Viktor Hovland withdrew during his final round at the Travelers Championship with a neck injury, PGA TOUR Communications announced Sunday. Hovland was on the third hole at TPC River Highlands when he withdrew, 1-over on his day. He sat 11 shots behind the leader at the time, Tommy Fleetwood, after making bogey on the second hole. Hovland was paired with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Taylor Pendrith after groupings were moved to threesomes due to early storms in the Cromwell, Connecticut area.

Hovland, a former FedExCup champion and seven-time TOUR winner, has shown up-and-down form all season, with this week being no exception. Coming off a third-place finish at last week's U.S. Open, Hovland opened his tournament with 66-75-63, a 12-stroke difference between his second and third rounds. The Norwegian entered Sunday in a tie for 14th at 6-under 204. He was the second player to withdraw from the Travelers on Sunday; Eric Cole withdrew earlier in the day due to illness. Cole also began the day T14.

"I warmed up on the range, felt great," Hovland said after the withdrawal. "I was just going to hit a little bit last couple drivers before I was going to go to the first tee, and hit one shot and then felt a little bit in my neck, but it didn't, it felt fine, didn't feel hardly anything at all, just felt like something was maybe brewing.

"Then the next shot that I hit with a driver, it just felt like, yeah, it just cracked. I don't know exactly what happened, but there's something that happened and just couldn't move."

His most recent victory came earlier this year at the Valspar Championship, and he entered the final Signature Event of the season in a solid position to make it back to East Lake Golf Club for the season-ending TOUR Championship, currently sitting 20th in the FedExCup. The top 70 on the FedExCup after the Wyndham Championship will qualify for the Playoffs, and the top 50 after the first Playoffs event qualify for next season’s Signature Events. The top 30 after the BMW Championship will qualify for the FedExCup finale and this year will have equal opportunity to win the FedExCup, with the removal of FedExCup Starting Strokes.

Hovland struggled at the start of the year, missing three cuts in a row, before turning things around at the Valspar.