If pro golfer Viktor Hovland ever seems distracted out on the course, he’s probably just thinking about the threat of an extraterrestrial invasion.
The six-time PGA Tour champion, 26, switched his focus from putting technique and tee times to conspiracy theories and existential dread in a new interview with UK’s The Times.
“It’s like, what is the deal with all the aliens?” Hovland asked in a story published Sunday, July 14. “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?’”
He continued, “I find the reluctance to talk about that stuff fascinating. The conspiracy is one thing but then also the reaction to it.”
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Hovland didn’t stop there, with the Norwegian star getting quizzical about what happens after life on Earth.
“What do you think happens after we die? We don’t know,” he posited. “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.”
Hovland questioned, “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.”
While Hovland is busy getting to the bottom of all of that, he also has some things to figure out on the links. After a stellar end to 2023, Hovland has only one top-10 finish in 2024 — May’s PGA Championship, where he finished 3rd — and missed the cut at both the Masters and the U.S. Open.
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“The worst feeling is when you’re in a bad place and you don’t know how to get out of it,” Hovland admitted. “I was trying a bunch of stuff that just wasn’t working and it’s just miserable when you work so hard and don’t see the results. Then it’s the thoughts of, ‘Why do I even try?’ You sort of enter a bad frame of mind where it’s just like, ‘What’s the point of playing?’”
After missing the cut at the Masters in April, Hovland withdrew from the following week’s RBC Heritage.
“I can enter a tournament and scrape by but that’s not why I play the game,” he said. “I want to play at the level I know I can. If I am just here to try and make the cut, I’d rather be doing something else.”
Hovland will get the chance to make the cut at The 152nd Open Championship, which tees off Thursday, July 18 at Scotland’s Royal Troon Golf Club.
