With the 2024 season officially behind us, the PGA Tour has a few remaining tournaments before the kickoff of the 2025 season.
With that, comes the Hero World Challenge.
The Hero World Challenge is a limited invitation only event that yields a high-class field consisting of just 20 players.
This event was first staged at Greyhawk Golf Club in 1999. From there, it moved to the Sherwood Country Club in California in 2000 where it was staged for 14 years.
From there, the event moved to the Isleworth Golf and Country Club in 2014.
Now, Albany in the Bahamas has played host to this event since 2015. It has been held there ever since.
This event is hosted by Tiger Woods who teed it up last year in this event but will remain idle this go-around.
This week will yield a $5,000,000 purse with the winner claiming $1,000,000.
The Field
As previously mentioned, this week’s event is a limited field invitation that annually sees 20 of the world’s best battling it out in the Bahamas.
This week’s field is headlined by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler who opens as the far-and-away, odds on favorite to win.
Scheffler will look to make it back-to-back victories at the Hero World Challenge as he topped Sepp Straka by three strokes a year ago. On top of being the defending champion, Scheffler was the back-to-back runner-up to Viktor Hovland in both 2021 and 2022.
Scheffler will actually be the only former champion of this event playing this week.
The rest of the field consists of Justin Thomas, Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Wyndham Clark, Tom Kim, Sahith Theegala, Akshay Bhatia, Aaron Rai, Jason Day, Robbery MacIntyre, Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley, Brian Harman, Sepp Straka, Nick Dunlap and Matthieu Pavon.
The Course
Albany in New Providence, Bahamas will be this week’s host for the ninth consecutive year - excluding the 2020 edition lost to the pandemic.
It plays as a Par 72 at 7,414 yards.
It is an Ernie Els design that was opened in 2010. It was used for the first time for a professional tournament in 2015 when it first hosted this very event.
Albany offers a unique mix of five par-fives, five par-threes and eight par-fours.
Three of the par-fives measure over 590 yards and four of the par-fours play over 470 yards. In other words, there’s plenty of length on this course that will put an added emphasis on long-iron play.
This course is best described as an exposed flat links-style course with dunes up to 30-feet tall.
The greens this week are fairly small in terms of PGA Tour average and consist of Bermuda grass.
Albany is also heavily bunkered with a multitude of natural waste areas lining the fairways. Although this course offers plenty of length, there is a need for accuracy off the tee as well.
As a resort course in The Bahamas, coastal winds will play a factor this week.
Although the coastal winds will be present, scoring has been consistent at this event. Over the last five editions, the winning score has fallen at -20 twice, including last year.
The Weather
The weather this week is exactly what we’d expect out of a tropical fall event. Temperatures will range between 72-and-73 degrees across all four days. There is at most a 5-percent chance of precipitation on Saturday as the rest of the week calling for a zero-percent chance. Winds will be at the lowest at ten miles-per-hour for both Thursday and Friday before increasing to 17 miles-per-hour on Saturday and 16 miles-per-hour on Sunday. In all, a perfect four days for some golf.
Key Stats
Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)
Total Driving
Birdie or Better Percentage
Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda (SG: PUTT Bermuda)
Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)
Par 5 Average Scoring
Par 3 Average Scoring
Scrambling
Betting Card
Sam Burns (+1400)
This event is tough to handicap because there are only 20 golfers and one of them is named Scottie Scheffler. Typically, odds across the board would be slimmer due to the limited field but Scheffler being here helps add value in the event he doesn’t win. With that being said, I’m opening my card with Burns. He finished last season fourth on Tour birdie or better percentage, 17th in total driving, 25th in SG: PUTT Bentgrass, 37th in par five average scoring, 70th in scrambling, 73rd in SG: APP, 75th in par three average scoring and 153rd in GIR%. We haven’t seen Burns since the TOUR Championship where he placed T12th. Prior to that he finished T2nd at the BMW Championship, T5th at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and T12th at the 3M Open. He has the fifth best odds (Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Ludvig Aberg are above him. He has played this event each of the past three years, highlighted by a T3rd in 2021. He also placed 12th in 2022 and 16th in 2023.
Brian Harman (+5000)
This is simply a value play. At 50/1 in a 20 man field, I couldn't leave the 2023 The Open Champion off the betting card. Harman placed T8th here a season ago. What I do like about Harman is that he has played in the PGA Tour’s Fall Series leading into this week, unlike most of this field. He placed T25th in his last outing at The RSM Classic. He finished last season 35th on Tour in SG: APP, 45th in both SG: PUTT Bentgrass and par three average scoring, 57th in scrambling, 88th in total driving, 131st in GIR% and 157th in par five average scoring.
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