Hero World Challenge 2025 Betting Tips: Rose to bloom in Bahamas?

The PGA Tour wrapped up its season at the RSM Classic two weeks ago, though we still have a couple of lower-stakes, unofficial events to enjoy before we can fully draw a line under 2025.

It’s off to Florida next week for the Grant Thornton Invitational – a unique mixed-team event co-sanctioned with the LPGA – but first, a limited, elite field travels to Albany Golf Course in The Bahamas for the Hero World Challenge.

Our resident golf tipster Jamie Worsley is back with two more value each-way picks this week, so let's check out his Hero World Challenge 2025 Betting Tips here at Betfred Insights...

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*You can bet on the tournament and check out the latest Hero World Challenge Odds over on betfred.com

TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The Hero World Challenge is a 20-man event that debuted in January 2000. Although the atmosphere is generally not as serious as your average PGA Tour tournament, there are world ranking points on offer and a $5million purse to compete for.

Tiger Woods is the tournament host, and he has won this title more than anybody else, picking up five victories in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011. We have also had four two-time winners: Davis Love III (2000, 2003), Graeme McDowell (2010, 2012), Viktor Hovland (2021, 2022), and Scottie Scheffler (2023, 2024).

Last five winners:

• 2024

Winner: Scottie Scheffler (-25)

Runner-up: Tom Kim (-19)

• 2023

Winner: Scottie Scheffler (-20)

Runner-up: Sepp Straka (-17)

• 2022

Winner: Viktor Hovland (-16)

Runner-up: Scottie Scheffler (-14)

• 2021

Winner: Viktor Hovland (-18)

Runner-up: Scottie Scheffler (-17)

• 2019

Winner: Henrik Stenson (-18)

Runner-up: Jon Rahm (-17)

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler produced a scintillating final-round performance to win by an easy six-shot margin last year. He returns to defend this week, aiming to become the first player to win three on the spin.

THE COURSE

This tournament has had several homes, but it has been staged exclusively at the Ernie Els-designed Albany Golf Course in The Bahamas since 2015.

A par-72 measuring 7449 yards, the course contains 5x par 3s (179-217 yards), just 8x par 4s (307-513 yards), and 5x par 5s (552-632 yards).

The Ernie Els Design group took an initially flat piece of land and created a dramatic links-like layout. This open and exposed course is framed by imposing, manufactured sand dunes – some of which measure 30ft high – and features water in play on five holes.

The fairways are extremely wide and with little rough, they are almost solely protected by large and strategically placed white sand bunkers. They ask players to position the ball smartly in order to open up the best angle of attack into the bermudagrass greens.

Said putting surfaces are small, averaging 4,500 sq. ft – contrasting greatly with the expansive fairways. Those bunkers again guard many of these greens, and there is no shortage of steep run-offs, which can lead to some tricky up-and-downs from tight lies.

That excess of par 5s, along with a couple of potentially driveable par 4s, makes for a fun, scoreable challenge at Albany Golf Course. However, as with many coastal courses, wind is often a factor and helps keep scores down, averaging a winning score of -19.8 across the nine renewals held here.

THE WEATHER

This week's field look set for bright, sunshiny conditions throughout the week in The Bahamas. Temperatures will hit around 30° each day, and with just a mild 7-9mph breeze, we should see plenty of low scores.

KEY STATS

• SG: Approach/Greens-in-Regulation/Proximity 175yds+
• Birdie or Better %

Birdies are the order of the day and due to the small putting surfaces, it's iron play that will be key to creating those chances. I'd especially focus on players that excel from 175 yards+, with over 60% of approaches coming in that range over the last two years.

Strokes-gained data has been recorded for the last two editions of this event. Scottie Scheffler ranked 1^st in SG: Approach and greens-in-regulation (GIR) last year. Meanwhile, Justin Thomas in 3^rd ranked 2^nd in each area.

Scheffler also hit his irons well in 2023, ranking 4^th in SG: Approach and 3^rd in GIR. Runner-up Sepp Straka was 5^th in SG: Approach and 2^nd in GIR, and Justin Thomas (again in 3^rd) ranked 2^nd in SG: Approach and 1^st in GIR.

• SG: Putting (bermudagrass)

The putter is always a vital asset in birdie-fests, and proven bermudagrass putters are of particular interest.

Scottie Scheffler was 4^th on the greens last year, as 4^th-place finisher Akshay Bhatia ranked 2^nd. The world No. 1 wasn't quite as strong with the club in 2023 but Matt Fitzpatrick in 4^th did lead the field.

• Driving Distance

With wide fairways, five par 5s and drivable par 4s, it's hard not to fancy bigger hitters around this setup. Although contenders haven't exclusively been power players, most winners at Albany are above average in driving distance.

CORRELATING EVENTS

There is little to be gained by doing a deep dive into correlating form for an unofficial event with a small, high-class field. However, there are several events/courses that share similarities with Albany Golf Course.

The Sentry at Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course is a very obvious place to start. As the first event of the season with a limited field, the atmosphere is akin to what we see this week. This island course has wide fairways, bermudagrass greens, and scoring is usually extremely low.

We also have the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal and the Corales Puntacana Championship at Corales Golf Course. Again, these low-scoring venues are by the coast and exposed, with some of the widest fairways on tour.

THE FIELD

Each player in action this week is among the top 70 in the world, headed by No. 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler. J.J Spaun (No. 6), Robert MacIntyre (No. 7), and Justin Rose (No. 9) make up the four-strong group of players from inside the top 10.

Scheffler is joined by two further former winner: Hideki Matsuyama (2016) and Jordan Spieth (2014). Meanwhile, alongside the aforementioned Spaun, Chris Gotterup and Andrew Novak will too be making their debuts.

Full list of entries and their world ranking:

• Scottie Scheffler (No. 1)
• J. Spaun (No. 6)
• Robert MacIntyre (No. 7)
• Justin Rose (No. 10)
• Harris English (No. 11)
• Keegan Bradley (No. 14)
• Sepp Straka (No. 15)
• Alex Noren (No. 17)
• Cameron Young (No. 18)
• Hideki Matsuyama (No. 20)
• Aaron Rai (No. 23)
• Sam Burns (No. 25)
• Chris Gotterup (No. 28)
• Corey Conners (No. 30)
• Andrew Novak (No. 31)
• Brian Harman (No. 33)
• Wyndham Clark (No. 38)
• Akshay Bhatia (No. 43)
• Billy Horschel (No. 45)
• Jordan Spieth (No. 70)

SELECTIONS 

Market leaders: Scottie Scheffler 6/4, Robert MacIntyre 10/1, Cameron Young 11/1, J.J. Spaun 12/1, Sam Burns 14/1

2.5 pts Justin Rose each-way (1/4 - 4 places) @ 18/1

Based here at Albany, there are few players who know this layout as well as Justin Rose. He was a leading contender for a long way on his latest start in the DP World Tour Championship and consistently impressing in approach over the last five months, I fancy him to threaten Scottie's stranglehold on this event.

Rose has played some of his best golf for over five years in 2025. He began the PGA Tour season with a 3^rd-place finish at Pebble Beach on his third start, and just a couple of months later he memorably lost out to Rory in a playoff at Augusta.

He endured a drop in form following that disappointment, but he's sprung back into life in the second half of the year: playing a starring role in Team Europe retaining the Ryder Cup and winning his 12^th PGA Tour title in the St Jude Championship.

The Englishman was 14^th in Dubai when we last saw him. This was a result engineered by a top-class ball-striking performance, ranking 7^th in GIR, 11^th in SG: OTT, and 12^th in SG: Approach. That approach display came as little surprise, as it's an area in which he ranks 4^th in this field across the last five months.

Rose has played here in this event six times and typically performs well, recording a best of 3^rd in 2018, which came either side of 5^th-place finishes in 2017 and 2019. This evergreen golfer is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon and he can lean on his familiarity with the course to close out the year in style in The Bahamas.

2 pts Chris Gotterup each-way (1/4 - 4 places) @ 25/1

My second attempt at getting Scheffler beat this week is with Chris Gotterup. This monster hitter enjoyed a fantastic summer, winning the Scottish Open and finishing 3^rd at The Open in consecutive weeks. Looking much better with his irons as the year has progressed, he has the arsenal to make a taking debut at Albany Golf Course.

Gotterup’s performances were perfectly solid in the first half of the year, recording nine top-25s across his first 21 starts. However, he upped his level considerably on the links, producing a fine final-round display to hold off a whole host of stars to win the Scottish Open, before backing that up with a 3^rd-place on his Open Championship debut the following week.

He’s since claimed a pair of 10^th-place finishes in the 3M Open and Tour Championship, and although down in 40^th on his latest outing in the Baycurrent Classic, he at least appeared to hit the ball strongly.

The American ranks as the best driver in this group over the last six months and is also the longest. His putting and approach play has been much improved of late compared to the opening months of the season and ranking top-50 in birdie-or-better %, he’s not afraid of going low.

Gotterup hasn’t teed it up in this event previously, but he’s got plenty of form on coastal courses. He won the 2022 Puerto Rico Invitational as an amateur – an event that always attracts a good field – and with his PGA Tour wins coming by the coast in the Myrtle Beach Classic (2024) and on an exposed, links-like layout in the Scottish Open (2025), he should be excited by what he finds in The Bahamas.

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