Viktor Hovland Made A Quiet Gear Swap At Bethpage

European Ryder Cup star Viktor Hovland isn't one to change gear that often - heck, he's still using a two-generation-old Ping driver, a G425 LST.

But this week at Bethpage for the Ryder Cup, he did make one unexpected change to his equipment, but it has nothing to do with his clubs. Viktor has returned to wearing Puma's Ignite Elevate 2 Tours after switching back to Nike Roshe earlier this season - even after wearing the Nike's as recently as at The BMW PGA.

Why The Swap?

When it comes to clothing, Viktor wears J. Lindeberg, leaving his shoe deal open, and although he was a Nike shoe guy for years, he moved to Puma in 2024. But, early in the season he sighted his putting was a reason for the switch back to Nikes when asked about it by reporter Espen Blaker.

“I’ve gone back to some old Nike shoes. I feel I can read the slopes of the greens better with my feet. They are so light, and actually a bit unstable, compared to the Puma shoes I’ve been using for a while now. These are the ones I’ve played with for much of my career, so I’m very familiar with them. I feel like I read the greens much better, which makes me much more comfortable with the ball.”

Now beyond the fact that I'm sure Puma has been doing a lot of work in the background to get one of their biggest golf athletes back into their shoes, it might help that they also produced some very cool and custom Euro-themed kicks for Mr.Hovland.

Well, whatever they've done it seems to be working, since Hovland didn't have many issues on the greens during his opening match, even though it did end in a loss to Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.