King Vik
Viktor Hovland dunks on Smylie Kaufman on Smylie Kaufman's own podcast, remains impossible to hate
When you begin winning at life at the rate Viktor Hovland is right now, people are going to dig deep and find reasons to hate. In the case of King Vik, though, I'm not sure that will ever happen, because it is quite literally impossible to find a reason to dislike the young Norwegian.
Even when he shows off his cocky side, like he did on a recent episode of "The Smylie Show," aka Smylie Kaufman's podcast, he does it in an extremely likeable manner. During their chat, Kaufman brought up an amazing moment from early on in the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone, when Hovland faced a tricky shot on the back right portion of the first green. Kaufman, who was calling the action for NBC, pointed out that he fully expected Hovland to pull out his putter.
"It was potentially my worst call of the week," Kaufman says as Hovland laughs in the background. "You screwed me, you did. Because 23 out of 24 players would have grabbed the putter on the back of that green on one. I looked at it, I walked right past it. It was a putt. It was never in my mind a chip."
With Hovland continuing to maniacally laugh in Kaufman's face, Kaufman pulled up the clip which showed his call and the resulting chip-in from the green from Hovland. It was a particularly stunning moment given Hovland's well-documented chipping woes. But he promptly showed that he's improving dramatically in that area, holing out in Kaufman's face. They relived the moment together and Hovland had the perfect dunk at the very end of the clip:
Suck it, Smylie. Nothing further. Mic drop city, USA.