© Getty Images Sport – Kevin C. Cox / Staff
Here are the events not to be missed in the week from 27 November to 3 December.
Golf, events
PGA Tour – Hero World Challenge
One of the most anticipated “unofficial” events ever will take place this week on the PGA Tour calendar: the Hero World Challenge.
The 2023 edition will also be played at the Albany Golf Club in the western part of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence, home of the competition since 2015. The Albany Golf Course is a course designed by the South African champion Ernie Else which hosts the Hero World Challenge for the eighth time.
It is a links-style par 72, where players will have to face windswept dunes almost 10 meters high and challenging water features. Furthermore, the course is particular and boasts five par 5s and five par 3s. No FedEx Cup points are awarded at the Hero World Challenge, but despite this, four former FedEx Cup winners will be in the field, including reigning champion Viktor Hovland.
However, official World Golf Ranking points will be awarded. World golf legend Tiger Woods returns to the field this week. We will therefore see the 82-time winner on the PGA Tour again after the last tournament played last April: the Masters, where he made the cut but withdrew during the third round due to a foot problem.
Tiger Woods will once again play the dual role of “Tournament Host” and player who will compete for the title. Not only that, we will soon see Woods again with his son Charlie for the fourth consecutive year at the PNC Championship.
However, these are two very different situations: the Hero World Challenge will require him to walk 72 holes, while at the PNC he will play 36 holes with the possibility of using the golf cart. In addition to the Legend, on the pitch we will find: Viktor Hovland aiming for victory for the third time.
Will Zalatoris recovering from a herniated disc injury at the 2022 BMW Championship.
In 2023 he played only seven times and is now back on the field to play after the forced rest.
World number one Scottie Scheffler, on the field for the first time since the Ryder Cup, who boasts two second places at the Hero World Challenge in the last two years.
Max Homa returns to competition with a string of five consecutive top 10s on the PGA Tour.
Matt Fitzpatrick, who will return to action after finishing 27th at the DP World Tour Championship.
He won this year’s RBC Heritage and captured the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October.
The U.S. champion Open Wyndham Clark, making his Hero World Challenge debut, will play for the first time since the Ryder Cup.
Before that, he placed third at the Tour Championship.
2014 Hero World Challenge winner Jordan Spieth, who earned three consecutive top-six finishes at Albany. Spieth hasn’t won this season, but has seven top-10s.
Cameron Young, 2022 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and third-place finisher at last year’s Hero.
Collin Morikawa, who will be playing for the first time since his impressive 63 in the final round to win the ZOZO Championship.
Morikawa was due to participate in the Netflix Cup earlier this month, but withdrew due to a back injury.
Morikawa’s “Netflix Cup replacement” Tony Finau, who returns to Albany where he has never ranked outside the top 10.
Keegan Bradley, fielding for the Hero World Challenge for the first time since 2018, in a season where he has already won two events.
Jason Day, who won the AT&T Byron Nelson in May to capture his first Tour title since 2018.
Among the champions in the entry list there will also be other Ryder Cup players: Sam Burns, Sepp Straka, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas.
Fowler won this event in 2017, thanks in part to a field-record score (61) in the final lap. DP World Tour – ISPS HANDA Australian Open
For the second consecutive week, the DP World Tour continues to compete in Australia where, from 30 November to 3 December, the ISPS HANDA Australian Open will take place at The Australian Golf Club and The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney.
This year too the event will feature a “mixed” format where both men and women will compete for different titles on the same field and at the same time. There will be 156 players in the men’s field and 84 players in the women’s field.
Only one cut will be made after 36 holes, reducing the field to the top 60 professionals plus ties in the men’s Open and the top 32 professionals plus ties in the women’s Open. The Australian Golf Club will be the host venue for all four rounds.
