The First Look: Hero World Challenge

This week, the world's best will return to the Bahamas.

While Tiger Woods remains on the sidelines after undergoing surgery in September, the Hero World Challenge field is once again stacked with the game’s top names at Albany Golf Course.

The defending champion is world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who looks to put a bow on a sparkling 2024 – with seven victories to his name already.

Here’s everything else you need to know about the 20-player field at Woods’ event in paradise.

Field notes and storylines: Tournament host Tiger Woods will not compete as he continues to recover from a back surgery in September … World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler returns to action for the first time since the Presidents Cup. What more can you say about Scheffler’s 2024? The defending champ at Albany won seven times in 2024 – plus the gold medal at the Paris Olympics – and had 16 top-10 finishes in 19 starts this season. Scheffler was nominated for the Jack Nicklaus Award as PGA TOUR Player of the Year and is looking to become the first player to win the award three years in a row since Woods in 2005-07 … Justin Thomas will tee it up for the first time since becoming a father in November. He finished T2 at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in his most recent TOUR start … Arnold Palmer Award nominee for PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Nick Dunlap makes his Hero World Challenge debut. Dunlap won twice this season – the first player in TOUR history to win once as an amateur and once as a pro in the same season … Dunlap is one of eight players who are making their Hero World Challenge debut in 2024, including: Sahith Theegala, Russell Henley, Aaron Rai, Matthieu Pavon (the lone TOUR rookie to make it to the TOUR Championship), Akshay Bhatia, two-time winner thisseason Robert MacIntyre and Ludvig Åberg … Åberg returned to the TOUR after knee surgery in September to defend his title at The RSM Classic, where he finished T17 after a final-round 64 … Keegan Bradley, the American Ryder Cup captain in 2025, is set for his seventh Hero World Challenge appearance. Bradley won the BMW Championship as part of the FedExCup Playoffs and earned the winning point for the U.S. Team at the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal … There is plenty of Presidents Cup presence at the Hero World Challenge this year, with Americans Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns and Brian Harman also in action (eight of the 12 U.S. Team members are in the field) along with International Teammembers Jason Day, Tom Kim and Sungjae Im … Sepp Straka returns to the Hero World Challenge after finishing runner-up to Scheffler a year ago. Straka also finished T10 in 2023 at Albany and had four top-10 finishes in 2024 (three of which came in Signature Events) … Cameron Young is back in action for the first time since the BMW Championship. Young notched six top-10 finishes this season, including a runner-up at the Valspar Championship … In total, nine of the top 20 players on the Official World Golf Ranking are in the field.

FedExCup: No FedExCup points are awarded at the Hero World Challenge, but Official World Golf Ranking points will be awarded.

The 2024 FedExCup champ – Scheffler – is in the field.

Course: Albany Golf Course, par 72, 7,449 yards. This is the ninth time the Ernie Els-designed, links-style layout will play host to the Hero World Challenge. Players will contend with challenging water features and windswept dunes that measure up to 30 feet high. The course boasts five par 3s and five par 5s – with three of each on the front nine.

72-hole tournament record: 262, Jordan Spieth (2014). Albany GC record: 263, Bubba Watson (2015)

18-hole record: 61, Rickie Fowler (Round 4, 2017)

Last time: Scheffler finally broke through for a win at the Hero World Challenge after two straight years of runner-up finishes to Viktor Hovland. He topped Straka by three after a final-round 68, finishing at 20-under 268. Straka fired a closing 64 to get within two shots, but Scheffler’s late birdies on Nos. 14 and 15 put this one in the books for good. Scheffler’s struggles on the putting surface were amply discussed in 2023, but he came to Albany a year ago armed with a new putter and a new putting coach – and he had one of his best performances on the greens all year.

How to follow (all times ET)

Television:

• Thursday-Friday: 1:30-4:30 p.m. (Golf Channel)
• Saturday: noon-2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2:30-5 p.m. (NBC)
• Sunday: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 1:30-4:30 p.m. (NBC)