Day One Highlights from the Hero World Challenge

The first round of the Hero World Challenge is complete. Let us take a look at some of the opening highlights.

The Hero World Challenge is quite different compared to the rest of the tournaments that you will see during the year. With only 18 participants, The deviation of scores that pop out when you look at the leaderboard shouldn’t be a surprise. There are fewer golfers, so the range you see is a lot wider.

Take a look at day one. After one round at the Hero World Challenge, there is a 13 shot gap between the co-leaders and the player currently in last place. This is pretty normal for a tournament, but it sure looks odd when you look at the leaderboard and see that the guy in 18th place is so far back.

Alas, that is what happens at this tournament nearly every year, and it makes sense.

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I previously mentioned that we had co-leaders, and those two golfers finished their opening round at -6. Both Patrick Reed and Gary Woodland were able to fire off 66’s, and are tied for first with a two-shot lead over Chez Reavie. Reed was able to get to -6 in a little cleaner fashion than was Woodland, as Reed had one bogey compared to two from Woodland.

The fact that they were each able to get to -6 during the first round of the Hero World Challenge is quite the feat when you realize just how windy it was out there, and how badly it affected some of the players. The wind was strong and gusty all day long down in the Bahamas, and you can see how much it challenged the players, especially on the 18th hole.

There were no birdies there at all during the opening round. None. Zero. Zilch. That’s how difficult that hole was playing. In fact, it was so difficult that it played nearly an entire stroke over par on average at 0.944. Half the field shot par, and there were four bogeys, three doubles, and two “other”. Those came from Jordan Spieth who shot a 7, and from Patrick Cantlay, who ruined his round with a +4 eight to finish his day.

There were still plenty of opportunities to score, and the players took advantage of those at the par-5’s. There were five of them on the course, and four of them played as some of the easiest holes. The 6th, 11th, 15th, and 3rd came in as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th easiest holes of the day, respectively. There were only four bogeys there all day, with three coming from the 3rd hole, and none on 11 or 15. We did see two eagles and 42 birdies.

There were some funny moments during the round as well, one of which involved the GOAT.

Tiger blasted his ball past playing partner Justin Thomas, nearly clearing it in the air. He then had some fun with him, walking up to Thomas’s ball and faux acting as if he didn’t know whose ball it was. Although Tiger turns 44 this month and is currently 17 years older than Thomas, he still shows everyone once in a while that a Tiger is something no one wants to mess with.

Thomas was able to recoup from the embarrassment of being outdriven by Tiger and got the last laugh, at least one day one of the Hero World Challenge. He would go on to shoot a -3 69 and sits T-4th with Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, and Henrik Stenson.

Tiger, on the other hand, gave away a chance to be in the same group over his last two holes. He would bogey the 17th, and then join the group of three who had a double bogey on the 18th hole, finishing his day at even-par 72, in the same place as Bubba Watson, T-11th.

It wasn’t all grins and giggles for everyone during the first round. Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau sit at the bottom of the leaderboard, although Finau is on his own at the bottom by a few shots. DeChambeau finished with a +4 76, with three birdies, three bogeys, and two doubles.

Finau, on the other hand, finished with just two birdies, four bogeys, a double, and a dreaded triple, also known as a Grouse.

Day Two of the Hero World Challenge gets underway decently early on Thursday, with the golfers teeing off at 10:50 eastern, where we will see Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau tee off. The golfers are going out in reverse order of standings. So if you are looking for the co-leaders, you can catch Woodland and Reed at 12:18 p.m.