Tiger Woods makes his return to action this week 15 months after his last appearance following two back operations. The 14-time major winner tees it up at the limited-field Hero World Challenge, a tournament he hosts, which carries ranking points and a first prize of £800,000.
We were supposed to get a glimpse of Woods at the Safeway Open in October, only for the former world No 1 to pull out because he felt his game was “vulnerable”. With his world ranking now standing at 898th, it’s unlikely Woods will be troubling the leaderboard in a top-quality 18-man field, so who is in with a chance?
The tournament is back for a second year at the Ernie Els-designed Albany course in the Bahamas where conditions are expected to be reasonably calm as in 2015 when big-hitting Bubba Watson claimed a three-shot win over Patrick Reed. With five reachable par-fives, Watson should be in the mix, even though his performance at the WGC-HSBC Champions five weeks ago was disappointing.
Bubba Watson won the 2015 Hero World Challenge
Like most in the field, Watson should be fresh and with conditions to suit, the 16/1 on offer represents excellent value for a defending champion in such a small field, while he can also be backed at 11/4 for a top-four finish and 9/1 to be the top American.
Fellow American Brooks Koepka is another player who has the power to tame the Albany course. Inside the top 20 for driving distance last season, Koepka also won the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan a couple of weeks ago having finished runner-up at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in the previous fortnight. With scoring expected to be low again this year, Koepka will be up there and a nice price too at 10/1.
To complete our trio of powerful hitters, we have gone for an outsider in the shape of JB Holmes, who outranked Dustin Johnson and Watson at the top of the distance rankings last season. Despite never really being in the tournament last year, Holmes posted a final-round 64 to finish in eighth place.
Holmes has also ranked inside the top 10 for birdie averages in the last two seasons, crucial if he is to be in contention on Sunday night. For a player with two top-fives in Majors and five other top 10s last season, the 28/1 should not be missed while he is 13/2 to finish in the top four.
The post Hero World Challenge: Watson to claim title as Woods makes return appeared first on bwin.
