Who do you think can win the Valspar Championship? While the eyes are certainly on Nico Echavarria, Jacob Bridgeman, and Viktor Hovland, as they are at T1. Justin Thomas is also someone you should probably consider. JT is sitting T5 alongside Kevin Yu Davis Riley, and Hovland has a 2-stroke lead over him. JT is playing to end his drought of three years, and for Hovlad, he comes to Sunday sitting at T1 position in about 574 days, his last being Tour Championship 2023. Both are here with an aim, and JT’s past statistics prove that it won’t be that hard for him to take the lead.

It has been pointed out that seven of Thomas’s wins, out of 15, have come when he was just trailing through the first three rounds, entering the final round. The last four wins he has had are the 2020 Sentry, 2020 World Golf Championships-FedEx St.Jude Invitational. 2021 PLAYERS, and the 2022 PGA Championship. At Valspar too, he was off to a rough start as he carded five bogeys in the first round. Then, in the second round things started to look better for him and he started climbing the leaderboard. What actually made a difference was the third round. He shot an eagle on the 11th but a birdie on Moccasin eventually landed him on T5. 

As for Hovland, he came this close to winning twice last year at the PGA Championship and St. Jude Championship where he finished 3rd and T2. However, JT not only has more than double Hovland’s wins on the PGA Tour, but the American also turned pro 6 years earlier than the Norwegian. And experience can come in handy at any given moment, especially those clutch situations.

Consistency is a also key factor here. Hovland has struggled with his swing since last year after he went on to add more “draw pieces” to his swing after the 2023 season. Since then the 27-year-old has tried literally everything from changing his swing coach to changing his putter and even golf shoes. Unfortunately, nothing properly worked out and he has been unable to end his winless streak. Meanwhile, Thomas, although has been winless, has at times shown improvement. Looking at their performances last year, Thomas secured six top-10 finishes, whereas Hovland had only two.

Thomas is looking strong here to end his drought, Viktor Hovland’s resiliency keeps him apart.

Viktor Hovland isn’t taking things for “granted” 

Viktor Hovland was sitting at T2 after carding 67 in his second round. For someone who shot two bogeys in the first round, it was much better right? Despite that, the golfer didn’t take his comeback in the second round for granted. When asked about his swing this is what he was honest and critical.

“Yeah, it sucks. You have an ability that you can almost sometimes take for granted. You just wake up every day and you stand over the ball, and you just expect the ball to start in that direction and go that direction and end up somewhere close to the hole. Then it starts to not do that, it’s pretty frustrating. You start thinking things you’ve never thought before. And this game becomes infinitely more challenging and it’s already really challenging.”

Yeah, just like you even the interviewer was shocked and asked “Are you being too hard on yourself?” Well, this Norwegian didn’t deny this either and simply said “I am hard on myself, yeah, but that’s also why I am good.” Witnessing this resilient attitude fans were incredibly impressed. Can he maintain the lead to end his winless streak? Only time will tell.

Between the battle of a seasoned veteran and a young gun who do you think will come out on top?