Joe Champion
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Scottie Scheffler’s incredible year has one final chapter still to play out as the world number one bids to retain the Hero World Challenge title at a course where he has form figures of 2-2-1. Held as a benefit for the Tiger Woods Foundation, this invitational event features an elite 20-man field who tend to score well around Albany, with an average winning total of -19 in the 8 editions to have been played at the wide-open coastal course. It’s hard to find fault with Scheffler, who defied a 3-month break to win this last year, and there’s every chance he will add to the 8 victories he’s claimed in 2024. Let’s get into my Hero World Challenge predictions and golf best bets, as I look to add to my recent +4500 winner on the WWT Championship.
Hero World Challenge golf picks and predictions
Justin Thomas (+1100)
Odds available at Bet365 at time of publishing.
Outside of Scheffler, 3 others catch the eye at bigger odds starting with Woods’ close friend Justin Thomas, who will be aiming to lay down a marker as he bids to get back to the very top of the game in 2025. The last 2 years have been littered with inconsistent results for the 2-time Major winner but he still did enough to reach the Tour Championship, where he finished 14th, then he was a runner-up to Nico Echavarria in the Zozo Championship at the end of October.
While 6 visits to Albany have yet to yield a win, Thomas has progressive course form figures of 11-12-5-5-5-3, underlining his suitability for the venue. Thomas has always been productive at coastal venues — his first 2 PGA Tour wins came in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, he is a 2-time winner of the Sentry at Kapalua and he also won the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Ludvig Aberg (+1100)
Odds available at Bet365 at time of publishing.
Ludvig Aberg’s PGA Tour breakthrough came in last year’s RSM Classic, then he reappeared in that tournament following knee surgery and showed immediate promise, shooting two 64s to finish 17th at Sea Island a fortnight ago. With any rust knocked out of his system, the Swede could be sharper than many of his Hero World Challenge rivals, several of whom haven’t been in action since the Tour Championship.
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Akshay Bhatia (+2700)
Odds available at Bet365 at time of publishing.
While Thomas and Aberg are fairly obvious challengers to Scheffler’s crown, Akshay Bhatia is someone who could be flying under the radar this week. Bhatia loves the Bahamas and coastal golf in general. He won a Korn Ferry Tour event, the Great Exuma Classic, in the Caribbean nation in 2022 then finished fourth the following year before coming seventh in the Abaco Classic a week later. He has numerous coastal top-20 finishes on the PGA Tour and was a runner-up last month in the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in Japan, so he should be spot-on for this test.
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