The 2023 Hero World Challenge came to an end Sunday afternoon at Albany in the Bahamas as World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler secured the win with a score of 20-under par in this no-cut event.
Scheffler recorded a bogey-free final round 68 for his first PGA Tour win since The Players Championship nine months ago.
The Hero World Challenge, which was hosted by 82-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods, who also played, was one of 20 of the best players on the PGA Tour and the world competing this week in the Caribbean.
Here are four winners and losers from this week’s Hero World Challenge.
Winner: Hero World Challenge winner Scottie Scheffler victorious
All tournament long, Scheffler was hitting the ball at an efficient rate, being inside the top-six in many categories, including leading the 20-man field with 11.750 total strokes gained.
“I’m very proud of how I played today,” Scottie Scheffler said after his round. “I kept the ball in play and gave myself lot of looks. I didn’t make any bogeys, so there wasn’t any mistakes for them to use as momentum. It was more of a ‘Make them come and catch me’ type of day and I did a great job of not trying to force anything.”
Scheffler recorded back-to-back birdies on the par-five sixth and the par-four seventh for a two-under front nine. On the back nine, Scheffler once again recorded consecutive birdies on the par-four 14th and the par-five 15th. The top player in the world was able to get his chip shot inside two feet for a tap-in bridie on 14th, the toughest hole on the course this week.
The No. 1 player in the world now has four weeks to prepare for the first event of the 2023 PGA Tour season in Hawaii for the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Scheffler said this win gives him motivation over the next few weeks to end the season.
“Great confidence going into next year,” Scheffler said. “It’s nice kind of having the momentum of a win preparing for next season. Couldn’t get more momentum.”
Winner: The return of both Tiger Woods and Will Zalatoris
The Hero World Challenge saw two stars returning to a PGA Tour field in Woods and rising star Will Zalatoris.
Both players were returning from injuries suffered from this past spring, resulting in getting surgery.
Woods went through subtalar fusion in April, 10 days after completing the third round of the Masters, which he would withdraw. On the other hand, Zalatoris had been out due to a back injury since withdrawing from the first round of the Masters.
Both looked a rusty early as Zalatoris even came out with a new putting stroke, utilizing a broomstick motion. However, both players were able to respond after a couple of bad scorecards.
Woods shot an opening round 3-over 75 before finishing his final 54 holes with a combined score of 3-under par.
Zalatoris had an opening round 9-over 81 before following that up with a 4-under 68 in the second round. He also recorded a 7-over 79 before recording a 1-under 71 in Sunday’s final round.
This tournament was a great opportunity to see where both are at, heading into the new season, beginning Jan. 4-7, 2024, for The Sentry Tournament of Champions.
This was the first time Woods completing all four rounds for a tournament since finishing tied for 45th at The Genesis Invitational, another event that he hosts, last February.
Seeing both players return to a PGA Tour field is huge because of how much of an impact they provide to the PGA Tour. Woods, who has won the Hero World Challenge five times, is still looking for that elustrious 83rd PGA Tour victory, while Zalatoris has recorded multiple top-5 finishes, especially during the 2021-22 season when he kept putting himself in contention week after week.
It was defintely a week where the scorecard and leaderboard was not the top priority for two players returning to the course.
Loser: The unpredictability of Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth has been known to be a bit wild and this week at the Hero World Challenge was no different. It started in his first round when he recorded just four pars, all within the first seven holes. Among the other 11, he recorded two eagles, six birdies, but fell behind with four bogeys and a double bogey. All that ended up with a 4-under 68.
The second was a lot better, recording a second round 5-under 67 that was fueled by hitting all 13 fairways on Friday.
Spieth, who went on to post 14-under par, recorded a sixth-place finish. It is not like Spieth played horribly, but you can only imagine if some of his shots were betted executed and it’s a whole different story.
The length hurt Spieth the most, averaging 295.60 yards off the tee, which was last in the field. As a result, he was 13th in strokes gained putting and 18th in putts per greens in regulation.
Spieth even had a different caddie this week in longtime friend Eric Leyendecker due to his primary caddie Michael Greller taking the week off to be with his newborn baby, Ellie.
But the caddie was not the primary reason for Spieth’s performance, as he still recorded a sixth-place finish. It was one of those weeks where if a few more strokes are executed better, Sunday could have been a different story.
Winner: Sepp Straka records final round 64 for second place finish
Sepp Straka entered this week looking to finish the year strong after recording his second PGA Tour win at the John Deere Classic in early July.
Straka, who ranked inside the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career this week, entered Sunday’s final round at 7-under par in his final event of the calendar year.
The Austrian recorded a bogey-free 8-under 64 to finish in second place behind Scheffler that was fueled by five birdies in his first nine holes. Straka led the field this week in driving accuracy, finding fairways at a clip of 92.31%.
Straka was also second in total strokes gained and third in strokes gained around the green this week as he now prepares for The Sentry in a few weeks.