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The Norwegian's 2-under 70 brought him to 5 under for the event,
one shot better than Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler,
Cameron Young and Collin Morikawa.
Hovland's round also featured a slam-dunk eagle at the par-5
sixth, but it was the three consecutive birdies at Nos. 13-15 at
Albany Golf Club that brought him as low as 6 under, before a
late bogey moved him to 5 under.
The event is an unofficial PGA Tour tournament benefiting host
Tiger Woods' foundation. The field is made up of just 20
players.
Hovland, ranked No. 12 in the world, won last year's Hero World
Challenge at 18 under for the week. The course is playing much
more difficult this year in the wind.
"You're grinding on 3-footers," Hovland said. "It's windy and
it's grainy, and the greens are fast so it's not like you can
just ram the putts in, you've got to actually kind of die the
putts in and that's when the wind can hit it a little bit
harder."
Hovland hit his third shot at the sixth hole from the first cut
of rough about 84 yards from the pin. His shot plunked right in
the hole without a bounce or roll.
"Hit a nice drive off the tee and kind of necked my second shot
with a 3-wood out to the right in the right rough and kind of
had a little weird lie on the upslope," Hovland said. "I had 77
meters and I basically aimed it 30 feet right of the pin and I
hit like a 50-degree, just trying to hit it as low as possible
to try to get under the wind. And I saw it spinning at the end a
little bit and I yelled ‘Go!' and yeah, just slam-dunked right
in.
"That was the first time I've done that."
World No. 2 Scheffler and No. 6 Schauffele each shot a 4-under
68. While Schauffele had five birdies and just one bogey,
Scheffler had six birdies -- four on the back nine -- and two
bogeys.
Scheffler could overtake Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy for
world No. 1 with a win this week.
"I haven't really been No. 2 for a while, so I feel like if I
continue to play great and win some events I'll get back there,
but it's not going to be something that I'll keep in the front
of my mind," Scheffler said. "It's not something I think about
when I'm practicing, it's not something that occupies a lot of
my thoughts. It's nice to be No. 1."
Young shot a 69 Friday and Morikawa posted a 71.
Tom Kim of South Korea (72) is in sixth at 3 under and Justin
Thomas (70) is seventh at 2 under.
--Field Level Media
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