Viktor Hovland on first meeting his Olympics Norwegian teammate: ‘I hated him’

KAWAGOE, Japan – As team chemistry goes, this wasn’t exactly what one would expect from Olympic countrymen.

“I hated him,” Viktor Hovland smiled Tuesday at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

Hovland was referring to his Norwegian teammate for this week’s Olympics, Kristian Johannessen. It all started when Hovland was deciding where he wanted to attend high school.

Olympic Men’s Competition: Full-field tee times | Full coverage

“We were playing a junior event in Spain,” Hovland explained on Tuesday. “I was sharing a room with a good friend of mine, but he had a girlfriend at the time and she was there a lot, so I didn’t get to spend the time that I needed to in that room and I was young at the time and I might have like complained a lot about that.”

He complained so much, in fact, that at some point during the tournament Johannessen had heard enough.

“[Johannessen] just asked me straight up, ‘Well, what did you shoot the first two days of the tournament?’” Hovland said. “I just said, ‘Well, I shot 82, 82.’ And he was just like, ‘Well does it matter where you’re sleeping if you’re shooting 82, 82?’

“Never met the guy before and I’m like, all right, we’re off to a good start. … despite the nasty comments he’s actually a pretty decent guy.”

Added Johannessen, the world No. 297, “After that, we had a good time for a lot of years even though we started out not the best.”