When Viktor Hovland made his Sentry Tournament of Champions debut a year ago, he was in no rush getting to Kapalua after the holiday break. But the lack of preparation proved costly, as Hovland tied for 31st and beat just eight players. This year, Hovland, who is riding a two-start winning streak, made sure to arrive early in Maui, flying in last Wednesday.
Unfortunately for Hovland, his golf clubs didn’t get the memo.
Hovland posted to his Instagram stories Monday night that his clubs had still not made their way to Hawaii and remained stuck in Seattle.
“Get your s--- together, Delta!” Hovland wrote.
According to Espen Blaker of Discovery, Hovland’s caddie, Shay Knight, flew to Hawaii on Monday and was prepared to offer Hovland his set of Pings, though with different shafts and heads.
“We hope that it will be arranged today so that we can prepare as normal the rest of the time toward the start of the tournament,” Knight said. “It's a bit of a crisis.”
Hovland luckily won’t have to go that route after all, as he updated his followers Tuesday evening that his clubs had indeed arrived. The bad news: They weren’t all in one piece, as Hovland posted a photo of his driver shaft snapped just below the hosel.
"Can't say I'm surprised," said Hovland.
Hovland is ranked seventh in the world after victories at the Hero World Challenge in December and Mayakoba Classic in November. He can climb to third in the world with a win this week.