Viktor Hovland loses clubs and clothes on flight ahead of Scottish Open tee time, continuing string of bad luck

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Perhaps no golfer on the PGA Tour has had worse travel luck than Viktor Hovland this year.

The 24-year-old Norwegian golfer had no problem getting to the Scottish Open earlier this week after flying into Scotland by way of Frankfurt, Germany. The same cannot be said of his luggage.

Hovland's luggage — including his clubs and clothes for this week's tournament — remained in Frankfurt as of Wednesday at roughly 8 p.m. local time. The update came from Hovland's caddie Shay Knight via Eurosport's Espen Blaker.

Hovland is set to tee off at 8:05 a.m. local time in Scotland (3:05 a.m. ET) along with the Nos. 1 and two players in the world, Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm. At this point, he is just hoping that his clubs somehow find a way back to him.

"I’ll cross my fingers," he said, via Golf Digest.

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While these stories are somewhat common among golfers, Hovland has had particularly bad luck in getting his clubs to events this year. Ahead of the first PGA Tour event of the year, the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Hovland's clubs were lost en route to Hawaii. He called attention to the issue by criticizing Delta Airlines in an Instagram story at the time.

Eventually, Hovland's clubs showed up, but his driver was snapped in half. He was still able to play in the tournament and carded a 14 under for the event, good for a 30th-place finish. 

Of course, Hovland was able to use Knight's clubs in advance of the Sentry Tournament of Champions. This week, that hasn't been possible as Knight's clubs are back in the U.S., per Golf Digest.

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It's unclear what Hovland will do if he doesn't have the proper attire or clubs for the tournament ahead of his tee time. But even if he is, somehow, able to play, he will be at a disadvantage given his lack of preparation for the event.

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Jacob Camenker is a senior content producer at The Sporting News.