Viktor Hovland says he’s got a problem he needs to fix ahead of Augusta otherwise he’ll never win the Masters

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Viktor Hovland has finally returned to winning ways on the PGA Tour, lifting the trophy at the Valspar Championship.

Hovland was told he needed to putt better to win the Valspar Championship, before he edged past Justin Thomas by one shot.

Norwegian star Hovland impressed with his putter in the end as he finished on 11-under for his seventh PGA Tour win.

It represents a first win of the season for Hovland, and indeed a first win since he triumphed at the 2023 Tour Championship.

His latest success comes ahead of the Masters, which returns to Augusta National early next month as the first major championship of 2025.

Viktor Hovland wants to ‘rectify’ problem ahead of the Masters at Augusta

And that tournament was perhaps unsurprisingly mentioned in his winning press conference, with Hovland asked how nice it is to go into Augusta with some momentum.

“Definitely helps,” he replied. “Kind of goes back to what I’m saying about being hard on myself and being sure you could call it a perfectionist, it’s like some of the shots that I’m hitting, it’s going to make it really difficult for me to be in contention at Augusta if I don’t rectify that problem, if I don’t see the improvements there.

READ MORE: Golf fans think they’ve already seen ‘shot of the year’ after ‘insane’ moment during the final round of the Valspar Championship

“It’s just a different golf course. You’re going to hit so many long irons into par-4s and you got drive it pretty far because the fairways are pretty wide, it’s more of a bomber’s paradise versus this place it’s more just about being precise off the tee.

“So there’s still some things that I need to improve, but luckily we got two weeks and this is certainly nice to kind of have in the back of my mind leading up to Augusta.”

Viktor Hovland analysis ‘toughest tee shot’ at the Valspar Championship

Hovland had been really struggling heading into the Valspar Championship, having missed the cut in three successive tournaments.

And that may have been playing on his mind entering the infamous Snake Pit at Innisbrook Resort, comprising holes 16, 17 and 18.

READ MORE: Justin Thomas’ immediate reaction after losing the Valspar Championship to Viktor Hovland on the final few holes

Justin Thomas led by two upon arrival, but bogeyed 16 and 18 as Hovland played the stretch in one-under.

Asked what he was thinking teeing off on the 16th and what he was trying to do there, the Norwegian replied: “Yeah, that’s probably the toughest tee shot for me right now.

“Because it should fit my game really well, I should just kind of stand up there and I can hit a low pull cut that’s kind of curving with the fairway.

“But my miss right now is a push fade, a big push fade and that’s obviously going in the water. So over the ball I’ve been just really uncomfortable and I’ve hit 3-wood, because I couldn’t really hit the 3-iron and comfortably cover the water, so I hit a 3-wood and just pulled it two of the three days.

“Except for one of the days where the wind was hard off the left and the wind just brought it in the fairway.

“But yeah, it’s just a really uncomfortable tee shot for me, but luckily today it was downwind, the tee box was a little bit up, so I could hit the 3-iron and I still pushed it slightly, but it still went far enough to where it covered the water and I was in the middle of the fairway, so I was in a perfect position there to hit a good 7-iron into that back pin.”