What is Viktor Hovland’s taste in music? An old roommate speaks up

A four-time All-American at Oklahoma State, Austin Eckroat has had a lot of positive momentum in his professional golf career. After turning professional in 2021, Eckroat played 16 tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022, finishing 35th overall and securing his PGA Tour card for the 2022-23 season.

From there, it was a seemingly easy transition to the Big Show, where he had three top 10 finishes and six top 25 finishes as a rookie, including a second-place finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson earlier in the year.

But in addition to his success on the tour, Eckroat has another interesting point in his bio. While at Oklahoma State, he was friends with none other than world No. 5 Viktor Hovland.

Eckroat and Hovland lived together for two years. It was during this time that Eckroat got to know Hovland’s taste in music – or maybe lack thereof, depending on your own inclinations – first hand. Spoiler alert: Hovland is a metalhead.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, Eckroat explained to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz which side of the fence he’s on.

“Mostly, [Hovland] wore headphones,” Eckroat began. “But sometimes he would come in, he was cooking something, and it was just the worst music you’ve ever heard in your entire life, just at full blast.”

“Can you confirm that he has black lipstick?” Knost asked, laughing.

“Can’t confirm,” Eckroat replied. “But he showed me some of these music videos, and when you listen to the music video, you think this guy just isn’t the right guy. Yeah, this guy – he’s got some demons.”

For more information on Eckroat, including his relationship with fellow pro and Oklahoma State grad Matt Wolff, see the full interview below.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year-old member of Columbia’s premier class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can birdie anyone on the masthead. She can also outperform in the office, where she is primarily responsible for producing print and online features and overseeing large special projects, such as the first style issue of GOLF, which came out in February 2018. Her original interview series, A ‘Round With’, was released in November 2015 and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.