‘What is the deal with all the aliens?’ Viktor Hovland’s curiosity extends way beyond golf

Dating to his amateur days, Viktor Hovland has always been a curious cat.

He once spent 20 minutes on his phone reading a philosophical debate about affirmative action before scarfing down some lunch and heading back out to complete the second half of his 2018 U.S. Amateur victory at Pebble Beach.

So, as Hovland has spent much of this year searching for answers to his golf swing, it’s come as little surprise the reasoning: “I’m a curious guy,” Hovland told the Times of London last week, adding that he “had a little too much control” of his golf swing after a scorching finish to last year that saw him win twice and not finish outside the top 10 in each of his final five starts.

“For my own sake,” Hovland explained, “I wanted to know what’s on the other side.”

Hovland split with instructor Joe Mayo late last year, then reunited in May after missing the cut at the Masters and withdrawing from the RBC Heritage the following week. He finished third at the PGA, his first event back with Mayo, but that remains his only top-10 finish to date. Yet despite his struggles, Hovland is among the favorites for this week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon. In three starts in the sport’s oldest championship, Hovland hasn’t finished worse than T-13. He is coming off a T-46 showing at the Genesis Scottish Open, which followed a run of three top-20s in four events sparked by that PGA performance. Though the short game has been unsightly, Hovland is No. 10 in strokes gained off the tee while ranking inside the top 50 on approach and in putting.

With some discoveries seemingly made with his golf game, it’s surely given Hovland more time to digest other information. Hovland’s interview with the Times also revealed the Norwegians current curiosities beyond golf, whether it be with extraterrestrials or the afterlife.

“It’s like, what is the deal with all the aliens?” Hovland said. “There seem to be some pilots and commanders that explain what they saw and have video footage of it, so it’s like, ‘Huh, what is that?’ I find the reluctance to talk about that stuff fascinating. The conspiracy is one thing but then also the reaction to it. What do you think happens after we die? We don’t know. The establishment will say, ‘Your neurons will stop firing. Your body will rot.’ OK, that’s one explanation but, if you look at our ancestors, there’s a huge culture that goes into preparing for the afterlife. Were they just idiots or were they onto something? I’m just curious to find out. We’ve gotten sold that we have all the answers but there’s just so much we don’t know.

“I find those questions super motivating and I just want to figure it out.”