If Viktor Hovland was distracted by Saturday’s World Cup quarterfinal match between his native Norway and England, he didn’t show it at all during a mistake-free back nine to finish the third round of the Scottish Open.
The 2026 Travelers winner, who celebrated by leading the famous Norwegian Row with fans in Connecticut last month, carded a 1-under 69 at the Renaissance Club in what was a fog-delayed Moving Day for early groupings.
Hovland admitted to getting off to a rough start due to the morning weather conditions, but was buoyed by crowd support — cheers in favor of Norway’s men’s national soccer team which he’s heard all week from the North Berwick fans.
“All the Scottish people that I’ve talked to this week, they are all Norwegian this week, at least, hoping that we are going to beat England,” Hovland said. “It’s nice to have support and, honestly, really cool to see so many people out here in general. This morning, it was not the best weather, and people really show up and support. It’s been great.”
The Norway viking row made it to the @ScottishOpen for Viktor Hovland 🇳🇴⚡️
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) July 11, 2026
Warming up for a giant match vs. England in the World Cup quarterfinals later ⚽️
📺 Golf Channel pic.twitter.com/whHAEJ9vXa
The eight-time PGA Tour winner opened with squares at No. 2 and No. 3. Back-to-back birdies at the par-4 sixth and par-5 seventh helped even the scorecard a bit.
“It was hard to see the flag and where the ball was going — I actual hit some lovely shots,” said Hovland of the weather delay. “I just putted pretty poorly. Kind of been the whole story the whole week. Was able to battle back and shoot at least a respectable score, even though I feel like I’m playing way better than the score.”
Norway takes on England at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday.
With final round tee times in flux due to the delay, Hovland can watch it without worrying about an impact to rest. He sits seven shots off current clubhouse leader Johnny Keefer (-10) and six back of Rory McIlroy and a pair of other co-leaders teed off after 1 p.m.
“Hope it’s an exciting game and things go our way, that would be really cool,” Hovland said. “It’s been a fun World Cup for Norwegians, and we hope they can continue at least a few more days.”
