting, hit a lot of great iron shots, so, yeah, it was awesome."

The victory moves Hovland up to eighth in the Official World Golf Ranking and 19th in the European Ryder Cup Rankings.