Scheffler wins, Tiger returns at Hero World Challenge

The Sunday Swing 
December 3rd, 2023 

Welcome back to a special edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week the PGA Tour played the Hero World Challenge hosted by Tiger Woods in the Bahamas. Not only was Tiger Woods serving as the tournament host, he also teed it up for the first time in competition since withdrawing from The Masters last April.

Hero World Challenge - Tournament History 

Established in 2000, the Hero World Challenge is played every December for a small and select field of the Tour’s top players. Serving as a benefit for the Tiger Woods Foundation, this event does not offer the players FedEx Cup points or official money but it does have a spot on the PGA Tour schedule. This year the field consisted of just 20 players, including Tiger Woods and Will Zalatoris who also returned from a serious back injury that caused him to miss the majority of the 2023 season. Viktor Hovland was also in the field as the two-time defending champ, but he would have to fend off the likes of Scottie Scheffler (back to back runner up finishes), Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, and more. As the Tournament host, Woods has won the event five times, more than any other player with Davis Love, Graeme McDowell, and Viktor Hovland all having two wins. Since moving to Albany in 2015, the winner of the Hero has never finished worse than 16-under par, with birdie and eagle opportunities a plenty. The course features  two driveable par-4’s and five par-5’s, awarding players for aggressive play. The previous five champions of this event are as follows: 

2023: Scottie Scheffler (-20)
2022: Viktor Hovland (-16)
2021: Viktor Hovland (-18) 
2019: Henrik Stenson (-18)
2018: Jon Rahm (-20)

The Big Swing 

This week the Big Swing goes to the number one player in the world- Scottie Scheffler. Last season Scottie Scheffler made over 20 million dollars on the golf course, yet he would still consider it a failure as he only won twice. Scheffler recorded arguably the best ball striking season in the game's history, finishing first in strokes gained total, off the tee, tee to green, and approach to green. The only category that held him back from winning a handful more times was putting where Scheffler came in at 162nd. The last time we saw Scheffler was in Rome at the Ryder Cup, where he would become the only #1 ranked player in the world who failed to win a single match for his team. Scheffler was clearly devastated after the event and has since made another putting change. He came into the week looking as fresh as he did in the middle of the season. Time and time again Scheffler striped his drives down the middle and took dead aim with his irons on his way to the greens. He would open with  rounds of 69 and 66 to put himself in position for another weekend in contention. Also playing well was Justin Thomas, who arguably has the most to prove of anyone in the upcoming season after a very poor season in 2023. Thomas looked sharp at the Hero, shooting four rounds under par and finishing solo 3rd which would be his best of the calendar year.

Although Scottie Scheffler would end up winning in fairly routine fashion thanks to rounds of 65 and 68 on Saturday and Sunday, the biggest storyline of the week was how Tiger Woods would look.The golfing world was looking for answers to some of the most burning questions- how would his body hold up over four rounds? Could he still hit the ball far enough to compete against the game's best? Would he even be capable of scoring well enough to contend again? While the answers to these questions may not be the most clear after just one week back, it was clear that Tiger is in better shape physically now than he was at any point last year. His limp was minor and he was still generating a lot of speed- averaging 305 yards off the tee for the week which was 8th longest in the field. Woods carded rounds of 75, 70, 71, and 72 in which he showed flashes of his greatness, but was certainly still shaking off a lot of rust. His iron play and short game definitely looked rusty, as he lost strokes to the field in strokes gained putting, approach, and around the green. Each round was sort of a mixed bag in terms of scoring, but Tiger proved he could still make birdies as he made 19 of them on the week. Time will tell how his game evolves this year and whether or not he can play consistent enough to keep up with the young stars on today's tour.

Winner’s Bag - Scottie Scheffler

Picking up his seventh PGA Tour victory this week, Scottie Scheffler looked as good as ever. While he employs most of the same equipment as last year, he did make another change with the putter that seemed to have helped him find something on the greens this week. Starting at the top of the bag, Scheffler plays the Taylormade Stealth 2 Plus Driver (9 degrees). One of the new additions to his bag is the all new Taylormade Qi10 3-wood (15 degrees). Scheffler is among many of the Taylormade staffers who are playing the newest line of metals. Scottie still has the Srixon ZU85 3 and 4 iron, along with his Taylormade P7TW Proto iron set (5-PW). Powering his wedge game is a pair of Vokeys that includes two SM8’s (50 and 56 degrees), and a WedgeWorks Proto Lob Wedge (60 degrees). The most talked about piece of equipment for Scottie has been the putter and this week Scheffler had a Logan Olson Prototype with what looked to be a midsized SuperStroke grip- something we haven’t seen him try before. I would expect this putter to stay in the bag for the foreseeable future as Scottie finished 6th in strokes gained putting this week on his way to another victory. 

Key Stats: 
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee- 2nd
Strokes Gained: Approach to Green- 4th 
Strokes Gained: Around the Green- 6th
Strokes Gained: Putting- 6th 
Strokes Gained: Total- 1st