Scottie Scheffler’s quest for a third consecutive win came to an end at the Hero World Challenge, with Tiger Woods playfully commenting on one of his shots during Sunday’s round.
Scheffler, currently the world’s top-ranked golfer, tied for fourth place as Hideki Matsuyama clinched the title in a competition featuring 20 of the PGA Tour’s brightest stars. However, one particular moment from Scheffler’s performance stood out.
After teeing off on the 11th hole, Scheffler made the risky decision to use his driver from the fairway, despite being 291 yards away from the hole and having a chunk of mud on his ball. The shot veered left into a small bush, resulting in a bogey for Scheffler.
Woods, who was part of the broadcast team, had some thoughts about Scheffler’s choice of club. “He’s the number one player in the world, he can do whatever he wants,” Woods quipped with a smirk.
Woods, who underwent lumbar disk replacement surgery in October, expressed his delight at being able to reconnect with his fellow golfers. “I’ve been out for so long so it’s nice to catch up with these guys,” said the Hero World Challenge host and 15-time major champion.
Despite the outcome in the Bahamas, Scheffler’s impressive 2025 season remains undiminished. After winning both the PGA Championship and Open Championship, he’s setting his sights on completing the career grand slam and adding more major titles to his record in 2026.
“I would say this feels more to me like the start of the year than the end of the year,” Scheffler commented after the final round.
“You know, I took a pretty good break after the Ryder Cup. It had been another long season, and with the season for me starting a couple weeks later this year with no Maui, I pushed it a little bit further up to this event as well, so I got a good break.
“It’s nice to come down here, kind of gauge where I’m at.
“Like I said, very optimistic, did a lot of good things.
“I definitely felt like some of the stuff I’ve been working on the last few weeks I saw some progress here, and the stuff I was focused on in the offseason, definitely saw some progress here as well. Good place to be.”
