Scottie Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge while it was Tiger Woods who won the week in the Bahamas.
Scheffler, already the top-ranked player in the game, put a holiday ribbon on his 2023 season with his three-stroke victory Sunday over Sepp Straka at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas.
It was Scheffler’s first victory since he captured the Players Championship in March, though he had a remarkable stretch of play through the summer which allowed him to become the first player in the strokes-gained era to lead the tour in strokes gained off the tee and in approach to the green.
The victory, though unofficial but worth $1 million from the $4.5 million purse, also further validated Scheffler’s work with putting coach Phil Kenyon after a flat summer on the greens.
“I was optimistic going into this week,” said Scheffler, who was the only player among the elite 20-man field to shoot all four rounds in the 60s and finished at 20-under-par 268. "It’s nice to see some results from what we’re working on … It’s nice to have a clear head.”
Scheffler had finished runner-up in the Hero in each of the previous two years. He brought a three-stroke lead into the final round and maintained the lead through the final day.
“I just tried to come out and make good swings like I did all week,” Scheffler said. “I played solid golf. No bogeys today, and I kind of kept my distance from the rest of the guys.”
For Woods, it was one more restart in a career filled with several of those.
What began as a curiosity, with Woods making his first competitive start since the Masters in April after a springtime surgery to fuse his right ankle, four solid days shifted the attention to what’s ahead.
There is Woods’ now traditional appearance with his son, Charlie, in the PNC Championship next week and then the hope of playing perhaps six PGA Tour events next year.
After finishing 72 holes at even-par 288 and in 18th place, Woods sounded encouraged about his long-term prospects.
“I think that I can get into the rhythm of it,” Woods said. “I think that having a couple of weeks off to recover, a week to build up, there's no reason why I can't get into that rhythm. It's just a matter of getting in better shape, basically. I feel like my game's not that far off, but I need to get in better shape.”
Particularly the first two days, Woods started well but struggled on the closing holes, an indication of his competitive rust and working himself back into tournament shape.
Woods ranked fourth in the 20-player field in strokes gained off the tee but was last in strokes gained on approach
“I think the best part of the week is the way I drove it. I drove it on pretty much a string all week. Granted, these fairways are big,” Woods said.
“I felt like I had my ball speed up, which was nice, and I was hitting the middle of the face the entire week, which is nice. So, it's not like I have to go and try and find something the next few weeks or something going into next year; what I've been working on is right there and maybe just tighten up a little bit.”
On Sunday, Collin Morikawa was assessed a two-stroke penalty after it was discovered he had violated a rule (model local rule G-11) regarding green-reading material. Morikawa’s caddie, J.J. Jakovac, had used a level to measure slope on the practice green and made a written notation in his yardage book.
Players and caddies are allowed to make their own notes, but they are not allowed to use devices such as a level to determine slope. After tour officials met with Morikawa and his caddie, it was determined they had used the specific information only once during the third round, which resulted in the two-stroke penalty.
“[We] got assessed a two-stroke penalty on No. 4 [Saturday] for what we had deemed to be an OK thing. And the only reason why we deemed that, what we had in our notes was OK was because [Jakovac] had asked other officials, he had asked other caddies and it sounded as if other people were doing this,” Morikawa said.
“And when you ask an official something, you assume it's right. Well, apparently if they tell you something wrong one day in a different tournament does not carry on, and I understand that; we made the mistake.”
Ron Green Jr.