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Hero World Challenge: Power ranking the top ten at Albany

By Mike Randleman

NASSAU, BAHAMAS - NOVEMBER 30: Dustin Johnson of the United States plays his shot from the 15th tee during the first round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany, Bahamas on November 30, 2017 in Nassau, Bahamas. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
NASSAU, BAHAMAS - NOVEMBER 30: Dustin Johnson of the United States plays his shot from the 15th tee during the first round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany, Bahamas on November 30, 2017 in Nassau, Bahamas. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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Hero World Challenge Power Rankings 2018
Hero World Challenge: Power Rankings 2018 (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

Tiger Woods hosts his annual event, the Hero World Challenge, this week in Albany, Bahamas

For Tiger Woods fans, this week is a departure from recent years. The Hero World Challenge has been Big Cat’s return to golf post-injury and a way to earn some cheap Official World Golf Ranking points.

The latter is still true, but this time it’s not to get him out of the doldrums; A Woods win would vault him from 13th in the world to sixth.

Despite a field of just 18 players, all are inside the world top 50 making this a big OWGR event despite nearly 10 times as many players teeing it up over on the European Tour on the same week.

The hand-picked field will take on host course Albany. It’s a 7,309-yard par 72 unique in featuring five par-5s and five par-3s.

It’s a completely exposed seaside course that has desert elements. There’s no rough but plenty of native areas to give defense to the course. Wind is also one of the course’s best defense.

Greens are TifEagle Bermuda and are somewhat small and can run grainy. Fortunately for players, the fairways aren’t too tough to hit to help on approach shots.

Regardless of conditions, expect low scores. Since the Hero World Challenge moved to Albany in 2015, winning scores have been 25-, 18- and 18- under. Only three of 53 players in that span completed 72 holes over par.

This is a no-cut event.

Some helpful stats include par-5 scoring, par-3 scoring and strokes gained approach. Strokes gained off the tee will also be useful as big hitters can gain advantages around Albany.

All 18 players are here for a reason, but I’ll trim it down a bit to the 10 best to end 2018 in style.

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