Flag Hunters Golf Podcast
Hello and welcome to Flaghunters ! It is a privilege to bring to you this powerful insight into playing better Golf. In all my years of being in the game of Golf from competing at a high amateur level, to caddying, teaching, and being a overall Golf geek, I have an insatiable, curiosity driven desire to get down to the bottom of what it takes to truly get better playing the game of Golf that we all unconditionally love. This has been one of the greatest journeys of my life and I am deeply grateful for all that Golf has given me. Thank you for joining me in this incredible journey. This is my ever evolving love letter to Golf. Jesse Perryman P.S. Please Rate, Review and Subscribe !
Flag Hunters Golf Podcast
From Norway To PGA TOUR Wins: Viktor Hovland On Craft, Coaching, And Confidence
We sit down with Viktor Hovland to unpack how an engineering mindset, smart coaching, and targeted practice turned weaknesses into strengths while keeping faith through slumps. From Norway’s ranges to PGA wins, he explains root-cause problem solving, short game breakthroughs, and gear choices that stick.
• Norway’s golf culture and his early start
• Pushing boundaries without claiming flag-bearer status
• Engineering lens for swing mechanics and feedback
• Influences from Kelvin Miyahira, Joe Mayo, and Grant Waite
• Short game rebuild using spin loft and low point control
• Coaching elite players with fast, cause-based fixes
• Personalizing strokes gained and picking the right “fruit”
• Confidence, belief, and early PGA Tour wins
• Major championship fit and mindset for the next step
• Performing through slumps with objective measurement
• Equipment philosophy, shaft story, and ball selection
• Season prep with data validation and growing confidence
To find Justin best, please find him on Instagram @elitegolfswing or email him, justin@elitegolfswing.
To find Jesse best, also find him on Instagram @flaghuntersgolfpod or TEXT him, (831)275-8804.
Flag Hunters is supported by JumboMax Grips and Mizuno Golf
Hello and welcome once again to another edition of the Flaghunters Golf Podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Perryman, along with my brother, Justin Tang. He is one of the lead instructors from the Tanamera Golf Club in Singapore, and our distinguished guest today is none other than a man by the name of Victor Hovlund. Uh I have a lot of respect for Victor. I've met him. I spent the day with him at uh a very special place, and I got to watch him play and pick his brain a little bit. And both Justin and I find him to be one of the more interesting uh world-class players that we do have, and we're gonna pick his brain, and we hope to uh learn a lot from him. And hopefully you get uh some of the low-hanging fruit from one of the world's best. Victor, thanks for coming on, bud. It's an honor.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what's going on? I'm glad we could uh finally uh make this happen. And it's uh good to see you again, Jesse, and uh looking forward to having a good chat.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, and thanks, Justin. Thanks, thanks. Uh thanks a lot, Victor and uh Jesse. Hey, for for the for the benefit of our listeners, are you still doing double meat at chipotle?
SPEAKER_02:I don't eat a whole lot at uh chipotle anymore. That was kind of uh overblown a little bit. We ate a lot there in in college, but uh yeah, I feel like now it's either belay or kava seems to be kind of taking taken off. But uh yeah, occasionally I'll go and get some uh chipotle, and it will be double meat every time for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Nice blue, nice. So, how do you get started in golf in a cold place like Norway? Yeah, my uh I've been to Norway myself and I froze my nut softly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a big change from uh the Singaporean climate, I'm sure. Um yeah, my uh my dad actually worked in the United States as an engineer, and he was there for a year and just bought a golf set and started getting introduced to the game. He had a drive-by driving range on the way to work, and that's how he got started, and just brought a golf uh golf set back home. And I uh hit my first few shots when I was three or four years old, just kind of in the um um in the basically in the meadow or an open field uh pretty close to my house. That's where I hit my first few shots, and we joined a club shortly uh thereafter. That's where my mom and dad kind of got started playing. So yeah, the rest is history, I guess.
SPEAKER_01:Norway has a very interesting sporting culture where the game is available to all who would like to explore it. There is a very low monthly entry fee. Do you think that played a part in how much uh good players that the Scandinavian countries have produced relative to their population size?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment. I will say, probably comparing all the different Scandinavian co countries, golf has the most comprehensive history in Sweden. They were there decades uh ahead of us, they have way more golf courses. Um, you know, it's just a different culture there. You can just drive down the street and go to a random course, and there's seemingly a bunch of juniors everywhere. Norway's a bit lacking behind because our emphasis was so heavy on the winter sports. It was all about cross-country skiing, uh downhill skiing, whatever, all the winter sports, and then football is the is the biggest sport uh in Norway. So golf has always kind of had the um you know the outlook that uh it's an old man sport, it's it's not very cool. Um, but I will say probably the last five, six, seven years, uh because of COVID, a lot of guys were were going outside and playing, and now it seems like I I don't really watch any of it, but I'm I'm on YouTube a lot, and I'm getting all these YouTube vlogs, videos popping up in my algorithm, and there's just millions, millions of you, millions of views on on a lot of them, and it's uh it's incredible to see. It's it's kind of seems like that trend of golf becoming cool a little bit, and it's way more of a social game. You're outside, it's good for you. Uh that that trend has definitely happened a lot more in in Norway and Scandinavia in in general as well. So uh it's a little different now than compared to when I when I grew up there.
SPEAKER_01:When you were growing up, Igor Woods was dominating golf. Do you see yourself as the flag bearer for golf in Norway?
SPEAKER_02:Uh I wouldn't uh I wouldn't say that, but it's I I obviously I have been the the first Norwegian to do a number of things now uh out on tour. So I do see myself, I guess, um pushing certain boundaries uh within my country, but at the same time, Henrik Bjornstad was the first PJ Tour player to um to play golfer from Norway. And uh we've had multiple other players play the European tour, finish second place at a number of events, and I've had other guys that I looked up to and kind of try to follow in their footsteps. Um, you know, Christopher Ventura is a couple years older than me, and he went to Oklahoma State. I followed him, and uh so I had a lot of other players that I just followed and inspired me, and uh just um yeah, have happened to um uh played some some good golf the last few years.
SPEAKER_01:You have you you really inspi you in really inspired a lot of uh instructors like myself who we are mutually connected through Kelvin Mir here and from our side side of uh the business, we were really rooting for you in the US Open. Well, I appreciate that. So you talked about dad being an engineer. Do you think his analytical mind helped you develop your swing philosophy? Can we talk about that?
SPEAKER_02:For sure. Um, I mean it's hard to know, but I definitely have some of those tendencies. Um people say, you know, either left brain or right brain, I definitely have some of the left brain tendencies of uh wanting to just get as deep as you can into something, especially I recognize pretty early that the golf swing is it's like a robot, essentially. And if you can optimize your robot or your golf swing in in a way that's gonna produce a lot of good good good shots, then uh that's gonna help you. It's gonna be easier to shoot lower scores. And I recognize that I was doing stuff in my swing when I was a kid that wasn't really leading to good results. I I was very good at making whatever I had uh shoot a decent score. But it if I couldn't get the ball up in the air or if I was slicing it too much, that can only get you so far. And uh I had a lot of good coaches back home in Norway help me out throughout my younger years, and I learned a lot uh from those people, but at the same time, golf doesn't have the longest tradition. And I wanted to look elsewhere for new information and and hear things that I hadn't heard before, and that's the greatest thing about the internet is that it decentralizes a lot of this information, and I quickly found a few guys online and I would consume all their content, and then I would think I understood the golf swing, and then I found another guy who said something completely different, and then I was in this dialectic where I had to either decide who's right, or there'd be another guy who would explain what the issue is. And after just looking through a bunch of different videos and going through a bunch of different uh um instructors online, I heard this Calvin name pop up uh uh often. And then I heard he had written a bunch of articles, and I was probably about 15 or 16 before I was gonna go to college. I basically read all of his articles, and uh I think he was kind of the guy that revolutionized a lot of um my way of thinking about the golf swing. Uh, he was the first guy that to mention a lot of the anatomical movements and comparing the greats, what they did, and kind of find uh um a silver lining with all of them. So yeah, very, very interesting stuff. And um I know I'm rambling on, but that that kind of goes to show my engineering uh or my dad's way of thinking probably bleed into to mine a little bit and wanting to get to the root cause of how things actually work.
SPEAKER_01:That's really interesting, and it really shows your holistic approach to the game. Really good engineers are not concerned about how they fix the problem, they are only concerned that they fix the problem. So you mentioned you mentioned our mutual instructor Calvin Miyahira. Are there any other influences on your game that you would like to talk about? So another I I guess more topical would be uh another dear uh instructor that we all hold in high regard, Joseph Mayo and Grant Witt.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, it's um I think because I worked with um Calvin for a year, or it might have been a hair longer than that. Uh we mostly did online stuff, and then I got to see to see him one time in person. I came to Florida and he flew from Hawaii to Florida and we got to spend some time together and definitely helped me a lot. And when he had his um his um um accident, um I started working with Denny Lucas, who worked with um Calvin for a number of years. And um when I turned pro, I kind of wanted to go move on to the next step and and uh see some other guys and see what what else is out there. And um uh Joe Mayo was uh uh was a guy who I met in in 2019 and spent a little bit of time with him, but I wasn't ready to work with him at the time for some reason. I uh kind of had uh see other things, and I was with uh Jeff uh Jeff Smith there for a while, who is was a good friend with uh with Joe, and uh we had a great relationship for a couple years, winning a few tournaments, and uh ended up coming back to Joe after a few years, and um uh and now Grant Waite. So they all seem to have a similar school of thought, uh, but obviously different ways of of problem solving. Because it's um, you know, I think at the end of the day, it's biomechanics and understanding forces and torques, uh and then being able to apply that to each individual uh pattern. But uh Joe was was definitely uh he's a very unique character. He's uh um definitely goes against um you know the the common way of doing things in terms of what's normal out there in golf instruction, but he's uh he's an elite level thinker and um just a great problem solver. And uh uh yeah, he certainly helped me a lot and and shaped my way of thinking uh when it comes to playing this game.
SPEAKER_01:How how how different was his short game philosophy to what you believed to be correct back then?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think it it honestly resonated pretty well. Uh, because I I kind of had an intuitive understanding that all this uh opening opening the face and throwing the bounce at it, like there was a certain type of shot, maybe um that I could see that that was useful on. But in general, I never had a lot of uh success with that, obviously, because I wasn't a very good chipper. And when I got it measured, or when we got it measured, I was like two to three degrees down on it. Um hitting behind it a lot, and my kind of safety net would be just to shove the shove the hands forward, but now I crush my dynamic loft and I'm just hitting fast balls. So when he kind of had his um uh when he was prescribing um his philosophy uh in terms of the short game to to me, I found kind of immediate success and and thought, oh yeah, that kind of makes sense. And when you explain about spin loft, then obviously the more down uh you hit on it and you get more lofts uh at impact, you can you can create a lot of friction, you can spin the ball a lot, which is what the best best players in the world do. So I I resonated with that quickly and it made complete sense. I just had no idea how I was gonna do it. Um that was kind of the the issue for me. So when when Joe picked up on that and told me to do a couple things, uh get my head to move down and forward in the back swing, continue to move left, and then extend before uh before impacts, uh that kind of makes sense. And and when I did it, I kind of immediately had it. And that's usually a very good thing, um, bringing this back to just golf instruction in general. If you're dealing with an elite player or an elite talent, and you tell your player to do something, especially in chipping, you should be able to see somewhat immediate results. If you if you have a good player that can't do something relatively soon, then it's probably not right.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. Would you agree, would you agree with this, Victor? At the elite level, you only have maybe one, two shots with a player before he thinks that yeah, it's not working out. Yeah, this guy's full shit. Exactly. You know, uh Jim Jim Hardy used to teach me, he said, he said, son. If you can't fix your guy in three shots, there's only a few things. You don't know what you're talking about, he can't do it physically, or he just just doesn't want to do it. And and what you said just resonates so much with uh what Jim told me. And Calvin more or less said the same to me, man. It has to be immediate. I go, like, what this was back in uh 2012 when I started uh learning from him, and over the years I could see what he meant. And he used to show me before and afters. He said, one swing is all you got with the elite level players, and I've taken that with me for the past 10 years.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's it's tough. I I mean we're uh us tour players, we're we're a very hard bunch to deal with, and we're even harder to teach. And I think some of that is is justified because we've worked on this craft uh our whole lives, and we've gotten to this point uh through many different ways. And then if we are introduced to someone new and they take a couple, you know, just a quick look and they tell you to do something, we're I think we're by default very skeptical. And if you're gonna tell me to do something different, it it better be worth my time. It better be something that is interesting or it it better make some sense. Now, I I will largely agree with kind of what you said, but um, you know, especially pertaining to the golf swing, it's it some patterns are are very interesting and complicated and unique that if you are wanting to undergo a bigger change, it's it it might take some time to see some results if you're dealing with uh a pattern that's very complicated. But I I'd say for the majority of people that are already very good at golf and swinging it well, you go to a new teacher and they tell you to do something. Uh if you don't see improvements in a sh in a quick time frame, then I would say that you should probably be looking elsewhere or just uh do your own thing for sure.
SPEAKER_01:I was about I was about to ask you to give some advice to uh coaches who think, yeah, you know what, I could make a living teaching better players, tour players. But uh another guy, Hugh Ma used to tell me teaching on tour, you gotta remember that you are messing with someone's livelihood. And I think a lot of instructors just don't get that. Tour players don't have three weeks or three months to make changes. Again, alluding to what you said earlier about changing patterns, that takes about four to six weeks if it's complicated. But generally, if the guy is hitting a fade, he wants to hit a push draw, whatever you tell him is gotta work immediately, and you need to address the cause, not the symptoms.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sorry, I kind of missed the last part of your question. Uh, what was the question there?
SPEAKER_01:No, I I said what you pointed out about coaching was the question that I wanted to ask you. What advice would you give coaches who think that they're ready to step up and teach elite to a level players? And you kind of answered that. You need to be able to address causes and not symptoms almost instantly, like a really, really good doctor. You diagnose the problem and then you give the correct solution. 100% I think a lot of instructors just think that poor players have three weeks, three months to waste. But we need to remember this is what you do for a living, this is what you do to pay the bills.
SPEAKER_02:100%. This is uh yeah, this is serious stuff over here. Um, but yeah, it's um and Joe would uh uh use that analogy all the time. Talk about uh you are a doctor, you're trying to diagnose what the problem is with this golf swing or with this player's game. And yeah, you can prescribe some painkillers and and uh make your player be able to maybe get through this tournament or the next tournament, but in the long run, you want someone who can get to the root cause. And that's why you know the best doctors, the best golf instructors, they're they're problem solvers. And if you want to squeeze the most juice out of uh out of your player, I think starting with the lowest hanging fruit uh is the number one thing. So pertaining to my case, I was already a great ball striker when I came to Joe. Um yeah, there's a couple things in my full swing that I wanted to address because I thought it was going in a direction I wasn't too happy with, but it was still gaining whatever half a shot off the T and then another half or so, if not more, into the green. So historically throughout my career, I've been a very, very good ball striker. So for me to go from a whatever ranked player to uh uh one of the best players in the world world, I wasn't necessarily gonna hit the ball any better. So what's the lowest hanging fruit? Well, my short game was the lowest hanging fruit. And that's where, okay, what's the issue here? Well, I can't really spin it and I don't have any consistency of contact. I'm hitting the ground before the ball. Uh little things like that. Well, why am I hitting the ground before the ball? Oh, well, my angle of attack is like two to three down. It's very difficult to have great low point control. Some guys can do it, but for me, that was that was an issue. So that's you just kind of try to think backwards and ask why, why, why continuously, and uh see how far you can go and and get to the to the root cause, uh exactly what you said.
SPEAKER_01:Well, what a great really interesting thing thing you you pointed out. A lot of people think that oh, in this day of uh shots gain, like oh the the most shots gain you you you would uh gain would be off the team. But you you kind of flip it around because you are already a great ball striker, so the lowest hanging fruit for you would then be around the greens. But I think a lot of players and a lot of coaches just take a theory and just apply it without thinking in a granular fashion. And what you said really flipped it on its head. You need to understand what a player's specific problem is before you even attempt it to diagnose a solution.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, for sure. And sometimes that that takes time. So if you're an instructor um and you don't have a lot of context, then I think the first step is just to observe. Like you gotta you obviously get some stats, but if you don't even have stats, like you gotta just observe instead of just immediately jump to the first thing you see. Um, because it's uh it is complicated. And I will say ball striking is the most important thing in golf generally. Like the best players, they are the best ball strikers. But if you want to win events, it's hard to do without uh a good short game and and and making puts throughout that week. It's just that those things are generally more random. Uh there's a lot of uh randomness to it from the week-to-week basis, versus if you have good swing mechanics and and you you're a good ball striker, usually that carries around from week to week.
SPEAKER_01:Well said. What would be your advice to elite amateurs thinking of playing toil golf for a living? How good do you need to be? And more specifically, addictive. When did you know you were ready?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, it's it's hard for me to um answer for other people, but it's uh I like I remember personally, I I was always extremely hard on myself. I I never thought I was good enough, and I always, you know, because growing up in Norway, you don't have the context of hanging out with a bunch of tour players. It's not like you're you know, if you're um maybe you grow up in this in the States and you're a member at Teepsy Sawgrass or at whatever I'm just mentioning random clubs where there's a bunch of tour players, you get to kind of see what the best players are doing, but we have no reference or no context growing up in Norway. Uh so the big step for me was coming to Oklahoma State, being around other good players, getting to spend some time with um you know alumni from Oklahoma State that would come back and play with us some. Um, and then I was very lucky that after I won the U.S. amateur, I got a few opportunities to play majors and even PJ Tour events as an amateur. And I remember I was so nervous and I thought, man, I have to play so far above my level to even have a chance. And the first couple times I played on tour, I I missed a cut, missed a cut of the farmers, and Mike Koba. Um, but it wasn't until uh Bay Hill and even the Masters were I didn't feel like I played all that amazing. Like I played well, but it it was just a normal week for me. And I think I finished 30th at the Masters and 40th uh at Bahill. And that's when I kind of it just kind of light bulb click for me to where, okay, yeah, the if you want to win, you gotta play amazing. But um, you know, week in, week out, just having a game that's very consistent and not being scared of of the guys you're competing against, you kind of flip that switch, and I think it uh you gotta start to believe. Um, but it's gotta be rooted in in the results as well. You gotta have something to believe in. And uh, I guess I was always so hard on myself that when I put myself out there in competition, I saw saw myself having some results. I I think I started to believe in myself.
SPEAKER_01:So be your own worst critic.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say that's the best advice for everyone, but it's like um I don't know, like in junior events, even in Norway, I would uh not that I was a prolific winner by any means, but even if I won an a uh a junior tournament in Norway, I'd be okay, that was nice, that felt good, but man, the next level I wouldn't have won. I made a bogey here with a wedge. I I had a two, three putts for the tournament, like that's just not acceptable. So I would push myself that way instead of just resting on my roll laurels and going, oh yeah, I won. I'm great, I'm the best, best guy that's out here. It's like, no, there's there's I can be a lot better than this. And that mentality kind of always fueled me. And that always obviously leads you to, okay, well, how do I get better? Well, then now you gotta search for new information to try to uh find people that can help you or find information that can help you, and I would search everywhere for it. I did not care who it was or where it was, I would find the guy that would help me get better, and that's always kind of been my my mentality.
SPEAKER_01:That's the common trait. That's the trait that I notice in high performance, not just in golf, but in every other sport, tennis, and even in high stakes world of finance with hedge fund guys, it's a never-ending quest to be one percent better every day. And you you know you mentioned that you won the you you missed the cut at Mayako, but how did you feel when you won it subsequently?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that was great. Um, obviously that was my second PJ tour uh victory. My first one was in Puerto Rico, and I think in my maybe 13th start or something like that. So it uh to be honest with you, it came way quicker than I anticipated. But I when it happened, and that was kind of on the back end of Matt Wolfe winning and Kali Morukawa winning, who I just turned pro with at the same time, roughly. So to see them win so early kind of shocked me a little bit because I did not I did not think I was that ready yet, and so therefore I didn't think they were ready yet, even though they're really, really talented players. Um, but I think seeing them win a little bit kind of kind of helped me, and then um I uh kind of made it look possible. So then when I won in Puerto Rico, um, you know, that was the that was a big uh monkey off my back, if you will, even though it's only my 13th start, but uh I think that just kind of fueled me uh even more. And then getting there to Mayacoba, it's uh where I played my first PJ Tour event and I missed a cup by shot, even though the course is perfectly suited for me and my game, because I can hit driver almost everywhere there, and my misses generally don't deviate off the fairway there uh because I was such a good driver at the time. And um, yeah, to then winning there as well, it just continued to to push me further and and uh grow my confidence.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. So you talked about a mindset shift when you look at your peers winning, it became yeah, why not? It's possible. It's like Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile. Yeah, so can you talk about how uh you plan to shift your mindset to get to the next level? And next level, we're talking about winning majors. Is that something that you have uh uh made a mindset shift towards?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think it's uh looking at other uh people, especially your peers, people that have you've you've spent some time with and seeing them succeed and trying to learn from them and draw inspiration from them as much as possible, I think is very valuable. And um obviously Colin won two majors pretty quickly. And uh I definitely now after I've had some more experience being in those situations and uh having had a couple chances to win, but not uh fully getting over the finish line, I uh yeah, definitely feel like I believe I'm I'm ready and good enough to to compete and and win one. Um, but I I don't I I I like to just look at it more as as motivation. Kind of fuels me getting up in the morning and and and having something to work towards. But at the end of the day, uh, especially the last couple of years have been very challenging for me because my swing just hasn't been in a spot where I've felt like I've been able to be confident and get to a major championship or get to really any tournaments, and just be, okay, I'm gonna play well and be super confident, and that's the target, that's the pin, and just swing freely and not think too much. It's been it's been very stressful the last couple of years. So naturally you don't think too much about winning majors. It's more about okay, what what's the what's the small little processes that I have to to fix in order to be able to win a major? Uh that's just kind of how my my works. I it it's nice to be motivated by that stuff, but at the end of the day, I have a lot of things. Um I have a lot of tasks that I need to accomplish in order uh to be to be ready to to to to uh to win uh a major, for example.
SPEAKER_01:I mean looking at your performance this year at the US Open, I think you've got all the tools to win every major, all four of them. But tell tell our listeners, which major do you think your game is most suited for?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean it's uh it's difficult uh because obviously Augustus, the um uh the only major you play where it's the same golf course. And I I believe I can win there, but I would definitely I would probably say that that's the major that suits my game the least. Um I will say I do generally like a British Open uh setup. Um I do I love Lynx golf, even though that's not something that we play all the time. And that does maybe take some time to get used to. But I think it's it really helps my creativity with my my approaches. Uh I hit it really straight. I like to hit it low and and watch the ball roll a little bit. Helps because I can put it from off the greens. Uh I'm a good win player, so I do like the open, but also, you know, depending on the setups at the PGAs and and the US opens, when my ball striking is on, usually at those setups I feel like I can separate myself with my ball striking if it's if it's on that week.
SPEAKER_01:So you talk about going through a dark period in the last couple of years, but still you produced uh decent scores. Can you uh give our listeners a glimpse into how good you need to be at that level?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think that's uh kind of throughout the last couple of years. I feel like I've been uh my harsh inner harsh critic has been very uh good to identify how bad certain things have been um uh at certain times. But um conversely, I think that's something that um I need to do a better job of of kind of giving myself some credit to because uh some of the tournaments or some of the range sessions or um the way it's felt at certain times, and just looking at my swing on video compared to old swings, it looked pretty bad there for a while. And um even with that, I was still able to like in 2024, I almost won the PGA at Valhalla, and I almost won a playoff event in Memph in Memphis, still got to East Lake, and this year I'd say was a little bit better, obviously, but early in year it was still very, very rough. But uh I missed three cuts in a row there, and then the next week I was able to win Valspar. And then being able to finish third at the US Open and being on a winning Ryder Cup team uh later this year. So it's uh I gotta give myself a pat on the back and and say that okay, even though it it uh it sometimes feels terrible and it's not where I want it to be, I can still go out there and and compete. Uh and I kind of have to just remind myself of that sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:Well said. So we're we're winding down this interview. Can you walk us through your equipment before we go into prep for the season ahead or the year ahead?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so uh with all this stuff, I always I like to go down several certain rabbit holes and uh and go pretty deep into it, but the club aspect is probably where I I I just I'm the most aloof when it comes to that. Uh I have a certain uh setup that I know I've played well with, and especially in a few these last couple years, there's been a lot of changes, and I've been trying to work back to where I once was, and I feel like I'm getting really, really close to that. I'm starting to finally hit it really, really nice in practice and starting to see some good scores. But in that meantime, I don't like to make a lot of changes because I know that certain things have worked, and when things are like if I'm not hitting it the way that I'm supposed to, I don't want to make changes on top of that. So I I've still got a couple old uh iterations of uh ping equipment that um that I'm currently still using, so there's hasn't been a lot of changes.
SPEAKER_01:Is it still the i230 that you're using?
SPEAKER_02:I210s, even so the the previous iteration, yeah. And then I've got the G425 driver. Uh so that's two iterations uh ago in terms of drivers. Um and uh yeah, I just got into the new new uh wedges from Ping. They're really good, uh, but still working a little bit with a 60. So I'm still in a glide 2.0 um in my 60. So I have some old uh models in there uh that are difficult for me to get out of.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, really good. What about your shafts in the woods, in the irons, and the wedges? What's the philosophy there?
SPEAKER_02:Oof, now you're you're asking tough questions. I I don't really have uh um a good a good answer for you. I've just I've always played KBS throughout my whole life. I know that's maybe not the the most popular iron shafts uh on tour, but that's just something that um I've used for for so long, so I'm used to the feel, and and uh I'd say my iron game has been uh a strength of mine, so I don't see a reason to change or or really try other things. Um I do have dynamic gold shafts in my wedges, and that's basically just because my coach from back home uh that grew up coaching me, uh he's he's uh very much a club nerd, an equipment nerd. And he said because the bending profile is a little bit different with the dynamic gold, uh, you might be able to feel the head kick a little bit more, just the kick point is a little bit different. So on wedges where you're gonna hit a lot of half speed or off-speed shots, it's nice to maybe feel the club head a little bit more as opposed to having the weight more up in the in the grip in the hands. So that's the reason why I have um uh the dynamic gold and in uh in my wedges. And then with a driver, it's actually kind of a funny story, but uh I can't remember. I think I had a hazardous chef, if I'm not mistaken, in my coba when I was defending my title in 2021, and I was on the range and Danny, uh Danny Lee was doing a speed session, and I asked him what um uh what the length of his driver was, and I can't remember what he said, but I I said, Oh, my driver is a little bit longer, you should try mine. So see if you can swing it faster. First swing he takes, the the club breaks. And we're in Mexico, they don't have a tour truck, and I can't get a driver um soon enough for the tournament because this was like Wednesday. This was after the program on Wednesday, and James Hahn was right in front and he was watching the whole thing, and he had a spare driver, a backup uh in his bag, and I just hit a few on the range, and it felt pretty nice, but I wasn't too sure. And my coba is the narrowest golf course we basically play all year, and it's tough to just put a random driver in the bag and play a tournament at the narrowest course on tour. So we drove to a course that was like 25 minutes away, and I just went out and hit probably 50 drivers on a lot of these holes. Um and thought it worked really well, and I won the tournament that week, and that shaft has uh it's actually the same driver, yeah. But or yeah, the same driver, the same shaft is is in my bag uh still to this day.
SPEAKER_01:Hopefully you pick James out for a nice dinner.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you, James. Thanks, Danny, for breaking my driver.
SPEAKER_02:What about your ball? What do you prefer? Yeah, so same kind of philosophy there. I um I'm still in the 2021 tide lists, uh, pro v1. I've um I've actually been messing a little bit around with the pro v1 X because at times when I was not swinging it very good, my spin rates would just drop precipitously. I probably at at certain times my eight iron was spinning in the 5000s. It was it was just ridiculous, like low six thousands, and the ball just came out like flyers. It was it was uh nuts. So I had uh at certain events I actually played with an X when the greens were really firm just to be able to stop it on the greens. But then the problem was uh with my driver, I would just spin it too much. So kind of same philosophy there. I know I've played really well with the 2021 Pro V1 and uh just sticking to that. Uh, even though I'm sure the the new iterations like the 2025 and 2023, like there's they're not that different, probably. And I could I'm sure I could just slide into those pretty easily, easily, but um, I like just sticking to the things that I know has worked.
SPEAKER_01:What's up for the year ahead?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well next tournament is uh is Ned Bank in South Africa, so I'm excited to um to play there. Uh other than that, I've I'm currently in Orlando spending a lot of time with Grant, and we're working hard and trying to get ready for for next year. It's gonna be a busy schedule and a lot of golf. And uh finally I'm I'm feeling like things are turning a corner, and I'm starting to see a lot of good shots, it's starting to feel good, and then backing that up with video evidence and trackman data, 3D data, getting things measured, and it's not just an anecdotal or subjective feeling, but getting this validated um and tested is is is really nice. So I'm starting to get a lot of confidence just in practice. So hopefully continue to just uh improve and yeah, just excited to to get ready and and uh play tournaments. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Good to hear that. Jesse, any last questions for our distinguished guests?
SPEAKER_00:No, Victory, I think you you covered everything, and and also I want to comment. Um, you know, what you've talked about has been uh there's a lot of rich information, especially as it pertains to the process. And I think a lot of casual fans, even the better players, don't understand the depths that you have to go to at this level. Um and and really uh coming out the other side from a dark place, uh, like you said, you know what sometimes what people don't realize, and you illustrated it perfectly, is you really learn even more about yourself, and uh and and you learn more about resilience and more about perseverance, and maybe you start learning things that you didn't know even when you were playing well. So when you come back to the upside of the circle, you're just that much more whole. And I and I just love the fact that you explained that so well. And uh, you know, I look forward to watching you play. Justin and I are big fans of you, big fans of your golf swing. I I've gotten to see you up up course and personal. It's a beautiful thing, and I think you're great for the game of golf, Victor. And um, and uh, you know, I'm not gonna be too presumptuous, but you've already won one at Pebble, and we got one coming up. Uh and and I just gonna I'm gonna speak it out there, bud. Love it. Uh yeah, absolutely. You know the golf course, even though Shinnikok's pretty good, but uh I know that Pebble holds a special place in your heart, bro.
SPEAKER_02:That'd be awesome to win one there for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, boys.
SPEAKER_02:Appreciate the chat. That was uh that was awesome. Appreciate you guys having me on and and uh good to see you again, Jesse.
SPEAKER_00:And uh you two actually. Absolutely.