The whole Fall part of the PGA Tour can be a bit weird as the events aren’t really meant to coincide with the popularity of college and pro football, as well as the NBA and NHL. That makes the December part of the Tour a very exotic animal, and many consider the RSM Classic two weeks ago the end of their golf betting calendar year.
We’ve still got two PGA-aligned events left in 2022, starting with the Hero World Challenge from the Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas and then wrapping up with the QBE Shootout next weekend in Naples. These are money events but not points events, as this Hero World Challenge only has a 20-person field, and the QBE Shootout being a team event.
Tiger Woods and the Hero World Challenge
This tournament is a benefit for the Tiger Woods Foundation, and we thought we were going to see the namesake tee it up this weekend until he was a scratch on Monday due to plantar fasciitis. Woods in general, gave fans a glimpse of what his future holds, announcing this week that “I don’t have much left in this leg” and announcing his plans to perhaps play only in majors and a couple of other events moving forward.
Woods has obviously been a big part of the Hero World Challenge, not just for charitable reasons but also because he’s a 5X winner of this tournament.
Albany Golf Club Information
Like a number of PGA-aligned tournaments that happen this time of the season, the Hero World Challenge has had a number of sponsors and locations over the years. This event debuted in 2000 as the Williams World Challenge at Grayhawk in Arizona, moved to Sherwood, California for 14 events, but now seems to have found a home in the Bahamas for the last seven years (canceled in 2020 for the COVID pandemic).
Albany Golf Club has been the home of the Hero World Challenge since 2015, when Bubba Watson won at -25. This is mainly a charity event with big names so fans want to see good golf – and the course obliges, with -18 being the highest winning score at this event since it moved to this location.
Hero World Challenge Betting Field
Even with a shortened field and Woods withdrawing, there are still numerous past winners of this event looking to become repeat champions. The most likely of those is Jon Rahm (+500), who won here in 2018 and is fresh off a DP World Tour Championship victory two weeks ago.
There really is the value from 1-20 in this field, as Sepp Straka is the biggest underdog at +6500, but he even has a runner-up finish this Fall at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Viktor Hovland won here last season, but he’s just +1200 on the odds, while Tony Finau (+900) was the runner-up to Rahm in 2018 but also has a win recently at the Houston Open.
The 20-golfer field feels a lot like a horse race, and you can go with the favorite at lower odds or take a chance deeper on the sheet with somebody like Max Homa (+2500) or Billy Horschel (+3000), as this tournament really could go a number of different ways.
