Viktor Hovland just couldn’t miss when it mattered most.
The Norwegian star birdied the 18th hole for the second time in barely 12 hours on Monday morning. That one dropped him into a playoff with Scottie Scheffler at the Travelers Championship. Then he did it again. Hovland rolled in a 6-foot-7 birdie putt to win the tournament, while Scheffler’s 2-foot-4 try slid by the edge of the cup.
It’s Hovland’s eighth career PGA Tour win and his first of the 2026 season. Not a bad way to break through.
Sunday night looked like Scheffler’s tournament to lose. He led by one when the weather sirens went off, forcing a rain delay with the 18th green in sight. But Hovland came out of that stoppage with two quick birdies. Scheffler, meanwhile, strung together pars. Just like that, the lead was gone and we were headed to sudden death.
The Shot That Started It All
Scheffler actually forced the playoff with an 8-foot-8 birdie putt on the 72nd hole. That came after he ripped an improbable second shot from deep rough that found the green. On the playoff hole, he found the fairway and both players stuck their approaches tight. Then the putters took over.
This is the eighth time the Travelers Championship has gone to a playoff since 2007. Scheffler won the most recent one in 2024. This time, he walked away second-best.
A Crowd That Traveled
The gallery at TPC River Highlands was something else. You had the usual Connecticut die-hards who treat this event like a holiday. But they were matched, maybe even out-shouted, by a massive contingent of Norwegian fans who made the trip. Erling Haaland’s Manchester City squad plays in Dallas on Tuesday, so there’s a whole contingent of European sports tourists making a week of it in the States.
Those Norwegian fans stuck around for Monday morning’s finish and got to watch their guy hoist the trophy. Tough to beat that payoff.
The Travelers is the last of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events for the season. Next stop is The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. That course hasn’t hosted since Jordan Spieth won there in 2017. We’ve had three different major winners so far this season. If Hovland or someone else wins at Birkdale, it’ll be the first time since 2023 with four unique major champions. Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, and Aaron Rai probably have something to say about that.
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