It was Tiger Woods’ week even though he never took a single swing. The 15-time major champ hosted the Hero World Challenge and was on hand early in the week to sit down and talk with the assembled media, talking about the state of the PGA Tour, his health and his chances of being the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain.
Aside from Woods, there was a star-studded 20-player field that played for a $5 million purse with the winner taking home $1 million at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. It was Hideki Matsuyama who earned the title in a playoff over Alex Noren to finish the season with bookend victories. Matsuyama won the season-opening Sentry tournament in Hawaii and finished with another in the Bahamas. He also won the Hero World Challenge in 2016.
Sepp Straka was another shot back in third place. J.J. Spaun and Scottie Scheffler tied for fourth place, two back.
It almost looked like Matsuyama was going to run away with the title late but Noren birdied three of the last four holes, including one from 18 feet on the last hole to get into the playoff. Returning to the 18th hole, Matsuyama hit his approach to three feet and won when he converted the short birdie putt.
Here’s the rundown of what each player earned this week.
WIN: Hideki Matsuyama, -22/266, $1 million
P-2: Alex Noren, -22/266, $450,000
3: Sepp Straka, -21/267, $300,000
T-4: J.J. Spaun, -20/268, $237,500
T-4: Scottie Scheffler, -20/268, $237,500
6: Justin Rose, -18/270, $220,000
7: Corey Conners, -17/271, $215,000
T-8: Harris English, -15/275, $207,500
T-8: Wyndham Clark, -15/275, $207,500
10: Cameron Young, -14/274, $200,000
11: Sam Burns, -12/276, $195,000
12: Robert MacIntyre, -11/277, $190,000
13: Keegan Bradley, -10/278, $185,000
14: Akshay Bhatia, -9/279, $180,000
15: Billy Horschel, -7/281, $175,000
16: Brian Harman, -6/282, $170,000
17: Andrew Novak, -4/284, $165,000
18: Aaron Rai, -3/285, $160,000
T-19: Jordan Spieth, E/288, $152,500
T-19: Chris Gotterup, E/288, $152,500
