Hero World Challenge Preview – 2016

COURSE : Albany (par-72, 7,302 yards)
LOCATION : New Providence, The Bahamas
ARCHITECT : Ernie Els
2016 WINNER : Bubba Watson
FEDEXCUP POINTS: N/A
PRIZE MONEY/1ST: $3.5 million ($1 million to winner)

• The 18th annual Hero World Challenge, held December 1-4, 2016, returns to New Providence, Bahamas for the second-consecutive season, to be contested at Albany (7,267 yards).
• Host Tiger Woods is among 18 of the PGA TOUR’s elite to compete for the $1 million top prize ($3.5 total purse) in the annual 72-hole, stroke-play event.

About the Host

• Host Tiger Woods, the winner of 79 career PGA TOUR titles including 14 major championships, returns to the Hero World Challenge as a participant after being unable to play last year after undergoing a follow-up procedure in late October 2015 to an earlier back surgery.
• Woods owns five victories (2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011) and five runner-up finishes (most recent to Zach Johnson in 2013) in 14 prior Hero World Challenge starts.
• A T10 finish at the 2015 Wyndham Championship marks Woods’ last start on TOUR.

Bubba Watson set to defend his 2015 Hero World Challenge title

• Following a third-round 9-under 63, Bubba Watson carded a final-round 6-under 66 to win the 2015 Hero World Challenge by three strokes over Patrick Reed and four over Rickie Fowler.
• The two-time Masters champion won with a 72-hole total of 25-under 263, one shy of the Hero World Challenge record of 26-under 262 set by Jordan Spieth in 2014.
• As he makes his seventh start at the Hero World Challenge (T14/2010, T6/2011, T9/2012, T3/2013, T11/2014, 1/2015), Watson will attempt to join Tiger Woods (2006-07) as the only players to win the Hero World Challenge in back-to-back seasons.

The 2016 Hero World Challenge field

• The field of 18 PGA TOUR players is invited as follows:
  • the current four major championships winners
  • the top 11 players available from the Official World Golf Ranking as of Sept. 26, 2016 (following the TOUR Championship)
  • the defending champion and two special-exemption players.
• Here’s a list of this year’s participants:
  • Rickie Fowler
  • Emiliano Grillo
  • J.B. Holmes
  • Dustin Johnson
  • Zach Johnson
  • Russell Knox
  • Brooks Koepka
  • Matt Kuchar
  • Hideki Matsuyama
  • Louis Oosthuizen
  • Patrick Reed
  • Justin Rose
  • Brandt Snedeker
  • Jordan Spieth
  • Henrik Stenson
  • Jimmy Walker
  • Bubba Watson
  • Tiger Woods

The field by the numbers

• Four FedExCup titles: Tiger Woods (2007 and 2009); Henrik Stenson (2013); and Jordan Spieth (2015).
• Nine of the 18 players have won major championships.
• Seven countries represented, including 12 players from the United States.
• Olympic Gold medalist Justin Rose, Silver medalist Henrik Stenson, Bronze medalist Matt Kuchar.
• Past Hero World Challenge winners: Tiger Woods (5 wins), Zach Johnson (2013), Jordan Spieth (2014), Bubba Watson (2015).
• First-time participants Emiliano Grillo, Russell Knox, Louis Oosthuizen.
  Tournament Notes
• In 2014, Jordan Spieth won by a record 10 strokes with a tournament-record 26-under 262, the event’s first wire-to-wire winner.
• Tiger Woods (2006-07) is the only back-to-back winner of the Hero World Challenge.
• The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win seven times
  • Tom Lehman/1999
  • Padraig Harrington/2002
  • Davis Love III/2003
  • Tiger Woods/2007
  • Graeme McDowell/2012
  • Jordan Spieth/2014
  • Bubba Watson/2015).
• Patrick Reed owns two top-three finishes in as many starts at the Hero World Challenge (T3/2014, 2/2015).

Hero World Challenge Past Champions

• 2015 – Bubba Watson; Albany, New Providence, The Bahamas
• 2014 – Jordan Spieth; Isleworth Golf and Country Club, Windermere, Fla.
• 2013 – Zach Johnson; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2012 – Graeme McDowell (2); Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2011 – Tiger Woods (5); Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2010 – Graeme McDowell; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2009 – Jim Furyk; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2008 – Vijay Singh; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2007 – Tiger Woods (4); Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2006 – Tiger Woods (3); Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2005 – Luke Donald; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2004 – Tiger Woods (2); Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2003 – Davis Love III (2); Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2002 – Padraig Harrington; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2001 – Tiger Woods; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 2000 – Davis Love III; Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
• 1999 – Tom Lehman; Grayhawk Golf Club, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Title sponsor

• India-based Hero MotoCorp Ltd. is the world’s largest manufacturer of two-wheelers.
• In 2001, the company achieved the coveted position of being the largest two-wheeler manufacturing company in India and also the World’s No. 1 two-wheeler company in terms of unit volumes sold by a single company in a calendar year (an honor it has never relinquished since).

Charity at the heart of the Hero World Challenge

• The Hero World Challenge is co-sponsored by the PGA TOUR and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, Tavistock Foundation and the Albany Scholars Program.
• The event will continue to raise funds and awareness for the college-access programs of the Tiger Woods Foundation, which serves as TGR’s philanthropic arm, championing breakthrough transformation and equipping students with the
  knowledge and skills needed to exceed any and all expectations.
• Since its inception in 1999, the Hero World Challenge has raised nearly $30 million.

via PGA TOUR