Gary Woodland • G • GOLF

Gary Woodland and Patrick Reed tied for first after one round at Hero World Challenge

After 18 holes of play, we have a two-way tie for the lead down in the Bahamas. Gary Woodland ($6,700) and Patrick Reed ($6,900) both opened with 66s on Wednesday to kick things off. Woodland carded a couple of bogeys on the front but went bogey-free on the back nine. He had eight birdies to go along with those bogeys. Reed started off slow, with a 34 on the front before catching fire down the stretch. He went four-under from the 13th thru the 18th to earn his spot at the top of the leaderboard.

Chez Reavie • G • GOLF

Chez Reavie chasing leaders as top value in the Bahamas

Chez Reavie ($6,000) is the closest chaser. He sits two strokes back after his first-round 68. There's a four-way tie behind him for fourth place at 3-under. The top twelve golfers in this 18 man field are at even-par or better. They all have a reasonable shot of making up some ground. Tony Finau ($6,500), on the other hand, opened with a 79 and would be hard-pressed to get back into the tournament.

Hero World Challenge: Course Preview

This is the fifth time the Albany Course (Bahamas) will have been used for the Hero World Challenge. The Ernie Els design sets up as a very exposed, links-styled venue playing as Par 72 around 7,400 yards. There’s some serious bunkering on the course too and Els himself described it as a course which mimics some of the classic links venues from Scotland. The course is also quite dissimilar from most PGA tour venues in that it is actually a par 72 but has five par 5s and five par 3s, giving the good Par 5 scorers an advantage. As of writing the weather looks great for the week with gusts staying below 10 mph the first two days and then picking up on Sunday. A winning score of between 18-20 under par — similar to the last two seasons — is a probably a good target.