OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Viktor Hovland’s season is an exercise in extremes. When the swing clicks, it’s great. When it doesn’t, Hovland is unable to save it. And there’s no telling which version will show up.

Need examples? Hovland won the Valspar Championship in March, a week after shooting 80 at THE PLAYERS Championship, a victory heralded as the start of Hovland’s resurgence. He didn’t finish in the top 10 for another three months. He broke that spell with a solo-third at the U.S. Open, then the next week he withdrew midway through the Travelers Championship with an injury. He has yet to register another top 10.

It’s the type of inconsistency bred by indecision – a place Hovland has spent the last two seasons as he works to find a sustainable swing that will generate long-term success. What Hovland found in the stellar outings has proven fleeting, replaced within weeks for a new feel he hopes will be the lasting answer. In that quest, immediate success was de-emphasized.

“I probably have 72 (swing) feels right now,” Hovland jokingly said – hyperbolic in the details but truthful in the aggregate.

Yet this week is where the rubber meets the road. Hovland is in a place he’s never been: on the FedExCup bubble, 28th in the standings, with a week to go before the TOUR Championship. It’s now or never. Which version of Hovland would show up? At least for one round, the great one.

After settling on a swing feel Tuesday with coach Grant Waite, Hovland rode those feelings to a 3-under opening round 67 at a toughened-up Caves Valley. When he wrapped his round, Hovland held a share of the 18-hole lead and led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and Around the Green.

So what did he find?

“I don't want to go too into it,” Hovland said after his round, before fully getting into it. “But basically, like in transition, I've been tilting, like, my side bend, and I just don't turn my chest as much as I used to, and I got that confirmed with a certain app and then looking at videos.

“So it was kind of a quick feel that instead of basically tilting from the top of the swing,” he continued, “just feel like I'm turning a little bit more so I can get the arms and hands more in front of me so I don't get as stuck.”

Hovland hit 15 greens despite finding the fairway just eight times as his iron play buoyed his performance. After an up-and-down front nine left him even-par, Hovland jumped up the leaderboard with three late birdies. He holed out a bunker shot on the par-4 12th, then hit stellar approaches on the 16th and 17th holes to set up birdies.

“It seemed like on every shot like that, I was able to hit a pretty nice iron shot. I never had to really scramble for par a whole lot,” Hovland said.

So is this the long-term solution? For this week, it doesn’t matter. That’s a freeing thought for Hovland, one of the biggest tinkerers in the sport.

“I guess there's something about kind of having your back against the wall and having to perform. I think sometimes I can get too much into my head about swing mechanics and all that stuff, which I still think is important, but I think when you're in the Playoffs and I'm 28th and top 30 advances, it's like, all right, we kind of have to forget about that stuff a little bit this week and just go out there and play, and I do think that's definitely helping me in the short term.”

If it’s good enough to get him to the TOUR Championship, it will suffice. What comes after that is a future problem.