Viktor Hovland's European Vacation, Brian Campbell Is An Anomaly, And Why Nick Dunlap Deserves All The Respect

Viktor Hovland decided to go to Spain on a boys' trip during his off week heading into the Scottish Open, and thankfully, his buddies documented a good chunk of the adventure that just so happened to feature some virginity jokes.

As for the actual golf played this past week, nobody did that better than Brian Campbell at the John Deere Classic. The shortest player off the tee on the PGA Tour has not one, but two wins to his name in 2025, and both came in a playoff. In an era where speed and distance are talked about as being the end-all be-all of professional golf, it's refreshing to see a guy who many people reading this story right now can consistently outdrive finds the winner's circle.

Speaking of driving the golf ball, Nick Dunlap is still struggling in that category, but less than three months removed from shooting 90 at the Masters, the former Alabama star seems to have found his stride again, which is absolutely worth dissecting in this week's edition of Par Talk.

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Hovland And The Lads Take On Marbella

Viktor Hovland decided to skip the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour as well as this week's BMW International Open over on the DP World Tour, and chose to party in Spain with his closest friends instead. Based on the content we got from the trip, it was a very wise decision from the young man from Norway.

Hovland, who withdrew from the Travelers Championship in his last start on Tour three weeks ago, joined fellow Norwegian professional golfer and close friend Kevin Andre Wright, plus a plethora of lads, for what looked like an off week that most of them won't actually remember.

Thankfully, the many Hovland tracker social media accounts were on top of capturing the content from the trip the seven-time PGA Tour winner and his boys had in Marbella.

The pièce de résistance from the trip was Hovland, who was definitely (not) sober, holding up a tee-shirt typically reserved for an overweight man sitting in a chair overlooking the Gulf of America.

Champagne bottles were also popped in the pool, and while sunscreen appears to have been applied, it wasn't exactly a perfect lathering.

A few videos of Hovland playing some golf with the boys popped up on Instagram over the weekend as well, plus he also seems to have gotten in some incredibly valuable work on the putting green while 30,000 feet in the air.

The neck injury that Hovland cited after withdrawing from the Travelers late last month seems to have gone away, and if it was still lingering during the trip to Spain, I'd be willing to bet the perfect mixture of booze, sunscreen, and other extracurricular activities cured all.

The 27-year-old is listed in the field for this week's Scottish Open, and after a boys' trip, you have to imagine he either plays fantastically this week or struggles mightily without anything really in between.

Brian Campbell Laughs At The Distance Discussion

Brian Campbell lost nearly four strokes off the tee at the John Deere Classic, and won the golf tournament. It doesn't matter that the strength of the field was lackluster; it's unheard of to win a PGA Tour event while giving multiple strokes to the field off the tee, yet Campbell managed to do so.

The 32-year-old ranks dead-last on Tour - literally 174th out of 174 - in average driving distance (273.5 yards), he's 172nd in average ball speed (161.3), and ranks 170th in average club head speed (108.4 mph).

Somehow, that same player has won twice on the PGA Tour in 2025 and has made $3.1 million competing against the best players on the planet. 

It's mind-blowing stuff, but also unbelievably refreshing to see a guy still get the job done while literally being outdriven by every single player he plays against. To have the mentality and belief that you can win PGA Tour events while being the shortest guy in the field every single week is a testament to Campbell's character, and also proves just how world-class he is in other areas of his game.

Campbell defeated Emiliano Grillo in a playoff to win the John Deere Classic on Sunday, which was his second-most impressive playoff win of the year. He took out Aldrich Potgieter - the longest player on the PGA Tour - to win the Mexico Open in February.

Drive for show, putt for dough has to be Brian Campbell's life motto.

Nick Dunlap Deserves A Nice-Firm Handshake

If Brian Campbell's story is a refreshing one, Nick Dunlap's is a refreshing one.

Dunlap has only been a professional golfer for about 18 months, but what a career it has already been.

He burst onto the scene, winning The American Express as an amateur in January 2024, turned professional the next week, and then won again in July of the same year while picking up two more Top 10 finishes in his rookie season. 

The calendar then turned to 2025, and things turned dark in a hurry.

While he made his first six cuts of the year, he shot 10-over in his first two rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and did the same the next week at The Players. With a third straight missed cut at the Houston Open, the Alabama product arrived at the Masters in bad form, and then rock bottom came via the tune of an opening round 90 at the Masters.

To his credit, he signed his scorecard, didn't come up with an excuse to withdraw, and followed his 90 up with a one-under 71 on Friday. Since Augusta, he's missed another four cuts without any Top 40 finishes on the weekends he has managed to stick around for, but showed some serious forms of life at this week's John Deere Classic despite still very much battling demons with the driver.

Dunlap ranks dead last on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: off the tee, and gave up over 5.5 strokes off the tee at the John Deere, yet managed to finish T-11 at 15-under following a final round of 64. He led the golf tournament in putting, gaining nearly 11 strokes on the field, but despite the very clear outlier of a statistic, he deserves a round of applause for posting 15-under while not being able to get off the tee.

At still just 21 years old, Dunlap still has plenty of peaks and valleys left to endure in his career. He may have already witnessed the deepest valley he'll ever face, and it's really cool to see him climb his way out of it, showing up just about every week trying to find that something that he had when he was winning Tour events as a rookie.