Thomas poised to prove he’s up to the Challenge

Tiger Woods caused a stir on social media recently when the 15-time Major winner posted a three-second video of him swinging a club for the first time since his car accident, complete with the caption “making progress”.

The prospect of Woods returning to professional golf is a tantalising one but, for this week at least, we will have to make do with a tournament which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation – the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas.

An elite 20-runner field will gather in the Caribbean for this unofficial, invite-only tournament which has taken place every year since 2000 with the exception of the cancelled 2020 edition. The event moved to Albany in 2015, when Bubba Watson powered his way to 26-under to defeat Patrick Reed by three shots.

Birdies will be the name of the game again this week at a course featuring five par-five holes which tends to be tamed by big hitters. Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm and Henrik Stenson have all since won at Albany but only out-of-form Stenson returns to defend his crown as a 55-1 outsider.

At the head of the market, Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa duel for favouritism just as they did at the DP World Tour Championship two weeks ago. McIlroy looked in pole position in Dubai but final-round mistakes, coupled with Morikawa’s brilliance, saw him relinquish a healthy lead down the stretch at the Earth Course.

Ernie Els-designed Albany should suit power-packed McIlroy but, somewhat surprisingly, he makes his course debut this week and, given the frustrations he showed in Dubai, there are grounds for taking him on in the Bahamas.

Morikawa is a tempting option but preference is for Justin Thomas, who has played Albany three times and produced his best performance when fifth in the 2019 tournament, the last time the Hero World Challenge took place.

JT, now working full-time with Phil Mickelson’s former caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay, was third in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba last time out, and has lots of coastal form to his name – including two wins in a similar limitedfield event at the Tournament of Champions in Kapalua, Hawaii.

Thomas is also close friends with Woods – both are based in Jupiter, Florida, and spend a lot of time together – and it’s clear he would love to pay homage to the great man by winning this tournament. He should not lack motivation for Albany success.

It has been a tough year for the 28-year-old but he did enjoy one notable highlight in winning the Players Championship in March, striking the ball wonderfully over the weekend at Sawgrass, and it would be no surprise were he to improve on Bermuda greens the like of which he practices on at the Bear’s Club in Florida.

Bryson DeChambeau would be of interest were it not for his performance in the Match on Friday, where he looked rusty in a 5&3 defeat against Brooks Koepka. Instead, complete a two-pronged Albany attack with Viktor Hovland, who is looking to go back-to-back having won in Mayakoba at the start of the month.

Hovland makes his Hero debut this week but his three PGA Tour victories, one in Puerto Rico and two in Mayakoba, illustrate his ability to handle a coastal test such as this. He ranked 13th in par-five scoring on the PGA Tour last season and can be expected to take full advantage of scorable conditions at Albany this week.