Viktor Hovland Enters Superstardom With Tour Championship Win, Making Sense Of Scottie Scheffler, Early Ryder Cup Feelings, Clear-Cut Player Of Year

Viktor Hovland may not have a major championship under his belt (yet) but after the clinic he put on to win the Tour Championship, the man has cemented himself not only as a certified killer but a superstar as well.

Scottie Scheffler knows all too well how it feels to lose to Hovland. While he began the Tour Championship with a two-shot lead over Young Hov, he ended up getting lapped by the 25-year-old by a whopping 18 shots in Atlanta. That beatdown coming a week after Hovland fired a final round 61 to beat Scheffler by two at the BMW Championship has to have the American chomping at the bit to tee it up against him in next month's Ryder Cup.

Speaking of the Ryder Cup, we're exactly one month away from balls in the air in Rome. Therefore it's time to assess the situation and share some early feelings on the greatest event in the sport.

Viktor Hovland: The Likable And Very Rich Assassin

Viktor Hovland has been a Top 20 player in the world since the tail-end of 2020 and has long been considered one of the best players in the world. Even prior to his back-to-back wins at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship, Some, if not most, would consider him a Top Five player in the world. But the gap between him and Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, and Rory McIlroy wasn't exactly slim.

After his 2023 campaign that was capped off with an $18 million payday to close out the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he's solidified himself as a PGA Tour superstar at just 25 years old.

Viktor Hovland is a certified superstar after picking up his Tour Championship victory. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

By no means is the Tour Championship the stiffest test in golf. It is still the Top 30 players on Tour competing for life-changing money and giving multiple shots to the No. 1 player in the standings before even putting a tee in the ground.

Hovland began the Tour Championship two shots back of Scheffler. He ended up beating the World No. 1 by a whopping 18 shots. If you take away the staggered start, Hovland and Xander Schauffele would have headed to a playoff on Sunday, but past that, he beat every other player in the field by at least seven shots. That's what a week of 68-63-66-63 will get you most of the time.

If there is one moment to look back on during Sunday's final round at East Lake it came on the Par 4 14th hole. With Schauffele already in for par, Hovland faced a 23-foot par putt to keep his lead at three. A miss and the door would be cracked open for Schauffele, a make, and the tournament was essentially over.

Hovland stepped up and hit a perfect putt.

Hovland had a phenomenal summer picking up a win at the Memorial in June and going back-to-back to close out the FedEx Cup playoffs. At just 25 years old he now has six PGA Tour wins under his belt, two more wins on the DP World Tour, and Top 10 finishes in three of the four majors.

READ: VIKTOR HOVLAND SHARES MESSAGE WE COULD ALL LEARN SOMETHING FROM AFTER WINNING $18 MILLION FEDEX CUP

While his résume speaks for itself, and should include a major victory sooner rather than later, it also doesn't hurt that Hovland may be the most likable professional athlete on the planet.

In today's day and age, it's virtually impossible to be universally liked. But you'd be extremely hard-pressed to find a person say one thing negative about Hovland outside of maybe his wardrobe.

How Did Scottie Scheffler Only Win Two Tournaments This Season?

Statistically, nobody played better golf during the 2022-23 season than Scottie Scheffler. He finished first in strokes gained: total, tee-to-green, off-the-tee, approach, greens in regulation percentage, scoring average, and bogey avoidance.

Prior to the start of the season, if someone would have said Scheffler would lead the Tour in each of those categories, everyone would have predicted at least one major victory and four total wins, at minimum. He won zero majors and found the winner's circle just twice.

The word 'just' is carrying quite a bit of weight seeing as how Scheffler did finish inside the Top 10 in 17 of his 23 starts this past season, but it seems like some sort of statistical anomaly that he only won two tournaments given how dominant he was from tee to green for 10 consecutive months.

It's been talked about ad nauseam, but the putter quite literally held Scheffler back all year long.

The 27-year-old finished 150th on Tour in strokes gained: putting and 134th in one-putt percentage for the season. It may seem too simple to simply circle Scheffler's putter as the issue, but sometimes it is that simple.

During his win at the WM Phoenix Open Scheffler finished 13th in strokes gained: putting. During his five-shot win at The Players two months later, he finished 48th in that statistic.

Breaking news: putting is important in golf.

Putting is also a skill, but it also requires a bit of luck. Not only was Scheffler battling the putting woes for 90% of the season, but it's very clear he didn't have any luck fall his way because if he did. His all-world ball striking would have produced a win or two and covered up his below-average putting.

Right Now, It Feels Like The U.S. Is Doomed Yet Again In The Ryder Cup

With the recency bias of Viktor Hovland being the best player in the world right now, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm still being Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, and the fact that the U.S. hasn't won on European soil since 1993 it's hard to be confident in the Americans heading into next month's Ryder Cup in Rome.

While the U.S. should have confidence on its side after destroying the Europeans 19-9 two years ago, the Europeans may as well have even more confidence as they've defended their home turf on six straight occasions.

The bottom-half of the U.S. team, at least on paper, should be stronger than the bottom-half of the European squad. Which in my opinion will be where this year's Cup will be won.

Regardless of who the captain's picks are if you're the U.S., you have to like your bottom-six against the European bottom-six. Looking at that pessimistically, however, a few upsets early on by the Europeans and it could spiral out of control for the Americans battling against a 30-year curse across the pond.

Vegas has the U.S. as the betting favorite, but there could be some serious value in the European 'underdog' play.

There Is No PGA Tour Player Of The Year Debate

There are only three players who should be considered for PGA Tour Player of the Year. Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, and Viktor Hovland, but the clear-cut favorite is Mr. Scheffler.

Yes, Rahm won the Masters and picked up three more wins on Tour this past season. And sure, Hovland finished the year with massive back-to-back wins, but what we saw from Scheffler was simply more special.

While I already mentioned Scheffler leading the Tour in seven major statistical categories, he rattled off 17 Top 10s and two victories in 23 starts, which also included two runner-up finishes.

He didn't pick up as many wins as Rahm or Hovland this season, but it's hard to not give the POY honors to a player who finished no worse than 12th in 19 consecutive starts.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris