For the entirety of Viktor Hovland’s professional PGA TOUR career to date, he’s used one Ping putter: a custom PLD DS-72 mallet. Actually, it used to be called the “Hovi” prototype until Ping launched the model under the DS-72 name. Hovland’s specific version is milled from carbon steel and comes equipped with two white lines – one on the topline, and one on the flange – for better alignment.

The putter has been in his bag for all six of his PGA TOUR victories, but on Thursday at The Genesis Invitational 2025, while currently ranked 123rd in Strokes Gained: Putting on the PGA TOUR in 2025, it finally found its way to the bench.

As Ping rep Dylan Goodwin explains, Hovland reached out to Ping last Friday while he was at home in Oklahoma, looking to try out some different putters.

“It was last week, on Friday he reached out wanting to test some different options,” Goodwin told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday. “So we kind of sent him a goodie bag of a number of different options. Different face options, inserts, deeper milling, shallower milling, smooth, different models that he hasn’t seen before. Some that play off his current gamer.”

After testing out the goodie bag worth of putters supplied by Ping, Hovland took a liking to the Ping PLD Oslo “Onset” putter with a center-shaft, pictured below.

According to Goodwin, Hovland liked how flush the new Oslo Onset putter sat against the ground at address. Since the shaft pops straight out of the center of the head, it doesn’t need to be manipulated to sit square. With his previous gamer, Hovland was finding some issues with how the head sat at address.

“After following up with him this week (at The Genesis Invitational), he found to really like that Oslo Onset,” Goodwin said. “What he was kind of noticing with his gamer was he just wasn’t comfortable at address. He felt like he was manipulating the face with his hands, trying to figure out where the lie and the loft looked right to him. He wasn’t feeling comfortable over the ball. So with that Oslo Onset, how it sits, it just sits really flush, and there’s no manipulation of that center shaft, right?”

Center-shafted putters – and putters that are designed with onset – are certainly heating up on the PGA TOUR, with various equipment manufacturers creating prototypes to suit players’ desires. It seems that Ping and Hovland are following suit.

“We’ve seen some popular models out here that have that onset, that really have that face in front of the shaft, and it kind of frees up the ball,” Goodwin said. “Guys like the visual of that. Center shafts have been popular lately. We did our take on it. It has a little bit of toe hang that matches kind of what Viktor does naturally. So the start line has been really, really good, but mainly he just really likes it at address – it sits so square.”

So, for the first time in six years, Hovland is using a Ping putter that isn’t his familiar PLD DS-72 prototype. All eyes are now on the new PLD Oslo Onset putter as Hovland plays in The Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.