Hero World Challenge Preview

Zach Johnson defends the Hero World Challenge

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 2 December 2014

The Hero World Challenge takes place this week at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Florida. 18 top players will tee it up and Zach Johnson is the defending champion.

Lowdown: The Hero World Challenge takes place this week at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Florida. 18 top players will tee it up and Zach Johnson is the defending champion.

This event is hosted by Tiger Woods and the former World Number 1 will make a start this week for the first time since he missed the cut at the USPGA Championship in August.

Everyone will be keeping an eye on Tiger this week to see if there are any noticeable changes to his swing following his appointment of Chris Como as a swing “consultant.”

But there’s also an impressive line-up of stars on the start sheet in this limited field event. In fact, 12 of the top-20 players on the Official World Golf Ranking will tee it up. World Number 2 Henrik Stenson plays, so too Bubba Watson, Justin Rose and Graeme McDowell. The Northern Irishman has twice been a winner of this event.

First contested in 1998, the inaugural event was won by Tom Lehman. Since then Tiger Woods has won the title five times with Davis Love III, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Vijay Singh and Graeme McDowell the other champions. Last year Zach Johnson defeated Tiger Woods in a playoff for the title.

There’s a new venue for this year’s tournament – Tiger’s old home club of Isleworth in Florida. There’s also a new sponsor in the shape of Hero MotoCorp. The weather forecast for this week looks settled with warm temperatures and sunshine.

Venue: Isleworth Golf & Country Club, Windermere, Florida Date: Dec 4-7 Course stats: par 72, 7,354 yards Purse: $3,500,000 Winner: $1,000,000 Defending Champion: Zach Johnson (-13)

TV Coverage:

Thursday 4 – Sky Sports 4 from 7pm Friday 5 – Sky Sports 4 from 7pm Saturday 6 – Sky Sports 4 from 5pm Sunday 7 – Sky Sports 4 from 5pm

Player Watch: Stenson, Rose and Bubba Watson will start as favourites, but who might fly in under the radar to take the title.

Hideki Matsuyama – The talented Japanese player comes into this event on the back of a victory in the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan. He’ll be full of confidence and will surely be a factor this week.

Billy Horschel – He finished the 2014 season at a sprint, winning twice and claiming the FedEx Cup title. He’s started the 2015 season slowly with poor performances in Malaysia and China. But he’s now back on home soil and will be looking to get back on the right track.

Chris Kirk – Second in the FedEx Cup for 2014, Kirk has had two solid finishes so far on the 2015 circuit – he was tied fourth at the McGladrey Classic and tied 14th in the HSBC Champions.

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Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly.

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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