Viktor Hovland's 'Disgusting' Win At Valspar, JT Keeps It Classy In Defeat, Tiger Woods' Hater Blockers

There are players at your local muni course right now who feel more confident standing over a golf ball than Viktor Hovland does at the moment. The only difference between Hovland and that player this past Sunday is that the Norwegian picked up his seventh win on the PGA Tour and chased down a two-time major winner in the process, while the muni player was thrilled to shoot 86.

What's crazy is that the muni player may have had the most fun between the two.

Justin Thomas was the two-time major winner that Hovland was able to get the better of at the Valspar Championship. While JT's drought extended another week, he's confident in how the big picture side of things looks at the moment.

Tiger Woods hasn't played a competitive round of golf since July of last year, but the man still knows how to make a headline. Formally announcing that you're dating the ex-wife of President Donald Trump's son isn't quite good enough for Mr. Woods, he had to take things to a new level by announcing the news in an absolutely bizarre fashion.

We'll get into it all in this week's edition of Par Talk. As always, shoot over any thoughts and concerns to mark.harris@outkick.com or yell at me on Twitter @itismarkharris.

Viktor Hovland Is The Most-Interesting Man In Golf

Typically, the act of actually winning the golf tournament and the shots the winner executed to find the winner's circle make up the overarching story when looking at the Sunday that was on the PGA Tour.

While Viktor Hovland certainly executed to earn his victory at the Valspar Championship, the actual golf he played isn't anywhere near the top of the list when it comes to interesting anecdotes from his performance. His win had everything to do with the mental side of things, which is always the most interesting factor to try and dissect in the sports world.

Speaking with the media after earning his one-shot win at the Valspar, Hovland admitted that he didn't even know if he was going to actually tee it up this week until Tuesday afternoon after a practice round, about 48 hours out from the opening round.

The 27-year-old was lacking confidence, to put it mildly. He entered the week coming off of three straight cuts and was just a week removed from shooting 80 in the opening round of The Players.

Even after winning the golf tournament, Hovland wasn't happy with his game and delivered one of the greatest quotes ever from inside the winner's circle.

"I hit a lot of disgusting shots, but they happened to go where I looked," Hovland said, before later explaining that he was able to time up his swing extremely well.

‘Disgusting’ isn't exactly the first adjective that comes to mind when looking at a final round 67 that resulted in a win on one of the most difficult courses on Tour, but it's just another glimpse into Hovland's unique mind and approach to the game.

Some may read Hovland's post-round quote and label him a headcase. In my opinion, the more appropriate way to look at him is a vulnerable, honest guy trying to figure out this insanely fickle game and being so naturally gifted at it that, despite negative thoughts dominating his mind, he can still find ways to win golf tournaments.

Justin Thomas Positive, And Gracious, In Defeat

While Viktor Hovland ended his winless streak at 594 days on Sunday, Justin Thomas extended his to 1,036 days and counting despite it looking like JT's day for most of the afternoon.

Thomas stood on the 16th tee at 12-under, which was good enough for a three-shot lead at the time. With his approach game dialed and the putter finally not looking like a foreign object in his hand, it not only felt like Thomas' tournament to lose, it quite literally was.

Unfortunately for him, that's what transpired down the stretch.

A wayward tee shot followed by a missed green from inside 150 yards on the Par 4 16th hole led to a bogey. Minutes later, Hovland made birdie on the same hole to pull off a two-shot swing and snatch the momentum out of Thomas' grasp. Another birdie on the Par 3 17th hole while Thomas made a mess of the 18th hole en route to another bogey led to Hovland grabbing the trophy instead of Thomas.

It's not often a player wins a golf tournament with bogeys on two of the final three holes, and Thomas had to live that tough reality on Sunday.

Despite having just about every reason to sprint to his car and leave the property as soon as Hovland sealed the victory on the 72nd hole, JT hung around, signed autographs for plenty of fans, and appeared to be in a totally fine mood given the circumstances when speaking with the media.

"I'll take a lot of good. Way, way more good than bad. I mean, today was awesome," Thomas said…"I'm very, very proud of myself. It sucks not winning when you're that close and have a great chance, but I just hopefully put myself in the same position in two weeks at Augusta and finish it off better."

For a guy of Thomas' stature who hasn't won a golf tournament in more than 1,000 days to call a runner-up finish playing the final three holes at two-over par an "awesome" day is, well, awesome.

Most players wouldn't show that amount of patience in Thomas' situation, but he's clearly taking the glass-half-full approach, which is probably the wise choice with the Masters approaching in a hurry.

We Can't Not Talk About The Tiger Woods - Vanessa Trump Hard Launch

It had been rumored for weeks that Tiger Woods was dating Vanessa Trump, and the big cat and former daughter-in-law to the President hard launched their relationship on Sunday afternoon.

Woods waiting about an hour after Hovland wrapped up his victory to announce the news was classy, but it was still an unbelievably strange social media post.

The words "love is in the air" were used and Woods staring directly into the sun also made an appearance.

The post has over 20.5 million views in about 16 hours on X alone, so mission accomplished to Woods' social team.

What do we think the thought process is of sharing the news and, uh, unique photos with the announcement? Is Team Woods and Team Vanessa just getting ahead of the paparazzi as they want to go enjoy some overpriced fish tacos in Jupiter, or has Woods already reached peak boredom levels while recovering from his ruptured Achilles?

We'll probably never know, but what we do know is the golf talks between Tiger, his son Charlie, and Vanessa's daughter Kai have to be next level.