Paul McGinley gives away ‘a little secret’ about the Ryder Cup following discussions with Viktor Hovland’s coach

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Viktor Hovland would be forgiven for looking at the US Open leaderboard and thinking that he has rarely had a better opportunity to win his first major title, with the Norwegian one of only three players under par at virtually the halfway mark at Oakmont.

Friday at the US Open seemed to be all about staying in the tournament. The likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Ludvig Aberg will not be playing over the weekend, while Rory McIlroy has a mountain to climb if he wants to win his second major title of the year.

Few would have anticipated that in the group of Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa, it would be Hovland who would be the star of the show.

Hovland did win at the Valspar Championship. However, that remains his only top 10 on the PGA Tour this year. Meanwhile, he finished just outside the top 20 at both The Masters and the PGA Championship.

But he has put himself in a brilliant position at Oakmont.

What Viktor Hovland’s coach told Paul McGinley they are working on at the US Open

Hovland is one under par after posting a 68 on Friday. He is currently two shots back of Sam Burns, with only J.J. Spaun separating the two.

And it seems that Hovland is in a good place at the moment. Speaking on Golf Channel, Paul McGinley suggested that he was delighted with what his coach told him this week about what they are working on.

“I’ll let you in to a little secret here, you might have heard me say it before, my Ryder Cup captaincy was based on one thing more than anything else. It was a template. What had worked before in captains and Ryder Cup teams that I’d been involved in, and what I’d observed before. That was what was worked on,” he said.

“I walked a practice round here with Viktor this week, and Grant Waite, who’s his coach, was walking around. I know Grant from playing with Grant on tour and we chatted, and this is the second time around the block with Viktor. And we talked about Viktor and where he was at, obviously, I’ve got my eye on Viktor with Ryder Cup coming up in September, and I said, ‘how we doing’, because I’m always a bit worried when a new coach comes on the scene with a player. Is he going to change too much of what goes on? And I said, ‘Grant, how we doing, what are we working here, how are you getting on with Viktor?’ And he said exactly those words to me, he says, ‘well Paul, what we’re doing is we’re going back to the template of what worked two years ago’. That was the word he used. The minute he said that, my ears went like this and my eyes went like that. I thought, ‘really, tell me more’. He said, ‘well, we feel that two years ago, he was right where he needed to be as a player, and we’re trying to find that way back. We’re trying to go back to that’. Maybe the mistake was chasing a bit of distance, and maybe the mistake of trying to correct the ball and go a little bit right to left rather than predominantly left to right. And I said, ‘I love to hear what you’re saying, Grant. Keep on going and off we go’.

“I love the fact that he’s going back to what worked two years ago and he’s not reinventing the wheel, because Viktor two years ago was the best player in the world at one stage, and all he’s got to do is replicate that and be a little more consistent with it.”

Viktor Hovland’s impressive statistics from the first two rounds at the US Open

Of course, there have been a couple of false dawns with Hovland over the last couple of years. He finished third at the PGA Championship at Valhalla last year, while he has not really found himself in contention since winning the Valspar.

But it is encouraging that almost all aspects of the 27-year-old’s game seemed to be working well this week. He has gained the best part of six shots per round from tee to green over the first two days in Pennsylvania.

His putting performance has been a little more disappointing. But given the rain on Friday evening, perhaps he may find that a little easier over the weekend.

It is notable that only one player inside the top 10 currently has previously won a major. Hovland therefore, is one of the players who really could take control of the tournament if he can pick up where he left off on Friday.