Viktor Hovland has been one of the most impressive golfers in the world recently, reaching the top-5 in the Official World Golf Rankings thanks to 10 professional wins in just four years.
A lot of his success appears to be down to his incredible consistency, natural ability and commendable attitude to the game, but, irrespective of his undeniable talent, even the best players need great coaching.
That's where stats guru Edoardo Molinari comes in. After recently announcing a new partnership with golf data giant, Arccos, the Ryder Cup vice-captain revealed an interesting insight that he used to develop Hovland's approach play...
In a recent interview with three-time DP World Tour winner Edoardo Molinari, the Italian revealed that his stats-informed coaching is now being used by a number of the world's best players – including Matt Fitzpatrick, Nelly Korda and Viktor Hovland.
In what can only be described as a truly fascinating insight, Molinari explained that his use of data analytics helped him to spot that Viktor Hovland was "being way too aggressive into the greens".
He went on to add: "Eventually we decided together, you (Hovland) need to be much more conservative, especially with your shorter irons. And then off it was, off to the races and winning tournaments like never before."
According to stats from the PGA Tour, Hovland has improved his birdie or better percentage from the fairway each year from the 2019-20 season through to his memorable FedEx Cup winning year in 2023. He ranked 7th on tour in that category last season, and 4th for birdie average, which suggests that this strategy appears to be paying off.
Describing how he hopes these insights can help more golfers in the future, Molinari said: "We want to create something that is not out there yet, which is basically scaling what I'm doing for the PGA tour, and being able to give pretty much the same service to others like Korn Ferry or NCAA teams, and elite golfers".
Based on the evidence, it appears this service is likely to be a popular one among professionals at all levels, especially when you consider Molinari's track record of success in the playing and coaching spheres so far.
