Tournament host Tiger Woods to welcome elite 18-player field to Albany, Bahamas Nov. 30-Dec. 3; Tickets available at HeroWorldChallenge.com
ALBANY, Bahamas – The majority of the field is set for the 2017 Hero World Challenge, which will be held Nov. 30-Dec. 3 at Albany, Bahamas. The invitation-only PGA TOUR event will once again feature the world’s top-ranked golfers competing for a $3.5 million prize purse.
Dustin Johnson, who has held the No. 1 position in the Official World Golf Ranking since winning the Genesis Open in February, headlines a field that also includes three of 2017’s major championship winners – U.S. Open winner Brooks Koepka, The Open Championship winner Jordan Spieth and PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, who also won the PGA TOUR’s 2017 FedExCup title following the conclusion of the TOUR Championship on Sept. 24.
World No. 3 Hideki Matsuyama will aim to defend his title against a field that features 16 of the top 24 players in the world. Tickets, pro-am and tournament information are available at HeroWorldChallenge.com.
“We’re looking forward to a special week at Albany for this year’s Hero World Challenge” said Mike Antolini, Vice President of Championships for TGR Live. “This year’s field is, arguably, our strongest ever and we have an exciting week of golf and evening events planned.”
2017 Hero World Challenge field:
Name (Official World Golf Ranking as of 9/25/17), Country
Dustin Johnson (1), USA
Jordan Spieth (2), USA
Hideki Matsuyama (3), Japan
Justin Thomas (4), USA
Jason Day (7), Australia
Rickie Fowler (8), USA
Brooks Koepka (11), USA
Matt Kuchar (12), USA
Justin Rose (13), England
Alex Noren (14), Sweden
Marc Leishman (16), Australia
Tommy Fleetwood (17), England
Francesco Molinari (18), Italy
Patrick Reed (20), USA
Charley Hoffman (23), USA
Kevin Kisner (24), USA
Special Exemption (TBA)
Special Exemption (TBA)
The Hero World Challenge, hosted by Tiger Woods, annually invites its defending champion, the year’s current major winners, and top ranked golfers from the Official World Golf Ranking to Albany, Bahamas. Two special exemptions will be announced at a later date to fill the exclusive 18 player field.
The field for the Hero World Challenge features the winners of eight major championships and 12 players who competed in last week’s Presidents Cup, and it includes many players who produced the biggest highlights of the 2016-17 PGA TOUR season.
Johnson ascended to the top of the world rankings for the first time with his five-stroke victory at February’s Genesis Open, the first of three straight victories including two World Golf Championship trophies. Despite missing more than a month with a back injury, he never relinquished the No. 1 spot and returned to the tune of three more top-10 finishes, including his fourth victory of the season in the opening event of the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs.
Koepka made his third professional victory a big one by winning the 2017 U.S. Open, highlighting a stellar performance in the majors that saw him finish no lower than T-13 in the four tournaments.
Spieth collected his third major championship title at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 2017, battling Kuchar over the final 18 holes and moving to within one victory of the career grand slam.
Thomas, who set a U.S. Open record with the lowest score in relation to par during the third round, was crowned a first-time major winner two months later at the PGA Championship. He is the only golfer to have won five times during the 2016-17 PGA TOUR season, totaling 12 top-10 finishes. He started 2017 by becoming the seventh player in history, and the youngest, to shoot 59 in a tournament round, and ended the season by being crowned the FedExCup champion.
Matsuyama was among the steadiest performers on tour during the 2016-17 season, winning four times and securing seven top-10 finishes. Other tournament winners from the ’16-’17 season in the field include Fowler, Kuchar, Kisner and Leishman, and the field accounted for 22 total victories last season.
Thomas, Noren, Leishman, Fleetwood, Molinari, Hoffman and Kisner will prepare to tee it up in their first Hero World Challenge.
The Hero World Challenge is a four-round, 72-hole stroke play event with a $3.5 million purse, a $1 million winner’s prize and Official World Golf Ranking points awarded. It will be held at the challenging par-72, 7,302-yard Albany for the third consecutive year.
Live television coverage of the Hero World Challenge will be provided by Golf Channel during all four rounds and by NBC during the third and fourth rounds. Good-any-day grounds tickets and a limited number of premium hospitality packages for the Hero World Challenge are available for purchase at HeroWorldChallenge.com.
The Tiger Woods Foundation is the event’s primary charitable beneficiary, along with the Tavistock Foundation and Bahamas Youth Foundation.
About Hero MotoCorp Ltd
Hero MotoCorp is the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer in terms of unit volumes sold by a single company in a year – the coveted position it has held for the past 16 consecutive years. The New Delhi, India-headquartered Hero MotoCorp sold over 6.66 million two-wheelers in the financial year 2016-17. The company has sold over 75 million motorcycles and scooters in cumulative sales since its inception. Hero MotoCorp currently sells its products in over 35 countries across Asia, Africa and South and Central America. Hero MotoCorp has seven state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, including five in India, and two global facilities in Colombia and Bangladesh. Hero MotoCorp’s world class state-of-the-art R&D facility – the Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT) – is located in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan. Hero MotoCorp has been associated with various disciplines of sports including golf, cricket, field hockey and soccer for over two decades. Fourteen-time major winner Tiger Woods is Hero’s Global Corporate Partner.
About TGR Live
For 20 years, TGR Live has exclusively organized and managed fundraising events supporting the Tiger Woods Foundation. It focuses solely on creating amazing experiences for the foundation’s clients at world-class events. TGR Live provides a variety of services including hospitality management, public relations and marketing, tournament operations, and sponsor sales at three PGA TOUR events and two signature events which benefit the foundation. While many TGR Live events are televised, TGR Live does not provide TV or video production. For more information, visit TGRLive.com.
About Tavistock Group & Tavistock Foundation
Tavistock Group is an international private investment organization founded by Joe Lewis. With investments in hundreds of companies across 15 countries, Tavistock Group’s investment portfolio includes: biotechnology, sports teams and sporting events, manufacturing and distribution, oil, gas and energy, financial services, restaurants, commercial properties, private luxury residential properties, resort properties and master-planned real estate developments. The Tavistock Foundation is dedicated to supporting communities in which Tavistock Group has significant business interests, with a focus on funding education and medical research programs. For more information, visit tavistock.com.
About Albany – The Bahamas
Albany, located in The Bahamas, is a luxury resort community jointly owned by Tavistock Group, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els. Opened in 2010, Albany is nestled within 600 oceanfront acres on the southwestern end of New Providence and conveniently located within a seven-minute drive from Nassau’s international airport and two private airfields. Albany features an array of residential offerings and amenities for all members of the family, including a luxury boutique hotel comprised of private residences, a 71-slip mega-yacht marina, an Ernie Els-designed golf course with extensive practice facilities, a fitness complex featuring a core strength and weight studio, yoga and Pilates studio, CrossFit course, boxing studio, cardio and spin studio, lap pool, luxury spa and salon, adult pool, family pool and family water park, kids’ clubhouse and casual and fine dining restaurants. Albany is also home to Windsor High School and the Albany Sports Academies, specializing in golf and tennis. For more information, visit albanybahamas.com.
About Bahamas Youth Foundation
The Bahamas Youth Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the enrichment, education and enhancement of young people from The Bahamas and around the world who matriculate in The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Focused on helping talented and gifted young people by awarding scholarships in music, the arts, academics, and athletics, the Bahamas Youth Foundation fundamentally believes in the potential of every single young person to achieve their dreams through hard work, education, exposures and experiences that help them learn their craft and what it takes to succeed in it.
About PGA TOUR
The PGA TOUR is the world’s premier membership organization for touring professional golfers, co-sanctioning more than 130 tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Web.com Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR China.
The PGA TOUR’s mission is to entertain and inspire its fans, deliver substantial value to its partners, create outlets for volunteers to give back, generate significant charitable and economic impact in the communities in which it plays, and provide financial opportunities for TOUR players.
Worldwide, PGA TOUR tournaments are broadcast to more than 1 billion households in 227 countries and territories in 30 languages. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations in order to maximize charitable giving. In 2015, tournaments across all Tours generated a record $160 million for local and national charitable organizations, bringing the all-time total to $2.3 billion.
The PGA TOUR’s web site is PGATOUR.COM, the No. 1 site in golf, and the organization is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.
Contact:
Damian Secore
damians@bzapr.com
818-462-5614
Noah Sharfman
nsharfman@tigerwoodsfoundation.org
310-702-8819
