Viktor Hovland has won at Pebble Beach before and may provide a challenge for the pros.

A thick tangle of ice plant partially obscured Viktor Hovland’s ball, which dangled 40 feet down a cliff. The Pacific Ocean splashed just a few feet below and the 4th green at Pebble Beach Golf Links was somewhere above, beyond scraggly fringe grass and a bunker.

To make matters worse, Hovland had double-bogeyed the 2nd and was now locked in a draw with Devon Bling in the finals of last year’s U.S. Amateur Championship.

The young golfer appeared to be in trouble – but only to those who hadn’t seen Hovland play before.

Hovland just finished his junior year at Oklahoma State University. He made the cut at just two tour events and appeared in one other major. And he remains an amateur – likely to turn pro at some point this summer, though still undecided. Yet he enters the 119th U.S. Open with a chance to contend for a slot near the top of the leaderboard.

Hovland comes into the weekend as the world’s top amateur. He was awarded the Ben Hogan trophy, given to the best collegiate player. He helped the Cowboys claim the 2018 NCAA crown and took the 2018 U.S. Amateur title in convincing fashion. That near-impossible lie on the 4th? He made what some called the shot of the year at any level of golf, pitching it to within two feet of the pin and tapping in for a birdie on his way to a 6-and-5 match play win.

In his first major – the 2019 Masters Tournament held in April and won by Tiger Woods – the Oslo, Norway native played a consistent 72-71-71-71, finished 3-under, the lowest score for an amateur in the field, and 32nd overall.

And he says his form was off at Augusta.

“I didn’t feel like I played my best golf, but I didn’t throw away any shots,” Hovland explains. “I just tried to pick my spots.”

Hovland says that he is never really happy with his game, that he always looks for areas where he needs to improve. It’s the sort of thing coaches and caddies love to hear from a golfer.

Alan Bratton serves as both – head coach of the famed Oklahoma State golf team and caddie for Hovland at big events. “When he got to school he was not a strong putter,” Bratton observes. He also tended to apply more power than finesse in certain situations. But as he developed over the past three years, the coach saw Hovland gain in both maturity and confidence.

One aspect of his game needed no improvement at all.

“When I was recruiting him, I loved his toughness, his competitiveness,” says Bratton, who signed Hovland from Norway to Stillwater. “He thrives on competition. He’s not afraid to make mistakes.”

Even before coming to the U.S., Hovland fired a course record 63 in the third round of the 2016 European Amateur Championship and finished regulation in a tie for first with Luca Cianchetti. He then battled shot-for-shot through six playoff holes before falling to the Italian.

So Hovland was a fit for the Oklahoma State squad, winners of 11 NCAA titles with the likes of Rickie Fowler, Scott Verplank and Bob Tway among the school’s golfing graduates. The squad just missed out on a return trip to the NCAA championship last month. But teammate Matthew Wolff – the world’s number two amateur – captured the individual title.

“Him having played well here puts him in a good position,” Fowler says of Hovland. “I expect him to play well [at the Open].”

Hovland credits the atmosphere at OSU for sharpening his game.

“It definitely brings more competition,” he says. “It’s not just Matt, it’s the whole team. They’re a bunch of good golfers.”

College golf also introduced the young Norwegian to Pebble Beach. At the 2016 Carmel Cup his freshman season, Hovland birdied four of the first five holes in round three, finishing the event 5-under in a tie for 14th. The next year he again broke par.

But Hovland says those tournaments were played under resort conditions, with soft greens and wide fairways. The course was firmer and more challenging at the U.S. Amateur. Dominating so thoroughly – behind for only one hole over six matches – in championship conditions convinced him he was ready to compete at the highest level.

“At the Amateur you can’t miss at certain spots,” Hovland says, adding that he expects the U.S. Open layout to be even more imposing. “Being patient was a good lesson.”

The young golfer chuckles when reminded of his walk up the fairway on the 6th hole during his championship bout when Bratton shouldered the bag and sprinted ahead to view Hovland’s ball, passing groups of spectators who were struggling up the steep slope.

They get along well.

“He knows my game, how I play golf,” Hovland says. “It’s easy for him to club me” – in other words, to help select the proper club for the situation. They talk quite a bit during rounds, although Hovland adds that the coach also knows what not to say (and when not to say it).

“He knows me as a person,” he says. “That’s helpful.”

Which brings us back to Hovland’s opportunity for a breakthrough finish. It would be a rare feat for an amateur to challenge for a top 10 finish at the Open. The last non-professional to win was Johnny Goodman in 1933. Jack Nicklaus finished second in 1961 before turning pro and Jim Simon fell just short in 1971. Since 1990, however, no amateur has wrapped up play in the top 10. And only five – Matt Kuchar (T14, 1998), Spencer Levin (T13, 2004), Russell Henley and Scott Langley (T16, 2010) and Michael Kim (T17, 2013) – ended up in the top 20.

But Hovland enters with an impressive resume. He knows the course. He has full trust in his caddie. And after a strong performance at the Masters and making the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he can stay with the top professionals and not be rattled.

“That’s an inner confidence,” Bratton says. “There’s definitely a calmness with him while he’s competing.”

Even crowds at the Masters left Hovland unfazed.

“We play golf every day,” he says. “The surroundings change, but I trust my routine and my game.”