The majority of the field for the 2022 Hero World Challenge, a PGA (Professional Golfers Association) Tour event, was announced by host Tiger Woods yesterday. It features mostly top 20 golfers, according to the World Golf Rankings. Additionally, there are three tournament exemption slots up for grabs that will be announced at a later date.
The tournament is set for November 28 to December 4 at the Albany Golf Course in south western New Providence. This will be the seventh year that the tournament is held in The Bahamas.
Woods, who has battled injuries in the latter part of his career, is not listed as one of the 17 players who are set to play. However, it was not stated that the 46-year-old has not ruled himself out of playing this year.
The field is led by American Scottie Scheffler, who is the number one ranked golfer in the world as of August 28. He is also this year’s Masters Champion. Making the trip back to The Bahamas to defend his title is Norwegian Viktor Hovland. There are 16 PGA Tour winners, who have won a total of 87 events, committed to playing at Albany.
Rounding out the 17 confirmed players are Xander Schauffele (5th), Jon Rahm (6th), Justin Thomas (7th), Collin Morikawa (8th), Will Zalatoris (9th), Matt Fitzpatrick (10th), Sam Burns (12th), Jordan Spieth (13th), Tony Finau (14th), Billy Horschel (15), Hideki Matsuyama (16th), Cameron Young (17th), Sungjae Im (18th), Max Homa (20th), and Tom Kim (21st). World rankings are in brackets.
Thomas is the PGA Championship winner while Fitzpatrick is the U.S. Open winner. There are five players on the list making their tournament debuts – Zalatoris, Young, Im, Homa and Kim.
Hovland came from behind to win the 2021 Hero World Challenge. He was six strokes behind the third-round leader, Morikawa. He hit back-to-back eagle shot on holes 14 and 15 on the final day of competition to aid in his comeback attempt and give him the title in his first year at the tournament. Hovland finished 18-under par while Scheffler finished one stroke behind him in second. Hovland joined Rahm as the only first-time participants to win the tournament since it moved to Albany in 2015. Rahm did it in 2018.
Last year’s tournament was very competitive, and returned from a one-year hiatus in 2020 due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a different leader at the end of each of the four rounds last year.
At last year’s tournament, Woods made his first public appearance since the car accident in February 2021 that severely injured him. The last time he played in the tournament was in 2019.
Proceeds from the 2022 Hero World Challenge will benefit the TGR Foundation, the Tavistock Foundation and the Bahamas Youth Foundation.
