Oklahoma State University Athletics
Iron Sharpens Iron
June 20, 2019 | Cowboy Golf
Q: What do you get when you mesh a reserved, yet quick-witted Norwegian armed with a steady golf game with a charismatic Californian who possesses an explosive game and magnetic personality?
A: One of the most prolific tandems in the history of college golf.
Over the past two years, the Cowboy duo fed off each other to garner nearly every amateur honor under the sun. Fittingly, Wolff and Hovland will now enter the professional ranks together at the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship this week after enjoying collegiate careers that followed similar trajectories.
Both were painstakingly close to victory as freshmen before securing that maiden victory as sophomores to open the floodgates. Despite their abbreviated college careers, Hovland and Wolff departed Stillwater as two of the most decorated players in the storied history of the OSU program.
A native of Oslo, Hovland arrived on campus for the 2016-17 campaign and became an immediate staple in the Cowboy starting five, posting top-20 finishes in his first three collegiate starts.
As the spring slate ramped up, Hovland began to display his consistency after closing the year with five consecutive top 10s, including a tie for eighth place at the NCAA Championship and a runner-up showing at The Maxwell where he came up one stroke shy of his first career victory.
After earning honorable mention All-America status, Hovland entered his sophomore campaign with lofty expectations and did not disappoint. Still in search of his first victory as a Cowboy, he began the spring season the way he ended the previous one — with a string of top-five showings.
Among that stretch were runner-ups at the Amer Ari Invitational and the Lamkin San Diego Classic, setting up his breakthrough at the Valspar Collegiate. With rounds of 67, 65 and 68, Hovland secured a four-shot victory, which served as his watershed moment.
"I think I had a lot of good tournaments leading up to Valspar and I had a lot of good chances to win, but I wasn't really performing down the stretch and closing it," Hovland said. "That gave me a lot of confidence going into the postseason knowing that I was playing some good golf and could actually finish a tournament."
Entering the mix in 2017-18 to help Hovland and Co. pursue the program's first NCAA title since 2006 was Wolff.
Like his teammate the year before, the player with the head-turning swing and Southern California swagger enjoyed a productive freshman campaign that saw him consistently rack up top-10 finishes, including four runner-ups. Despite victory eluding Wolff as well, he would go on to claim the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation's top freshman.
"It was frustrating. You always want to win. You aren't always sure how many opportunities you are going to have. Luckily, I played well and had that many opportunities and didn't get it done, which probably made it a little more frustrating," Wolff said. "To keep putting yourself up there with the leaders is really what is important because if you keep on doing that you know that eventually you are going to win."
The touch of frustration which accompanied the winless season did not tarnish the trio of goals Wolff set and accomplished as a rookie. Winning a national championship as a team, first-team All-America status and national freshman of the year were his sole focus.
"I accomplished all three of those without winning, so I reached what I wanted to and that gave me a lot of confidence. I proved to myself once I got to college that I could play with these guys, all the upperclassmen and people my age, everyone," Wolff said. "I was competing against players who had been in college two or three years longer than I had. I was a new guy coming out of the gate and it would only go up from there."
And rise he would.
Both players earned first-team All-America status and achieved the ultimate goal of winning the program's 11th national championship, planting them firmly in college golf's limelight entering the 2018-19 season.
Before returning to campus to begin his junior season, Hovland added a historic victory with his win at the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach. In becoming the program's fifth winner of amateur golf's most prestigious title, he demonstrated the maturity gained from continually positioning himself around the top of the leaderboard.
"Obviously, with the U.S. Amateur and the tournaments since I have gotten familiar with being in that position and able to win tournaments without playing my best golf," Hovland said. "I have gotten comfortable with knowing this week I may not be playing my best golf, but if I am smart and miss on the right sides and do some good stuff here and there I can still scrap around and score and have a good tournament."
Hovland kept the pedal down as the fall season got underway in 2018, winning back-to-back events at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate and the East Lake Cup.
Following the lead of his teammate, Wolff entered year No. 2 in Stillwater seeking that elusive first victory.
The wait was not long and the trophies came early and often.
After blistering Pebble Beach to the tune of 17-under 199, Wolff won the season opener at The Carmel Cup and followed with his triumph at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational.
"It was a relief after coming off the freshman year with four runner-up finishes. I was always knocking on the door and never got it done. I was always questioning when I would get that first win and when would it be my time to win one because I knew I had the skills to do it. To get it done, especially against a good field, freed me up a little bit," Wolff said.
The Agoura Hills, Calif., native made it three in a row after sharing medalist honors with Hovland at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate. Wolff picked up where he left off during the fall with his victory in the spring opener at the Amer Ari Invitational where he posted an 18-under total of 198.
He followed Hovland's victory the previous year at the Valspar Collegiate with one of his own for No. 5 on the year. He made it a half dozen in his final event as a Cowboy at the NCAA Championship, becoming OSU's ninth individual national champion.
When the dust had settled, Wolff rewrote the OSU records for single-season victories (6), consecutive wins (4) and stroke average (68.69) while receiving both the Fred Haskins Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation's top player.
The key to Wolff's historic performance was simple. Patience.
"When you play a tournament, you are never going to have 54 holes or 72 holes of great golf. You are always going to slip up at some point or you won't hit it as well through a stretch of holes and you might not make putts for a little bit," Wolff said. "I just needed to trust what I was doing and let the opportunities come to me, stay patient and trust what you are doing. Maintain your confidence and keep plugging away."
With his teammate overhauling the OSU record book, Hovland took advantage of the opportunities presented by his U.S. Amateur victory. After finishing as the Low Amateur at The Masters, he followed with a record-setting performance in his return to Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open. While posting a 4-under 280 total to break the tournament's amateur scoring record set in 1960 by Jack Nicklaus, Hovland became the first player to claim low amateur honors at both major championships since 1998.
In May, Hovland was named the Ben Hogan Award winner as the nation's top player taking into account both amateur and collegiate golf. Coupled with Wolff's recognition, the Cowboys earned a clean sweep of the sport's national player of the year honors.
While the differences are clear, so too are the similarities which have intertwined Hovland and Wolff.
Both possess a fierce competitiveness that has driven them to the top of amateur golf with Hovland reaching No. 1 and Wolff right on his heels at No. 2 in both the World Amateur Golf Ranking and the Golfweek/Sagarin Ranking. The tandem fed not only off each other, but a deep and talented Cowboy roster.
"With Matt and the other guys on the team, we see each other every day and we practice against each other and we play against each other all the time," Hovland said. "You see them doing well and you think he can do that and I believe I can too and it goes back and forth."
"Matt's success and the rest of the guys on the team has helped me and pushed me to play better."
Additionally, both developed a deep affection for a place and a program thousands of miles from home that has helped them reach the ultimate goal — a shot at long and successful careers on the PGA Tour.
"Viktor is a great friend of mine, he killed it at the U.S. Open. Knowing that he finished really well and was lighting it up out there gives me confidence that I can go out and do it here and any other week that I have my game," Wolff said.
"It is cool to be on the journey with him and I am sure I will be playing a lot of practice rounds and spending a lot of time together and I am excited."
A: One of the most prolific tandems in the history of college golf.
Over the past two years, the Cowboy duo fed off each other to garner nearly every amateur honor under the sun. Fittingly, Wolff and Hovland will now enter the professional ranks together at the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship this week after enjoying collegiate careers that followed similar trajectories.
Both were painstakingly close to victory as freshmen before securing that maiden victory as sophomores to open the floodgates. Despite their abbreviated college careers, Hovland and Wolff departed Stillwater as two of the most decorated players in the storied history of the OSU program.
A native of Oslo, Hovland arrived on campus for the 2016-17 campaign and became an immediate staple in the Cowboy starting five, posting top-20 finishes in his first three collegiate starts.
As the spring slate ramped up, Hovland began to display his consistency after closing the year with five consecutive top 10s, including a tie for eighth place at the NCAA Championship and a runner-up showing at The Maxwell where he came up one stroke shy of his first career victory.
After earning honorable mention All-America status, Hovland entered his sophomore campaign with lofty expectations and did not disappoint. Still in search of his first victory as a Cowboy, he began the spring season the way he ended the previous one — with a string of top-five showings.
Among that stretch were runner-ups at the Amer Ari Invitational and the Lamkin San Diego Classic, setting up his breakthrough at the Valspar Collegiate. With rounds of 67, 65 and 68, Hovland secured a four-shot victory, which served as his watershed moment.
"I think I had a lot of good tournaments leading up to Valspar and I had a lot of good chances to win, but I wasn't really performing down the stretch and closing it," Hovland said. "That gave me a lot of confidence going into the postseason knowing that I was playing some good golf and could actually finish a tournament."
Entering the mix in 2017-18 to help Hovland and Co. pursue the program's first NCAA title since 2006 was Wolff.
Like his teammate the year before, the player with the head-turning swing and Southern California swagger enjoyed a productive freshman campaign that saw him consistently rack up top-10 finishes, including four runner-ups. Despite victory eluding Wolff as well, he would go on to claim the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation's top freshman.
"It was frustrating. You always want to win. You aren't always sure how many opportunities you are going to have. Luckily, I played well and had that many opportunities and didn't get it done, which probably made it a little more frustrating," Wolff said. "To keep putting yourself up there with the leaders is really what is important because if you keep on doing that you know that eventually you are going to win."
The touch of frustration which accompanied the winless season did not tarnish the trio of goals Wolff set and accomplished as a rookie. Winning a national championship as a team, first-team All-America status and national freshman of the year were his sole focus.
"I accomplished all three of those without winning, so I reached what I wanted to and that gave me a lot of confidence. I proved to myself once I got to college that I could play with these guys, all the upperclassmen and people my age, everyone," Wolff said. "I was competing against players who had been in college two or three years longer than I had. I was a new guy coming out of the gate and it would only go up from there."
And rise he would.
Both players earned first-team All-America status and achieved the ultimate goal of winning the program's 11th national championship, planting them firmly in college golf's limelight entering the 2018-19 season.
Before returning to campus to begin his junior season, Hovland added a historic victory with his win at the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach. In becoming the program's fifth winner of amateur golf's most prestigious title, he demonstrated the maturity gained from continually positioning himself around the top of the leaderboard.
"Obviously, with the U.S. Amateur and the tournaments since I have gotten familiar with being in that position and able to win tournaments without playing my best golf," Hovland said. "I have gotten comfortable with knowing this week I may not be playing my best golf, but if I am smart and miss on the right sides and do some good stuff here and there I can still scrap around and score and have a good tournament."
Hovland kept the pedal down as the fall season got underway in 2018, winning back-to-back events at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate and the East Lake Cup.
Following the lead of his teammate, Wolff entered year No. 2 in Stillwater seeking that elusive first victory.
The wait was not long and the trophies came early and often.
After blistering Pebble Beach to the tune of 17-under 199, Wolff won the season opener at The Carmel Cup and followed with his triumph at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational.
"It was a relief after coming off the freshman year with four runner-up finishes. I was always knocking on the door and never got it done. I was always questioning when I would get that first win and when would it be my time to win one because I knew I had the skills to do it. To get it done, especially against a good field, freed me up a little bit," Wolff said.
The Agoura Hills, Calif., native made it three in a row after sharing medalist honors with Hovland at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate. Wolff picked up where he left off during the fall with his victory in the spring opener at the Amer Ari Invitational where he posted an 18-under total of 198.
He followed Hovland's victory the previous year at the Valspar Collegiate with one of his own for No. 5 on the year. He made it a half dozen in his final event as a Cowboy at the NCAA Championship, becoming OSU's ninth individual national champion.
When the dust had settled, Wolff rewrote the OSU records for single-season victories (6), consecutive wins (4) and stroke average (68.69) while receiving both the Fred Haskins Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation's top player.
The key to Wolff's historic performance was simple. Patience.
"When you play a tournament, you are never going to have 54 holes or 72 holes of great golf. You are always going to slip up at some point or you won't hit it as well through a stretch of holes and you might not make putts for a little bit," Wolff said. "I just needed to trust what I was doing and let the opportunities come to me, stay patient and trust what you are doing. Maintain your confidence and keep plugging away."
With his teammate overhauling the OSU record book, Hovland took advantage of the opportunities presented by his U.S. Amateur victory. After finishing as the Low Amateur at The Masters, he followed with a record-setting performance in his return to Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open. While posting a 4-under 280 total to break the tournament's amateur scoring record set in 1960 by Jack Nicklaus, Hovland became the first player to claim low amateur honors at both major championships since 1998.
In May, Hovland was named the Ben Hogan Award winner as the nation's top player taking into account both amateur and collegiate golf. Coupled with Wolff's recognition, the Cowboys earned a clean sweep of the sport's national player of the year honors.
While the differences are clear, so too are the similarities which have intertwined Hovland and Wolff.
Both possess a fierce competitiveness that has driven them to the top of amateur golf with Hovland reaching No. 1 and Wolff right on his heels at No. 2 in both the World Amateur Golf Ranking and the Golfweek/Sagarin Ranking. The tandem fed not only off each other, but a deep and talented Cowboy roster.
"With Matt and the other guys on the team, we see each other every day and we practice against each other and we play against each other all the time," Hovland said. "You see them doing well and you think he can do that and I believe I can too and it goes back and forth."
"Matt's success and the rest of the guys on the team has helped me and pushed me to play better."
Additionally, both developed a deep affection for a place and a program thousands of miles from home that has helped them reach the ultimate goal — a shot at long and successful careers on the PGA Tour.
"Viktor is a great friend of mine, he killed it at the U.S. Open. Knowing that he finished really well and was lighting it up out there gives me confidence that I can go out and do it here and any other week that I have my game," Wolff said.
"It is cool to be on the journey with him and I am sure I will be playing a lot of practice rounds and spending a lot of time together and I am excited."
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