Event host Tiger Woods returns to action in the first round of the 24th Hero World Challenge alongside Justin Thomas as the by-invitation tournament of 20 players tees off at Albany in The Bahamas on Thursday, November 30.
With a million dollar winner’s cheque and Official World Golf Ranking points, the no-cut event marks an interim stop between the end of the 2023 PGA Tour season and the start of the next one and has as always drawn a strong field though there were some late withdrawals as well.
Defending champion Viktor Hovland of Norway will be aiming for a third straight win at the Albany Golf Course having won the Challenge in his first two appearances (2021 and 2022). A hot Ryder Cup run for the winning Europe team will do his hopes no harm, though the sand and brush-dominated seaside conditions at Albany are a far cry from the verdant course at Rome earlier this year.
Chasing him will be world number one Scottie Scheffler of the US, who has been second to the Norwegian two years in a row and will want to amend that particular statistic.
Three event debutants, including two major winners in 2023 – US Open champion Wyndham Clark and The Open titleist Brian Harman – could test Scheffler’s resolve, besides the mercurial Will Zalatoris, who will also be making his first competitive start since March following back surgery.
Besides Hovland, the field also includes 2014 champion Jordan Speith and 2017 winner Rickie Fowler. Prominent amongst those missing are 2015 topper Bubba Watson, now a LIV Golf member, and 2018 winner Jon Rahm of Spain, who is rumoured to be in talks with the Greg Norman-fronted parallel league that gets its new season rolling on February 2, 2024 in Mexico.
Tournament host Woods himself is a four-time winner of the tournament (2011, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2001) that was first played as the Williams World Challenge at Grayhawk in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2000. How successful Tiger’s return will be in a long saga of comebacks remains to be seen, but the 15-time major winner appears confident of his fitness
as he and son Charlie will play the family-based PNC Championship immediately after the Albany event.
Tiger has played in just five PGA Tour events since his accident near Los Angeles two years ago and his world ranking has slipped to 1,307 though he holds the record (281) for consecutive weeks as world number one. His best this year was a tied 47th at the Genesis Open in February.
The 2023 Ryder Cup is well represented at the 7,414-yard Albany course with as many as 13 members from the two teams in the field, The winning Europe side has Matthew Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose of England, Austrian Sepp Straka and Hovland in contention while USA has nine in all – Thomas, Speith, Scheffler, Harman, Clark, Rickie Fowler, Sam Burns, Max Homa, and Collin Morikawa.
The pairings for Thursday (in tee-off order)
Brian Harman and Lucas Glover; Cameron Young and Sepp Straka; Tony Finau and Wyndham Clark; Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler; Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler; Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas; Jason Day and Collin Morikawa; Will Zalatoris and Jordan Speith; and Max Homa and Viktor Hovland.