Viktor Hovland's Masters meltdown sees him miss cut as he angrily throws ball into water

Viktor Hovland lost his head on the 15th at Augusta National to throw away his chance of playing Saturday in the Masters.

After working his way into a good position on the green, the Norwegian had a putt for par to stay at 6-over. His effort up the slope, however, agonisingly lipped out leaving a small tap-in for bogey. Approaching the putt in a relaxed manner, Hovland casually hit the ball with one hand and saw it slip past the hole and back downhill.

The 26-year-old composed himself, walked to the putt, used two hands this time, and sunk it for a double bogey. Frustrated, Hovland thew his ball into the lake before the 15th green.

It moved Hovland from 6-over to 8-over and past the cut line. Six-over par would have seen him through but after parring the remaining three holes, he will now go home instead of playing in the Saturday at Augusta National.

Hovland ended 2023 very strongly. In his last five tournaments, Hovland had finished tied-13th twice, including in The Open, bagged a 10th place finish and won two tournaments. But 2024 paints a different; In the five tournaments leading up to the Masters, Hovland’s highest finish was tied-19th.

Hovland was 1-under coming into Friday’s round, only six shots behind Bryson DeChambeau. The American is still the leader, but is now tied with Scottie Scheffler and Max Homa on 6-under after dropping a shot. Hovland’s 9-over round on Friday, culminating with the meltdown on 15th, will likely live long in the memory.

Though the weather had little impact on his putts on the 15th, it will have had an effect on the rest of his round – which started with a triple bogey, double bogey and two single bogeys in the first five holes alone. Really strong winds swept through Augusta National and Hovland wasn’t the only one to struggle.

Viktor Hovland suffers a meltdown on the 15th

Rory McIlroy was 1-under entering Friday and he finished the day 4-over. Discussing the weather, he said: “Tough day, really tough day. Just hard to make a score and just sort of trying to make as many pars as possible. I felt like I did okay. I made that bogey on 14, and even just to par the last four holes and get in the clubhouse and have a tee time tomorrow, I’m sort of pretty happy with.

“Yeah, just a really tough day. Scoring was very difficult. Yeah, just one of those days that couldn’t — I mean, most of the field couldn’t really get anything going. It was just a matter of trying to hang in there as best you could.”