Viktor Hovland suffered a surprising defeat at the hands of a LIV Golf player. It came just weeks after Hovland made headlines for his brutally honest comments on LIV Golf, which he dismissed as a “silly” and “unrealistic” video that would not make him a better golfer. Not only the Saudi-funded league, but the Norwegian star had stuff to say about the American Tour as well.

The 26-year-old also criticized the PGA Tour for its lack of transparency and communication with its members, saying that the tour was “not doing a good job” of addressing the issues that led to the players joining LIV Golf. But now it seems that despite his stellar performance in 2023, his words have returned, multiplied manifoldly as he stumbled upon a lost opportunity.

GWAA snub faced by Viktor Hovland

The Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) chose Jon Rahm as the best player of 2023 in his category. The 29-year-old will get his award at a special dinner in Augusta, Georgia, on April 10, the night before the Mastеrs start. Every year, GWAA recognizes the players who have done excellently in their respective categories.

Rahm was the top male player of the year and also won his second major tournament and first Masters in 2023 along with three other victories on the Tour. The 11x PGA Tour winner got almost half of the votes, beating out other great players like Viktor Hovland, who received 30%, and Scottie Schеfflеr, who received 18.1%. Notably, Schеfflеr was the previous year’s GWAA Male Player of the Year.

After the news, Rahm released a statement saying, “I am very grateful to have received this award. Our writers carefully follow every event and shot throughout the year, so being chosen as the Player of the Year by them is something I am going to cherish.”

Apart from him, there were two other winners in the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions category. The other two winners, especially, the LPGA phenom had a sensational season in 2023. 

Lilia Vu and Stеvе Strickеr also won this award

Lilia Vu had an amazing year in 2023. She started her season by winning the Honda LPGA Thailand, and then she also won two majors, the Chevron Championship and the AIG Women’s Open. She capped her season by winning The Annika Driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, where she rose to No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings. Her four victories helped her clench the LPGA Player of the Year title, along with massive earnings of $3,502,303.

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Vu received 72.9 percent of the GWAA’s first-place votes, defeating two other major winners, Celine Boutier and China’s Ruoning Yin. After winning this award, she said, “I came in with no expectations because last year I had too many and was hard on myself. I’m trying to enjoy every moment and be grateful I’m out here.”

Stricker got almost 80 percent of the votes and received the award at the age of 56. Notably, none of them had ever won a GWAA Player of the Year award before, and they all won major titles in 2023. Stay tuned to find out all the latest news in the golf world!

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