Norwegian golfer Viktor Hovland and Olympic teammate Kristian Johannessen did not get off to the best of starts when they first met.
“I hated him,” Hovland said while cracking a smile.
The two first met at a junior event in Spain. Hovland was rooming with a close friend of his and his girlfriend. This meant Hovland could not get the good night’s sleep that he intended on before the tournament.
A cranky Hovland would not stop complaining about his lack of sleep. That was until Johannessen finally had enough of Hovland’s crying.
“I had never met Kristian before, but I knew who he was and after I like told this to a couple of different people he just asked me straight up, ‘Well, what did you shoot the first two days of the tournament?’ Because we had already played two rounds. And I just said, ‘Well, I shot 82, 82.’ And he was just like, ‘Well does it matter where you’re sleeping if you’re shooting 82, 82?’” Hovland said.
![Viktor Hovland looks to add a gold medal this week to his already impressive résumé.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/HovlandOly.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024)
“Never met the guy before and I’m like, all right, we’re off to a good start. … despite the nasty comments he’s actually a pretty decent guy.”
“After that, we had a good time for a lot of years even though we started out not the best,” Johannessen said of the event.
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Hovland is currently the No. 11 golfer in the world. He has two PGA tour wins in his career — one at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and one at the Puerto Rico Open — and was the first Norwegian to win on the European Tour by winning the 2021 BMW International Open. Meanwhile, Johannessen is the No. 297-ranked golfer in the world.
The two will compete for gold starting on Wednesday. They look to put an end to Norway’s lack of success at the summer Olympics.