#Viktor Hovland claims FedEx Cup with dominant Tour Championship win

ATLANTA — Exactly five weeks from now, the United States and Europe will be dueling through the singles matches of the Ryder Cup. If there’s any justice in the golf world, Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele will go head-to-head in that match, with the Ryder Cup on the line.

All due respect to Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and all the other Ryder Cup players (in Koepka’s case, potential players), but nobody’s hotter than Hovland right now, and nobody’s cooler than Schauffele. Their head-to-head, final-round-pairing battle for the FedEx Cup wasn’t quite match play — not when Hovland came into the day with a six-shot lead — but the result was some of the most entertaining eye-to-eye golf of the now-completed 2022-23 season.

Hovland won the day and the FedEx Cup, shooting a final round 7-under and closing out the tournament at 27-under with a closing birdie. Schauffele, who finished at 22-under thanks to an 8-under day, had chopped Hovland’s one-touchdown lead down to a field goal with six holes to play. That set up the defining moment of the tournament: Hovland’s curling, 23-foot par save on the 14th.

That make spared Hovland what would have been just his third bogey of the week, and kept Schauffele three strokes back.

“I had a chance to get to two and he made that bomb on [14], which really hurt,” Schauffele said. “I was charging all day and I felt like that really put a stop to me.”

Two holes later, Hovland rolled in a 10-foot birdie to extend his lead back to four. He followed that up with a birdie on the 17th, and at that point, the engraving on the FedEx Cup trophy began. One long stroll down the sloping 18th of East Lake later, and the Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup and an $18 million check were all his.

What distinguishes Hovland is his absolute dialed-in calm. He’ll spend much of a tournament’s early rounds smiling, grinning even at missed putts — of which there aren’t many these days. But on Sunday, he was completely locked in, focused only on the next shot, the next putt, the next moment. Just like he did last week in winning the BMW Championship with a closing 61, Hovland left the smiling behind and focused with unshakable intensity for the entire round.

Schauffele, by this point, has a closet full of bridesmaid’s dresses to go with his Olympic gold medal. He’s still without a major, having finished as high as T2 in both the Masters and the Open Championship. But he’s played with an uncanny steadiness, particularly at East Lake. In 28 rounds, he’s never shot over par. After winning the event in 2017, he’s finished second three times, fourth, T5 and T7.

It was just Schauffele’s luck that he happened to beat Hovland head-to-head on Sunday, -8 to -7, and tied him in absolute score for the entire tournament, -19 apiece. But because of the Tour Championship’s staggered-start format, Hovland had a five-stroke advantage before play even began on Thursday, and that was enough.

“I’ll hold my head up high. It was the most fun I had losing in quite some time,” Schauffele said. “It’s such a weird feeling. I shot 62. I lost by five.” Afterward, he walked a line of East Lake fans, signing dozens of autographs and posing for selfies before disappearing into the clubhouse.

“Hell of a player,” McIlroy said after the round of Hovland. “He works incredibly hard. Nothing but respect for how he goes about his business. True professional. For someone that’s still so young, he’s got quite an old head on those shoulders.”

“He’s not that old. Nobody’s going to be the finished package at that age, really, apart from maybe Tiger Woods,” Tommy Fleetwood said of the 25-year-old Hovland. “He’s showing how good he truly can be, and I think he’ll keep going from strength to strength.”

The eyes of the men’s professional golf world now turn to the Ryder Cup. Captains from the U.S. and Europe are slated to make their picks in the coming days, with American captain Zach Johnson scheduled to announce his six captain’s picks on Tuesday. Several players put themselves in position for consideration but slipped back on the tournament’s final day, including Collin Morikawa, Kegan Bradley and Jordan Spieth.

“it’s going to be a really, really cool tournament this time around,” Hovland said. “It’s one of my favorite moments of all time just playing at Whistling Straights last time, but I think it can only go up from there this time around. So I’m super excited.”

Given how well he and the rest of his future teammates are playing, so are Team Europe’s fans.