Viktor Hovland’s quest for a three-peat in Mexico is off to a solid start

At this week’s World Wide Technology Championship, Viktor Hovland has a likelihood to obtain certainly one of golf’s rarest feats: profitable the identical event three years in a row.

It’s unlikely sufficient for a participant to efficiently defend a title every year, so the thought of a participant profitable three straight occasions is almost unprecedented.

Incredibly, three gamers have managed to do it over the course of the PGA Tour’s historical past: Tiger Woods, Stuart Appleby and Steve Stricker. Woods, in fact, has the excellence of a whopping 4 completely different three-peats, and even has two extra 4-peats on his resume.

But Stricker is the latest participant to do it, profitable the John Deere Classic in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Now, Hovland is hoping to grow to be the primary participant in a decade and solely the fourth ever to three-peat — and he’s off to a good start.

On Thursday, Hovland fired a gap spherical of six-under 65 that featured six birdies, two bogeys and an eagle on the El Camaleon Golf Course at Mayakoba. He trails event chief Will Gordon by three photographs.

“It was an interesting day,” Hovland stated after his spherical. “I began on the again 9 and made a good birdie on 11, made a very nice up-and-down on 12. Hit in the center of the green on 13 and thought I used to be going to add one other birdie on the cardboard, however hit a horrible shot in the water and made a bogey.

“The back nine was kind of, I hit a lot of good shots, made a birdie and then we just kind of would give it back right away,” he continued. “So the back nine was a little bit frustrating, but yeah, the front really put me back in the tournament, so that was a lot of fun.”

At six beneath par out of the beginning gate, Hovland is additionally off to a good hotter start than he’s posted in years previous.

“I think the last two years I’ve started 4 and 5 under, so even improved on that,” he stated.

Even if it doesn’t work out for Hovland this week, golf followers could have a likelihood to watch 4 extra gamers attempt for three-peat glory in the approaching 12 months, beginning with Sam Burns on the Valspar Championship, then Okay.H. Lee on the AT&T Byron Nelson, Rory McIlroy on the RBC Canadian Open and Patrick Cantlay on the BMW Championship.

Hovland will start his second spherical alongside Scottie Scheffler and Keith Mitchell at 1:30 p.m. ET. on Friday.

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