SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Viktor Hovland held his palms up as he searched for his golf ball in the rough near the 14th fairway at Le Golf National, the look on his face a statement of frustration.

Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele were seen shuffling through the tall grass as caddies, officials, volunteers and Hovland tried, with little luck, to find Hovland’s golf ball. As Hovland prepared to give up, the ball was found by a tournament volunteer.

He finally managed to make par, but it was too late.

Hovland’s triple-bogey 7-iron shot on the first hole, which left his iron off the tee and into the water, and then his third, capped a bad day for Hovland, who shot 75 to finish outside the top 50 in the 60-player tournament.

It continued another confusing year for the FedEx Cup champion, who looked nearly invincible late last year but has struggled through 2024.

“I’m just playing bad,” Hovland said later. “The ball isn’t going where I want it to go. And that’s where you’re going to get punished.”

Hovland’s decline this year has been one of the biggest stories in the game. After competing in major championships the past two years and capturing that FedEx Cup title, the Norwegian appeared poised to take another step forward this year.

But apart from a third place finish at the PGA Championship and a recent return to form with coach Joe Mayo, his results have been poor.

Hovland has missed the cut in three of the four majors this year. A third-place finish at Valhalla is his only top 10, and his best finish outside of that is a tie for 15th at the Memorial, which he won a year ago.

“I can still play really good golf right now, even with some really big technical issues,” Hovland said. “And I think the PGA was a sign of that. But if the machine breaks down, I can’t handle it. And right now I have to fix the machine.”

Speaking to Eurosport/Discovery reporter Espen Blaker after the Norwegian round, Hovland said: “I’m not playing well at all. My game feels very unbalanced and there’s a lot of random things going on there.

“I took a big slap in the face on the opening hole and I couldn’t recover from there. My game is not good enough at the moment, that’s just the facts.”

Hovland said playing with Schauffele and Rahm has narrowed the gap between them for now.

“There’s a big contrast, that’s for sure,” he said. “The differences are pretty big at the moment. I know I can play at the same level, but I feel pretty far away at the moment.”

Schauffele tried to put the situation in perspective.

“It’s just golf; he’ll figure it out,” he said. “I think he’s very stoic and very good at golf. I’ve played with Hovi; we’ve all played worse or better. I’ve played with him in his prime. It’s special.

“So right now and in two or three months, or hopefully in the next few weeks, he’ll figure it out. But I don’t think anybody’s going to worry about him.”

The former Oklahoma State golfer said he went down “a few rabbit holes” to find his game and told Sirius XM radio at the PGA that he was considering withdrawing from the tournament.

“I wasn’t playing very well at all,” he said. “I just thought overall, everything didn’t feel very good, and when it doesn’t feel good, it’s like, ‘What’s the point of playing?’

But he played on and had a chance heading into the final straight before falling behind Schauffele and second Bryson DeChambeau. It looked like a turning point, especially as he came back to Mayo and had immediate success.

At the PGA, Hovland said Mayo helped him identify the feel he wanted to recreate, and the two worked on it together in the days leading up to the first round. Even Hovland was surprised at how quickly it happened.

But since then he has tied for 15th at the Memorial, then missed the cut at the US Open, tied for 20th at the Travelers, tied for 46th at the Scottish Open and missed the cut at the British Open.

“When I came back to Joe Mayo, I felt like I saw some immediate improvements, but since then it’s been tough to build on that and make the improvements that we’re looking for,” he said. “It’s frustrating… I don’t really know what to say. Golf is not easy right now.”

Hovland said Mayo’s absence at Le Golf National has made it a little harder for him to deal with his problems. He has two more rounds to play here, then a week off before the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Hovland, ranked 55th, is not guaranteed a spot in the BMW Championship (top 50) and Tour Championship (top 30), which he won last year.

“I won’t be able to do much in the next few rounds,” he said. “I’ll just do my best and get back to work.”