There was a brief moment in the final round of the 2022 Hero World Challenge when Viktor Hovland was joined atop the leaderboard. When playing competitor Scottie Scheffler holed out for eagle on the par-5 6th, the event’s defending champion was forced to answer, and answer he did.

Converting an opportunity of his own from roughly 15 feet, Hovland carded his second birdie in his opening six holes to remain out in front by a single stroke. Tacking on another birdie on the following hole and rounding out his inner nine with a pair of pars, Hovland saw his lead balloon to as many as five.

While his closest pursuer would change throughout the second nine among Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young, who were making runs ahead of the final pair, Hovland stood pat. A few nervy moments — namely on the 72nd hole — ultimately resulted in a back-nine 36, but was enough for the 25-year-old to finish the week at 16 under and successfully defend his Hero World Challenge crown from a year ago.

“It’s frickin nerve-wracking,” Hovland said on trying to close out a tournament. “I was leading by five after the turn and you’re just never that comfortable. I didn’t play all that great on the back nine but it was good enough.”

Joining only Tiger Woods in winning the Hero World Challenge in back-to-back years, it may now be time to remove Hovland from the best young player of this generation conversation and insert him into the best player in the world debate. Having previously reached as high as world No. 3, he is now seven times a winner worldwide — more than Scheffler, Will Zalatoris, Collin Morikawa and Sam Burns. While his triumphs lack the lore of some of his counterparts, the quantity is nevertheless impressive.

Twice a winner in The Bahamas, twice at Mayakoba, two more in Europe and once in Puerto Rico, it is a kid from Norway who has staked his claim as the king of the tropics. As strong a ball striker you’ll find, consistent improvements around the green combined with the implementation of aim point on the greens make the now world No. 9’s future prospects all the more intriguing.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Hovland said on what this win will do for his 2023 season. “The short career that I’ve had, I’ve tend to play very well later in the year and earlier in the year. The next goal is to try keep playing like this throughout the year. It’s fun to end the year with a win and kind of sit on the couch for a couple weeks with a smile on your face.”

While his demeanor on the golf course and ever-present wide smile may not match the ferociousness of his music selection, perhaps soon it will. An emphatic fist pump following his winning putt gave us a glimmer of this and showed the meaningfulness of finishing atop a 20-man field in The Bahamas. While not a PGA Tour event nor DP World Tour event, it was a tournament filled with the best players in the world and served as a strong reminder that Hovland is firmly among them. Grade: A+

Here are the grades for the rest of the leaderboard at the 2022 Hero World Challenge

2. Scottie Scheffler (-14): What a good ending to what was truly one of the great years in modern PGA Tour history. Though this doesn’t count toward his PGA Tour total of 13 top 10s in 2022, it’s still emblematic of the 12 months Scheffler has put together. Though he’s not technically the best player in the world at this moment, you could (and I probably would) argue that if you look at the last year of golf, nobody on the planet has been better. Grade: A

6. Collin Morikawa (-9): Morikawa didn’t really need a nice week, but a year after he kicked away a chance to take the No. 1 ranking in the world, it was good to see him thrive even if he came up a bit short of his first title of 2022. A confidence-boosting event after an up-and-down year will be useful to Morikawa, who goes into 2023 a bit on the undervalued side. Not much has changed with him, though. He hasn’t fallen off a cliff statistically, nor is he in a bad spot. If anything, public opinion went too far after he won two of his first eight majors and now it has swung too far the other way. This is a good opportunity to buy low on somebody I believe is one of the eight best players in the world. Grade: A-

T8. Jon Rahm (-5): It wasn’t the tournament I expected from Rahm given that he came into the week having been beaten by four players in his last four starts worldwide. Was it a bad week? I don’t know about that. Rahm still tied or beat 12 of the 20 best players in the world this week and goes into 2023 with probably the highest ceiling of anyone not named “McIlroy.” Grade: B-

15. Jordan Spieth (+1): Should we draw some broader conclusion as it relates to Spieth’s 15th place finish this week in the Bahamas? History says no, but also Spieth’s history says no. He finished last at this tournament this time a year ago and went on to have a solid 2022 that included a victory and six top 10s. A bad week for him at the Hero, but it doesn’t change my (always?) bullish outlook for him over the next few months. Grade: D

Tiger Woods (N/A): Big Cat unfortunately did not play in a week in which he was slated to, but it was still awesome to see him cruising around the course, jumping in the booth with Dan Hicks and Paul Azinger to offer commentary and staring down players trying as they tried to somehow hit good shots in front of the best to ever do it. If that’s all we get from Tiger going forward, I’m still going to be a big fan of that dynamic (and perhaps even more so than if he was playing). Grade: A

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The conditions were ripe for the picking at Albany in the third round of the 2022 Hero World Challenge. With players jockeying for position for much of the day, it was the overnight leader Viktor Hovland who ultimately made the biggest of moves. Carding 10 birdies against two bogeys, the world No. 12 enjoyed the round of the tournament, signing for an 8-under 64 to sit at 13 under and extend his lead to three strokes.

“It was great, I just kept making birdies,” said Hovland. “It was weird. Midway through the round I made a lot and it didn’t really feel like I had made that many. I kind of just kept playing golf and kept making putts. I stood on the 18th hole 9 under par. That was pretty sweet.”

Hovland was the beneficiary of some luck as well; players played the ball down for the first time all week. With Cameron Young, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and many more experiencing noticeable mud on their golf balls throughout their rounds, Hovland was able to avoid such fate.

The result for Hovland is a three-stroke lead as he attempts to successfully defend his crown from a year ago. Proving to be capable in this setting, the 25-year-old has already gone back-to-back on the PGA Tour — the 2020 and 2021 World Wide Technology Championship — and looks prime to do so once again.

The leader

1. Viktor Hovland (-13)

Entering the third round with a one-stroke lead, Hovland saw himself drift as many as two strokes behind during his front nine. Riding six back-nine birdies to the round of the tournament, he is now in an enviable spot three clear of the field. Crediting his putting and the calm conditions for the strong play, if the wind continues to lie down on Sunday, another low round could be in store.

“I kind of putted terrible the first two days, but I attribute that a lot to the wind,” said Hovland. “My strengths are really feeling the slope with the feet and when it starts blowing 30 mph, it’s hard to feel balanced enough to feel some of the nuances. Then as well, you have to play with the wind, so it was a lot easier today when it wasn’t as windy and I started everything on line and just felt like I was going to make everything.”

Other contenders

2. Scottie Scheffler (-10)

T3. Justin Thomas, Cameron Young (-8)

T5. Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele (-7)

7. Jon Rahm (-4)

8. Sepp Straka (-3)

T9. Sam Burns, Tony Finau (-2)

Morikawa entered the final round a year ago with a six-stroke advantage only to implode and be tracked down by Hovland. One year later, perhaps the two-time major champion can return the favor as he will begin Sunday six off the pace set by the Norwegian. While a victory won’t mean an ascension to world No. 1 like it would have last year, it would mark his first trip to the winner’s circle in more than a year.

“Just go low,” Morikawa said of his game plan for the final round. “I’ve got to make birdies and if I just kind of get things rolling like I did at the beginning of that kind of back nine, hopefully we can just put together 18 of those and post a low number. That’s all I can do really tomorrow. Can’t control those guys.”

Tiger steals show from broadcast booth

The 15-time major champion may not be competing this week, but that doesn’t mean Tiger Woods is out of the public eye. Joining the television broadcast on Saturday, Woods spoke on his motivational level to win again, his son Charlie and even revisited the emotional 150th Open at St. Andrews.

“It all of a sudden just started hitting me that I might not be back here again as a competitor and I started to kind of tear up a little bit,” Woods said of his memorable walk up the 18th hole at the Old Course. “I said, ‘Would you just suck it up and make a birdie here?'”

2022 Hero World Challenge updated odds and picks

Odds via Caesars Sportsbook

• Viktor Hovland: 4/6
• Scottie Scheffler: 14/5
• Justin Thomas: 11-1
• Cameron Young: 16-1
• Xander Schauffele: 20-1
• Collin Morikawa: 28-1

Three strokes is not insurmountable and Hovland is well-aware of this having come back from six in 2021. The dynamic between he and Scheffler in the final pair should be interesting as they were in a similar position at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which ultimately went the way of the Texan. I think it will come down to just them two as it did last year, and the result will be the same with Hovland raising the trophy. 

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Albany is biting back as the highest 36-hole lead in tournament history was turned in at the halfway point of the 2022 Hero World Challenge. While the seven previous editions of this tournament held in The Bahamas featured birdies in bunches and halfway leads in the double-digits under par range, this year is a stark contrast. Yet despite this change in the scoring environment, it is Viktor Hovland, the man who finished atop the leaderboard a year ago, who is in the same position after 36 holes.

Signing for a 2-under 70 on Friday, the Norwegian stands at 5 under as he was able to separate himself ever so slightly from a stacked leaderboard. With Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young trailing Hovland by a single stroke, the 25-year-old admitted he expected scores to be better in spite of the conditions. 

“It was tough,” said Hovland. “We are kind of grinding over every 3 or-4-four footer out there, and they certainly don’t feel like gimmes. This wind just makes everything just a little bit harder, even those basic chip shots, they’re not so basic anymore. I still would have expected the scores to be a little bit lower.”

With the wind expecting to persist, world-class ball strikers should only continue to gravitate to the top of the leaderboard. PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, former world No. 1 Jon Rahm and the red-hot Tony Finau are right behind the initial chasing pack in what is setting up to be a memorable Hero World Challenge to wrap up 2022.

The leader

1. Viktor Hovland (-5)

There have been only three eagles through the first two rounds, and two of them belong to Hovland. Nearly acing the par-4 14th on Thursday, Hovland holed out on the par-5 6th on Friday for his second of the week. With a clear comfort level in the wind and on coastal golf courses, it is no surprise see his name occupying the top spot on the leaderboard, even if he was his biggest critic after his second round.

“I put myself in the fairway a lot, but it’s kind of strange, like I knew it was windy and I feel like I missed so many putts. And I still don’t feel like I’m hitting it very good, like I’m not comfortable over the ball, but the ball’s going straight and I’m giving myself looks,” said Hovland. “It just doesn’t feel that great, and I’m missing a lot of putts, and somehow we ended up at 2 under today, so yeah, happy with that.”

Other contenders

T3. Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Collin Morikawa (-4)

6. Tom Kim (-3)

7. Justin Thomas (-2)

T8. Billy Horschel, Sepp Straka (-1)

T10. Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm, Tony Finau (E) 

Not all motivations are the same this week as some spend quality vacation time with their families while others put on a serious face. Put world No. 2 Scheffler in the latter category as the Texan has his eyes on the prize amid his second appearance in the Hero World Challenge. Standing only one stroke back, a win would put Scheffler back atop the world of golf — albeit only temporarily as Rory McIlroy will finish 2022 as world No. 1 no matter what.

“I’m definitely not showing up to finish 20th or whatever it is. I’ve been practicing. I like to practice,” said Scheffler. “I took a nice break before we went to South Carolina. I was pretty worn out after the FedExCup, and then the Presidents Cup, so there was a period there for a good five, six weeks where I wasn’t practicing too much. I still go out and play for fun and stuff, but not too much heavy practice. Last probably month or two I’ve been getting after it fairly decent.”

A tale of two nines for Tony Finau

At first glance, it was a ho-hum round of even-par 72 for Finau. However, upon closer inspection, the contrast between his front nine and back nine couldn’t be more different. Carding five bogeys on his outward half, the four-time PGA Tour winner turned in 4-over 40. 

Drifting outside the top 15 of this 20-man field, Finau found his stride coming home. With four birdies against zero dropped shots over his final nine holes, Finau clawed his way back to even par for the tournament and in with a slight chance over the weekend.

2022 Hero World Challenge updated odds and picks

Odds via Caesars Sportsbook

• Viktor Hovland: 4-1
• Scottie Scheffler: 4-1
• Xander Schauffele: 4-1
• Collin Morikawa: 7-1
• Cameron Young: 7-1
• Tom Kim: 11-1
• Justin Thomas: 14-1
• Jon Rahm: 18-1
• Tony Finau: 28-1

It is not often there are three favorites heading into the weekend of a golf tournament. While Hovland holds the slight edge, he is matched on the odds board by Scheffler and Schauffele. With still so much golf to be played and the conditions expecting to continue, I don’t mind taking a shot at a couple players in the chasing pack. Justin Thomas at 14-1 is interesting given his ability to play in the wind, and the same logic goes for Tony Finau at 28-1.

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The first round of a sneaky good Mayakoba event is in the books, and while the top of the leaderboard doesn’t jump off the page, the field’s strength sits just beyond the leaders.

Will Gordon and Russell Henley are Nos. 1-2 at the top of this board after firing 62 and 63 respectively in Round 1, but the heavyweights are a few strokes back and looking to roll to the top on Friday and beyond. Let’s take a look at how Thursday played out at Mayakoba.

The leader

1. Will Gordon (-9): Gordon made eight birdies and an eagle en route to his first-round lead. The former Vanderbilt golfer had a strong year on the Korn Ferry Tour last season, accumulating six top 10s (including a win) and finishing sixth on the KFT points list. His best finish on the PGA Tour, however, is a T3 at the 2020 Travelers Championship. He said after his 62 that he’s eschewing what he tried to do in the past by tempering his expectations.

“I think that’s what I’ve tried to do in the past, but honestly I’m just going to try to enjoy the moment and continue just to move forward,” Gordon said. “I don’t know what the rest of the week holds, nothing’s promised and nothing’s given, so I’ve just got to continue to try to go out and earn it.”

Gordon’s season has gotten off to a really nice start as he’s made the cut at each of his first four events of the year. It was fascinating to hear him discuss what he’s learned and how he’s grown mentally because of the success of those he’s competed with on the KFT.

“There’s a lot of guys kind of my age and younger that are having a lot of success out here and guys that have been out here and had some major success that I grew up playing with,” Gordon said. “So … it does kind of take the fear away in a sense because you know you can do it, but you’ve still got to go out and do it and earn it. So it’s been good to see the KFT class play well this fall and I’ve gotten to see a bunch of those guys, so it’s been a cool transition this fall.”

Other contenders

2. Russell Henley (-8)

T3. Scott Piercy, Francesco Molinari, Sam Ryder, Harris English (-7)

T7. David Lingmerth, Martin Laird, Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland (-6)

The big dogs reside there at the T7 spot with Hovland going for his third consecutive victory at this tournament and Scheffler aiming for his fifth PGA Tour win in 2022. They played together on Thursday and shot a best ball 60.

“For the most part you’re doing your own thing, but it’s nice when you’re on the golf course and you can see other players hitting really good shots,” Scheffler said. “I think that’s good kind of momentum for the group, when somebody starts playing well, the other guys can kind of feed off of it sometimes.”

Hovland’s last nine rounds at Mayakoba look like this: 67-69-63-65-67-65-62-67-65. That makes for a 65.6 average over the last three seasons, which is absolutely ridiculous. Still, Hovland says he can (and should) play better than he did on Thursday.

“I think the last two years I’ve started 4 and 5 under (He was 4 under in the first round of both wins), so even improved on that,” Hovland said. “Obviously I made a couple putts and holed out from the bunker. Did a lot of good stuff today, but at the same time I felt like I hit some really bad shots, too. So I feel like there’s still opportunities to improve.”

Where’s Morikawa?

I’m not going to get concerned about Collin Morikawa (or any top 10 player in the world) at the start of November of any year. However, he shot 71 on Thursday and is currently T90. If he finishes outside the top 25 (which looks like a probability right now), that would mark three straight events to start his season in which he hasn’t notched a top 25 appearance. It’s something that’s worth monitoring.

2022 Mayakoba odds, picks

• Scottie Scheffler: 6-1
• Viktor Hovland: 13/2
• Russell Henley: 9-1
• Will Gordon: 14-1
• Harris English: 18-1
• Maverick McNealy: 18-1
• Tom Hoge: 22-1
• Francesco Molinari: 22-1

It’s a pretty interesting board right now. Scheffler is a bit too short for my taste, although I do kind of love Hovland at 13/2. Hoge at 22-1 is speaking my language. I’ve been riding the Hoge train for weeks now, and he can’t stop shooting scores in the mid 60s. He’s one of the best iron players in the world that nobody knows about. The value here is probably with Tony Finau — who was my pre-tournament pick — at 35-1. He’s 3 under and just four back of third place. That’s nothing for a scorer like Big Tone at a place like Mayakoba, and I’m  believing that he shook any rust he had off in Round 1.

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