Tag: 2023 Hero World Challenge

Hank Haney casts critical eye at Tiger Woods’ latest comeback

“Can you practice enough if you’re Tiger to climb up the mountain (again)?”

As Tiger Woods’ former coach during his peak years of dominance, Hank Haney brings a unique perspective on Tiger’s swing and latest comeback.

Haney and Woods split in 2010, and ever since writing “The Big Miss,” he’s been persona non grata with the Tiger camp. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have a great eye for Tiger’s swing. In fact, it may be one of the reasons he is so unabashedly honest about Tiger’s game. (Others might argue his takes are sour grapes but I appreciate his candor.) Haney didn’t answer or return a call on Sunday after Tiger finished playing 72 holes in the Bahamas, his first competitive rounds since the Masters in April. But Haney did review Tiger’s performance this week on his podcast, noting that the swing looked good to him and he was impressed with his length off the tee and that he didn’t “look to be in excruciating pain like he was last year.”

Haney, however, isn’t rushing to hand Tiger a 16th major after he finished 18th out of 20 players in the Hero World Challenge. Haney said that when he was working with Tiger, Albany, the host course of the tournament, would have been a par 67 not a par 72 as it is on the scorecard for Tiger, who shot even-par 288, 20 strokes behind winner Scottie Scheffler.

Hank Haney first started working with Tiger Woods in March 2004.

“Back in the day, and I understand back in the day is a long time ago, but back in the day if there was a tournament that Tiger Woods signed up for that had five par 5s, I already would have penciled it in as a victory,” Haney said on The Hank Haney Podcast. “He said, ‘I didn’t take care of the par 5s like I was supposed to, I would’ve been maybe double digits.’ Double Digits? That would’ve lost by 10. I understand he hasn’t played and he’s rusty and everything else everyone wants to say, but back in the day I could’ve shoulda-coulda-woulda for every tournament Tiger ever played and he would’ve won.

“When you lose by 20, there’s no shoulda-coulda-woulda. You are so far – that’s five shots per round – you are so far out of contention.”

Haney wondered how much Tiger would be able to practice, and would it be enough for him to be competitive playing such a limited schedule.

“He’s got get some semblance of a game because no matter how much he wants to tell you he can hit all the shots, and he can do this and he can do that, you’ve got to do it and you’ve got to show it and that’s the thing that’s missing there,” Haney said. “Can you play once a month and climb up a mountain? Can you practice enough if you’re Tiger to climb up the mountain (again)? The advantage he has is that if he can start climbing just a little bit up the mountain, next thing you know he can start flying up the mountain because he has all this knowledge stored up in that brain of his that tells him what to do and he can do it. It’s just can he get some momentum going up that mountain?”

Tiger said he was pleased that he completed a tournament without a setback and despite being sore said he recovered better than he expected. He was encouraged with how his body responded after a seven-month layoff and another surgery to fuse the subtalar joint of his right ankle.

“How long will he deem that a success if he’s not competitive?” Haney asked rhetorically. “The answer to that is who knows, we’ll see.”

Why Matt Fitzpatrick’s curiosity about an obscure local model rule led to Collin Morikawa’s 2-stroke penalty

“It’s nothing personal.”

NASSAU, Bahamas — Collin Morikawa got docked two strokes on Sunday morning in one of the more bizarre rulings on the PGA Tour in a long time – which is saying something.

If you’re unfamiliar with this week’s installment of “the Rules of Golf can be wacky,” you can read the backstory about why Morikawa was assessed two strokes for violating local model rule G-11, which restricts the use of green-reading material, on the fourth hole of the third round of the Hero World Challenge here. But the part of the story that couldn’t be told until players talked after the round was how the violation was reported in the first place.  And how did Morikawa and his caddie, JJ Jakovac, take the news?

In regards to the first question, chief referee Stephen Cox of the PGA Tour did confirm that Matt Fitzpatrick was responsible for bringing the subject to light. One rush to judgment was that the Englishman had ratted out Morikawa but that isn’t the case. Rather, he was simply looking for confirmation of a rule, which went into effect in 2022, when the USGA and R&A banned the green-reading books that took much of the skill out of reading a putt.

On the fourth green on Saturday, Fitzpatrick heard Morikawa ask his caddie about the break and witnessed Jakovac refer to his yardage book for the answer.

“I have wanted to use AimPoint earlier this year,” Fitzpatrick explained on Sunday after finishing T-4. “I spoke to my putting coach, Phil Kenyon, about it. He told me that he was pretty certain I can’t write the numbers down or use the AimPoint numbers. So, you know, I didn’t do it. And then obviously yesterday it happened and I asked Coxy just to clarify what the situation was. I asked the question and he was like, ‘Well, now you’ve asked the question, I need you to tell me what’s going on.’ That was it.

“Listen, it’s nothing personal. Whether it was Tiger or whoever, it’s just I wanted to know because I would have used it earlier this year.”

Fitzpatrick never broached the subject directly with Morikawa and, in fact, he forgot about it after the round. He didn’t text Cox until later that evening.

“It wasn’t until I was back in the house like where I was staying and someone was talking about putting or something like that. I was like, oh, [shoot], like I have that question,” Fitzpatrick recalled.

Morikawa cleared up another mystery in all of this: how could he be so sure that Jakovac only violated the rule that one time on the third hole on Saturday?

“I promise you it only did happen on the fourth hole because he read a putt wrong on the first hole with his feet and I fired him in the first round from reading my putts,” Morikawa explained.

Morikawa expressed no problem with Fitzpatrick bringing the potential violation to light, noting, “He did what any competitor should do.”

Morikawa also sided with his caddie, who he said had asked a different rules official if measuring the slope on the green with a level device was legal – which it is – but a player and/or caddie can’t write those figures down in his yardage book.

“He had asked other officials, he had asked other caddies and it sounded as if other people were doing this. And when you ask an official something, you assume it’s right,” Morikawa said. “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.”

But Morikawa wondered: “Why are there gray areas? There shouldn’t be gray areas in the rules, right? That’s what rules are for.”

Morikawa expressed some frustration at the process of how he was alerted to the possible infraction. Cox initially texted Jakovac in the morning a few hours before Morikawa’s tee time. Jakovac didn’t say anything to Morikawa at first because he didn’t want to concern him if there wasn’t any issue. Cox sent a second text with about 45 minutes left in Morikawa’s warmup calling for a meeting in the locker room.

“We go there and we’re looking for him and he’s nowhere to be found,” Morikawa said.

Cox is nothing if not punctual and was doing his due diligence to make sure he had his ducks in a row but Morikawa was equally frustrated with the process as he was with the ruling.

“Just give it to me, right?” Morikawa said. “If I broke the rules, I broke the rules and that’s on me, I have to take it.”

A two-stroke penalty turned his third-round score from 70 into a 72. Even before he teed off, his tall task at catching leader and eventual champion Scottie Scheffler grew from six back to eight back. It’s a mistake he and Jakovac likely will never make again.

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How much money each PGA Tour player earned at the 2023 Hero World Challenge

It pays to play well, even in unoffocial events.

It pays to play well in limited-field, unofficial events, especially ones hosted by 15-time major champion Tiger Woods. Just ask this week’s winner, Scottie Scheffler.

After coming up short to Viktor Hovland in each of the last two years, the 27-year-old claimed the 2023 Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas by three shots over Sepp Straka. For his efforts, Scheffler took home the top prize of $1 million in the $4.5 million event. Straka earned $450,000 as a consolation prize.

Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

Prize money payouts

Position Player Score Earnings
1 Scottie Scheffler -20 $1,000,000
2 Sepp Straka -17 $450,000
3 Justin Thomas -16 $300,000
T-4 Tony Finau -15 $212,500
T-4 Matt Fitzpatrick -15 $212,500
6 Jordan Spieth -14 $190,000
7 Collin Morikawa -12 $185,000
T-8 Justin Rose -11 $177,500
T-8 Brian Harman -11 $177,500
10 Viktor Hovland -9 $170,000
11 Jason Day -8 $165,000
12 Lucas Glover -7 $160,000
T-13 Max Homa -6 $152,500
T-13 Keegan Bradley -6 $152,500
15 Cameron Young -5 $145,000
16 Sam Burns -4 $140,000
17 Rickie Fowler -2 $135,000
18 Tiger Woods E $130,000
19 Wyndham Clark +2 $125,000
20 Will Zalatoris +11 $120,000

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Scottie Scheffler puts PGA Tour on notice that he may have figured out his putting problem, cruising to 2023 Hero World Challenge title

Scheffler’s putter was hot all week. He didn’t miss a putt inside five feet until the 71st hole.

NASSAU, Bahamas – Scottie Scheffler put a bow on his season before the holidays with his first win since March, and put the PGA Tour on notice that he may have figured out his putting woes.

“There wasn’t a ton of mistakes for them to kind of use as momentum. It was more of a make-them-come-and-catch-me day,” Scheffler said. “Coming here getting a win this week feels great. Great way to finish off the year.”

The world No. 1 shot a bogey-free 4-under 68 at Albany to win the Hero World Challenge on Sunday by three strokes over Austria’s Sepp Straka, who  closed in 64.

Scheffler followed up last year’s four-win season, which included the Masters, by defending his title at the WM Phoenix Open in February and winning the Players Championship in March, but he finished second twice and recorded 17 top-10 finishes as a balky putter held him back from possibly having a historic year. Despite ballstriking that rivaled some of the best seasons of Tiger Woods, Scheffler ranked 162nd in Strokes Gained: putting. Robert Damron, a former Tour pro and commentator for PGA Tour Live, followed Scheffler at the Charles Schwab Challenge and Memorial, which both were held in May, and where Scheffler finished a stroke out of a playoff in each.

“He putted like hot garbage,” Damron said on PGA Tour Network’s Sirius/XM Radio broadcast of the Hero World Challenge. “The ball striking was something I’d never seen before and I’ve seen a lot of golf in my day.”

Scheffler began working with putting coach Phil Kenyon before the Ryder Cup in late September and Scheffler’s confidence in the short stick is on the rise.

“Being the best player in the world, the guy is going to figure it out,” Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott said. “He got off the rails a little bit and needed some guidance and I don’t see a problem with it going forward.”

Scheffler also inserted a heel-toe weighted blade made by little-known puttermaker Olson Putter Co., into the bag this week and ranked sixth in the field in putting this week, gaining more than a half stroke on the field on the greens, avoiding a single three putt and didn’t miss a putt inside five feet for the first 71 holes.

“It’s very similar to some stuff that I used in the past,” Scheffler explained. “It has a little thing on the top that helps me line the ball up more consistently in the middle of the face and then obviously the grip is different than what I’ve used in the past, but that’s something that Phil and I have worked on together.”

Scheffler had finished second in this event the last two years, but this time he received the trophy from tournament host Tiger Woods, who played his first competitive golf since the Masters in April. Woods made five birdies on Sunday en route to shooting 72 and finished 18th in the 20-man field. Woods said he would be pleased if he could play one tournament a month next season as he attempts to mount a comeback from yet another surgery.

“There’s no reason why I can’t get into that rhythm. It’s just a matter of getting in better shape basically,” he said. “I feel like my game’s not that far off, but I need to get in better shape.”

He’ll have to bring his ‘A game’ to keep up with the likes of Scheffler, who shot 20-under 268.

“He probably won’t shoot less than 20 under most weeks if he putts that well,” said Jordan Spieth, who finished sixth.

Nursing a three-stroke lead going into the final round after shooting 69-66-65, Scheffler never made a mistake to give any of his fellow competitors a chance to pounce. He sealed the deal with a 7-iron to 10 feet at the par-5 15th to set up a two-putt birdie.

“It’s definitely nice kind of having the momentum of a win as I go into preparing for next season,” Scheffler said. “I mean, couldn’t get better momentum than this, you know.”

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Tiger Woods gives hope for 2024 after return to competition at Hero World Challenge

Woods shot an even-par 72 on Sunday to finish even for the tournament.

The first step of yet another Tiger Woods comeback has been made.

The 15-time major champion made his return to competitive play this week at the 2023 Hero World Challenge and completed 72 holes for the first time since the Genesis Invitational in February. Woods shot an even-par 72 on Sunday in the final round to finish even for the tournament. He walked off the course in 18th place in the 20-player field.

“I think I’ve come a long way from being a little bit rusty to play four days and knock off a lot of rust, which was great,” Woods said after the round. “Just the physicality of actually playing, competing again, I haven’t done this in a while so it was nice to get out there with the guys and have some fun and compete and I wish I would have played a little cleaner but there’s always next time.”

After an early double-bogey on the par-3 second hole following a flubbed chip, Woods made birdie on three of his next four holes to get under par on the round and for the tournament. Bogeys on Nos. 8 and 11, both courtesy of iffy efforts around the green, stalled his momentum until Woods went back-to-back with birdies at Nos. 14 and 15 after missed eagle attempts on both holes. Similar to Thursday, a step forward was immediately followed by a step backward as more struggles around the green led to a brutal bogey on the par-4 16th. Pars on his closing two holes sealed the deal for what was a solid week.

Woods was deliberately traversing the course in the final round and notably grimaced for the first time after his second shot from the sand on No. 10. That said, slow and steady and he was able to complete the tournament without any noticeable issues. Earlier in the week Woods had said an ideal schedule would mean one tournament a month, and his performance in the Bahamas gave hope for more to come in 2024.

“Once a month seems reasonable and it gives me a couple of weeks to recover and weeks to tune up, maybe I can get into the rhythm and something like that,” he said. “That’s what the plan was going into next year.”

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Collin Morikawa hit with 2-stroke penalty for ‘unwittingly’ violating Model Local Rule at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Morikawa’s third-round score at the fourth hole was changed to a triple-bogey 7.

NASSAU, Bahamas – Collin Morikawa was assessed a two-shot penalty for violating local model rule G-11, which restricts the use of green-reading material, on the fourth hole of the third round of the 2023 Hero World Challenge.

The rules committee was alerted to a potential rule violation late Saturday night after a question was posed by a player in the field. When asked if it was Morikawa’s playing partner during the third round, Matt Fitzpatrick, who brought the potential rule violation into question, chief referee Stephen Cox of the PGA Tour confirmed that was the case.

The local model rule was added in 2022 to protect the fundamental skill of reading greens. It’s not the first time a Tour pro has violated the rule.

Cox met with JJ Jakovac, Morikawa’s caddie, about two hours before their 12:03 p.m. final-round tee time. After reviewing his yardage book, it became clear that Jakovac had created a putting chart, which isn’t a violation of the rules in itself, but the manner of obtaining the information is key to the ruling. Jakovac used a level on the practice putting green and wrote a note directly into his yardage book and used it for assessing the read on the fourth hole during Saturday’s third round.

“Fortunately, that was the only time that a player or caddie used that chart or formula and on that basis the breach remained two strokes,” Cox said.

“This is a very complicated issue,” Cox added. “We were very specific in the fact that these handwritten notes needed to be obtained through traditional methods to protect the fundamental skill of reading greens through our sport and that’s the foundation of why we put the model local rule in place. In this situation, again, unwittingly, the player used a level to determine degrees of slope on the practice putting green, which in itself, isolated, is not a breach, but what that player did was formulated a chart and transferred that into his book.”

Had Jakovac devised a chart using his feet and estimated the slope or simply retained the information obtained from the measuring devise to memory rather than as a handwritten note, there would have been no penalty.

Morikawa was informed of the penalty on the range about 10-15 minutes before his tee time by Cox. When asked to describe Morikawa’s response, Cox said, “It went very similar to any other conversation that results in a penalty. He was very frustrated. It’s a very complicated rule.”

As a result, Morikawa’s third-round score at the fourth hole was changed to a triple-bogey 7, giving him an even-par 72.

“They understood the rule was broken but anytime the rules penalize a player there is inevitable pushback and frustration and that was shared by both player and caddie, which is human nature,” Cox told NBC Sports.

“At the end of the day we made the mistake and it’s on us. Thankfully it only happened that one time,” Morikawa said after his round Sunday.

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Shot-by-shot analysis: Tiger Woods shoots even-par 72 Sunday at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Woods is making his return to competitive golf for the first time since April.

Tiger Woods closed out his most recent return to competition on Sunday in paradise.

In his first competitive appearance since the Masters earlier this spring, the 15-time major champion entered the final round of the 2023 Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event that benefits his TGR Foundation, T-16 at even par in the 20-player field.

Woods was admittedly rusty in Thursday’s opening round at Albany in the Bahamas as he signed for an up-and-down 3-over 75 but got back under par both Friday (70) and Saturday (71). He walked off the course in 18th place after an even-par 72 on Sunday.

Check out his closing round with shot-by-shot updates below.

Best shots: Check out Tiger’s Hero highlights

Scottie Scheffler’s new putter is en fuego, the putting whisperer’s busy week and Tiger’s Sunday pairing among takeaways from the Hero World Challenge

Scottie Scheffler may have found a new favorite club.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Scottie Scheffler may have found a new favorite club.

The world No. 1 inserted a putter in the bag for a tryout this week at the Hero World Challenge and ranks third in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. On Saturday, he made two eagles and four birdies and posted 7-under 65 at Albany to build a three-stroke lead over Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick.

“Nice to see some putts go in,” Scheffler said. “I’ve been rolling it pretty solid. These greens can be tough to putt at times, but like I said, I’m rolling it good.”

Indeed, he is. Scheffler is using a heel-toe weighted blade made by little-known puttermaker Olson Putter Co.

“It’s very similar to some stuff that I used in the past,” Scheffler explained. “It has a little thing on the top that helps me line the ball up more consistently in the middle of the face, and then obviously the grip is different than what I’ve used in the past, but that’s something that Phil (Kenyon) and I have worked on together.”

Scheffler’s 65 tied for the low round of the day with Fitzpatrick, and lifted him to a 54-hole total of 16-under 200.

Scheffler, who last won on the PGA Tour at the Players Championship in March, finished runner-up at the Hero World Challenge the last two years. Both times he said he needed a strong back nine to flirt with contention, but Viktor Hovland closed the deal.

“Hopefully,” Scheffler said, “I have one more good back nine in me.”

Here are four more things to know about the third round of the Hero World Challenge.

After 3 rounds at Hero, here’s the quick and dirty report card on Tiger Woods

There’s reason for optimism for Tiger Woods.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods had 100 yards to a pin tucked in the back right corner of the 11th green at Albany on Saturday. It was the type of shot he used to pull the string like a yo-yo, tap-in for birdie and move on to the next hole.

Woods selected a sand wedge and lofted the shot into the wind. It’s a shot he has hit hundreds of time, and perhaps for the first time in a long time he was in his own estimation 3 ½ steps too long, the ball bounding over the green. Death. He made yet another bogey on a par 5, the holes he cleaned up on during his prime.

“That was a hard shot,” Woods said. “It’s going to get stood up in the wind and I had to take off… trying to hit it right there pin high and I missed by three and a half steps.”

Still, there’s reason for optimism for Woods, and he had no trouble finding it after the round.

Tiger bounced back from a shaky bogey-bogey start with four birdies over the next seven holes. He made a birdie and two bogeys on the inward nine to shoot 1-under 71. Two days in a row in red figures isn’t too shabby after a seven-month layoff from competitive golf.

But Tiger knows that stats don’t lie – well, maybe sometimes – but not on this occasion. He has been negative Strokes Gained against the field in all three rounds in SG: Approach and SG: Putting. For the week, he ranks 20th in SG: Approach (and 19th in proximity) and 19th in SG: Putting. That doesn’t sound too bad except for the fact the Hero is a 20-man field. Dead last in approach the green for one of the best iron players of all-time is about as un-Tiger-like as it gets.

Is that just rust? Maybe. But it suggests he’s going to need more reps to get ready to play the majors in 2024. Albany is typically a birdie-fest, and he’ll need to be much sharper. His rounds have stalled on the back nine – he’s 6 under on the front and 6 over on the back, which typically is the tougher side – which suggests he may be running out of gas, understandably. The good news is that Tiger still has plenty of pop – he’s averaging 308 yards off the tee – and is encouraged by how his body is feeling and that’s a win for the week.

“To be able to knock off some of the rust as I have this week and showed myself that I can recover each and every day, that was kind of an unknown as far as I’ve walked this far, I’ve done all my training, but add in playing and concentration and adrenaline and all those other factors that speed up everything, I’m very excited how the week’s turned out,” he said.

Tiger, who underwent yet another surgery in April to fuse the subtalar (joint just below the right ankle) and address arthritis caused by his previous talus (ankle) fracture, still is walking gingerly at times but this week (so far) ranks as the best he’s looked physically in a while.

“I can always hit it, I could never get from point A to point B. Once the bone on bone was relieved with the fusion, it’s felt night and day,” he said. “I don’t have mobility, but the fact that I’m able to walk and participate again without having to feel the way I felt just trying to do it again, that was frustrating. Now I’m able to do it. Now it’s just a matter of getting the reps in.”

Asked whether his back is of concern, he said, “My back hurts every day. It is what it is, that’s just life. But I can deal with that, that’s not a problem.”

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2023 Hero World Challenge Sunday final round tee times, TV info

Everything you need to know for the Hero World Challenge.

Did Scottie Scheffler learn how to putt?

The world No. 1 had the round of the tournament Saturday during the third round of the 2023 Hero World Challenge, shooting 7-under 65, including a bogey on the closing hole. However, Scheffler ranked fourth in Strokes Gained: Putting after that was his Achilles’ heel all season long.

The result? Scheffler sits at 16 under at the event he has finished runner-up at the past two years. This time, he has a three-shot lead over Matthew Fitzpatrick, who matched Scheffler with a 7-under 65, and five over Justin Thomas with 18 holes to play.

Tiger Woods fired his second straight under par round, shooting 1-under 71.

Here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. All times listed ET.

Sunday tee times

Tee time Players
10:46 a.m.
Wyndham Clark, Will Zalatoris
10:57 a.m.
Viktor Hovland, Rickie Fowler
11:08 a.m.
Sam Burns, Tiger Woods
11:19 a.m.
Max Homa, Keegan Bradley
11:30 a.m.
Justin Rose, Lucas Glover
11:41 a.m.
Brian Harman, Cameron Young
11:52 a.m.
Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka
12:03 p.m.
Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa
12:14 p.m.
Justin Thomas, Jason Day
12:25 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick

How to watch

Sunday, Dec. 3

Final round, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET, Golf Channell/Peacock; 1:30-4:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock

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