Palm Beach County in Florida has added another top 10 golfer in the world among its residents.
Norway’s Viktor Hovland, ranked No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, recently moved from Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Palm Beach Gardens, where he is living with a friend. Hovland is scouting the area for the best place to buy.
Hovland’s move gives Palm Beach County half of the world’s top 10 golfers in the current ranking and 10 of the top 30.
Hovland, 26, had lived in Stillwater since arriving at Oklahoma State University. When asked about the move after his pro-am Wednesday before the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, he compared the weather in the Midwest to South Florida.
“The weather is a big one,” he said. “It’s just hard to beat it for golf, especially this time of year. This has kind of been a rough winter in Stillwater. Just not great for practicing. Even though I love Oklahoma. Summertime it’s great, and I certainly miss the people there.”
Stillwater’s average temperature from December through January is in the 50s. The city had three consecutive days in January when the low was below zero.
Hovland also was drawn by the proximity to international airports, especially Miami which has nonstop flights to Oslo.
“I do find it easier if I want to go back home to Norway, it’s a direct flight from Miami,” he said. “I can have family and friends come down and hang out. It’s a little bit harder for them to come to Stillwater, and, yeah, there’s not much to do there either. So at least in Florida, there’s a little bit more we can do.”
Hovland is the reigning FedEx Cup champion, which earned him $18 million, and has won six times on the PGA Tour. He joins fellow top 10 golfers Rory McIlroy (No. 2), Xander Schauffele (5), Patrick Cantlay (6) and Matthew Fitzpatrick (9) as residents of northern Palm Beach County. Hovland, McIlroy and Fitzpatrick were part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team, as were Jupiter residents Shane Lowry (54) and team captain Luke Donald.
Keegan Bradley (15), Cameron Young (21), Justin Thomas (23), Matthieu Pavon (24) and Brooks Koepka (30) round out top 30 county residents in the current ranking.
Others of note include Rickie Fowler, Daniel Berger, Gary Woodland, Eric Cole, Lucas Glover and Matt Kuchar.
Koepka leads a long list of LIV golfers in the area, among them Branden Grace, Dustin Johnson, Anirban Lahiri, Joaquin Niemann, Mito Pereira, Charl Schwartzel, Peter Uihlein and Matthew Wolff.
Bernhard Langer, Ernie Els and Justin Leonard are among those on the PGA Tour Champions living in the county.
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf writer for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@gannett.com.