Scottie Scheffler decimates Hero World Challenge field to retain title

World number one Scottie Scheffler cruised to his second straight Hero World Challenge title, this time by an emphatic six shots at the Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas on Sunday. It made him the only the third player after tournament host Tiger Woods (2006, 2007) and Viktor Hovland (2021, 2022) to win the event in consecutive years.

The Paris Olympic champion shot a closing 9 under par 63 to post a healthy 25 under par 263 ((67-64-69-63) with Korean star Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim (74-65-62-68) taking second place on 19 under par 269. Justin Thomas of the US was third on 18 under 270 (66-67-66-71) and 22-year-old Indian-American Akshay Bhatia (67-66-71-69) fourth on 15 under 273 ahead of 2025 US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (14 under 274).

Sitting in the commentary booth, Tiger said of Scheffler’s game, “He really doesn’t do anything wrong. Very rarely see silly mistakes from him. Scottie puts himself into good positions lots of time and when you do that you will get something out of it.”

“I think it’s been a great year. It’s been a fun year,” Scheffler, winner of nine titles in 2024, said on the event website. “I’ve been fortunate to get some wins out of some really good golf. This was another week where I played really solid and was able to see some nice results from that. Overall, it was a pretty fun year.

“We did a lot of good things on the golf course this week, played some solid golf,. I think only two bogeys for the week and then I made a good amount of birdies. Eliminating the mistakes and making a good amount of birdies is always helpful. Teddy (his caddie) and I felt like we did a pretty good job of keeping the golf course in front of us and staying in position.”

Bhatia’s fellow Indian-American and co tournament debutant Sahith Theegala was eighth on 10 under 278 behind Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (12 under 276, sixth) and Robert MacIntyre of Scotland (11 under 277, seventh), Sungjae Im of Lorea and Austrian Sepp Straka shared ninth place on 8 under 280.

Scheffler’s bogey-free 64 on Friday and the clean 63 on Sunday were the best rounds on both days and on the final day, he caught overnight leader Justin Thomas by the third hole itself and never looked back, making it a stroll down the closing straight to give himself a 2-2-1-1 record in four starts at Albany since 2021.

“We’re proud to be supportive of Tiger and his (TGR) foundation,” Scheffler said afterwards. “Love the work that they do and it’s always a fun tournament for us to come and play in and support Tiger.”

Like Woods did in 2009, Scheffler held top spot in the rankings for all of the year and Sunday handed him a ninth title in 2024 including seven PGA Tour events and the Olympic golf medal. At Albany he earned $1 million of the $5 million prize purse.

Scheffler’s 25 under total equalled the mark set by Bubba Watson at Albany in 2015, though Jordan Speith owns the records for best 72-hole score (262) and biggest margin (10 shots) in the year the Hero World Challenge was held at Isleworth in 2014.

Said runner up Kim, who like Scheffler lives in Dallas and plays often with the world number one, “He does it all the time. I think the biggest thing that I see is that he’s always trying to get better.

Despite winning nine times this year, he’s always finding little ways and I think it’s really, really cool to see and you can take a lot from that.”

Besides Scheffler, Woods (five wins) and Hovland, the others to have won the event more than once include Davis Love III (twice), and Graeme McDowell (twice). Notably, Scheffler has never shot an over-par 18-hole score at the Hero World Challenge.