Viktor Hovland has an impressive resumé.

Three years ago the diminutive Norwegian became the first from his country to win on the PGA Tour, a feat he has since accomplished five more times. Prior to that, the 2018 U.S. Amateur champ played in college for Oklahoma State, itself a powerhouse with 11 national titles in its history.

What Alabama is to football, Kentucky is to basketball, and Iowa is to wrestling, the Cowboys* are to golf (Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan and Scott Verplank are fellow alums). In fact Stillwater remains Hovland’s primary residence.

My fixation with the Ryder Cup begins with a single event: the ’99 match-up at The Country Club in Brookline (the oldest golf-oriented country club in the U.S.). The improbable American rally, which was all but guaranteed by team captain Ben Crenshaw during a press conference the day before — and capped, almost prophetically, by Justin Leonard’s 45-foot birdie on the 17th hole — remains one of the most enthralling moments in sports I’ve ever witnessed.

Welp, a couple of weeks ago Hovland and his fellow Europeans claimed another Cup win over the country that granted him asylum… the churlish immigrant. Tragically the Europeans have now won eight of their last 11 against the U.S. since Brookline, including an almost identical (yet less memorable) come-from-behind at Medinah in 2012. That one stung.

The picture of the Norwegian above, recumbent with the trophy alongside a dozen or so beauties, struck me in a different sort of way, as if it was the manifestation of the American victory drought in a competition they once owned. I’m not much of a golfer, but it’s difficult to not take Hovland’s triumphant pose personally.

So congrats to the mother continent. The game is indigenous to Europe anyway. But with a little luck, Oklahoma State just might produce some homegrown talent in time to reclaim the trophy at Bethpage in 2025.

* The University of Houston won 16 national championships in 30 years, but none since 1985. Oklahoma State are the reigning blue bloods now.