Hero World Challenge 2022 standings, points: Viktor Hovland defends title for seventh career win

There was a brief moment in the final round of the World of Heroes 2022 Challenge when Viktor Hovland topped the leaderboard. When competitor Scottie Scheffler hit an eagle hole on the par-5 sixth hole, the event’s defending champion was forced to answer, and the answer was that he did.

Converting his own chance from 15 feet, Hovland scored the second birdie of his opening six holes to take the lead by just one stroke. Hitting another birdie on the next hole and rounding his inner nine with a parsing pair, Hovland brought his lead ball up to five.

While his closest pursuer will shift over the course of nine seasons two between Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young, who are taking the lead in the final pair, Hovland stands firm. A few tense moments — specifically at the 72nd hole — eventually resulted in a 9-36 reverse, but enough for the 25-year-old to finish the week under 16 and successfully defend his Hero World Challenge crown from a year ago.

“It was stressful,” Hovland said trying to finish a tournament. “I was five points ahead after the first leg and you’ve never felt so comfortable. I didn’t play very well at nine defenders but it was good enough.”

With only Tiger Woods winning the Hero World Challenge championship in recent years, maybe it’s time to remove Hovland from this generation’s best young players list and put him on the list of outstanding players. in the world debate. 3rd in the world before, he’s now a seven-time worldwide winner — more than Scheffler, Will Zalatoris, Collin Morikawa and Sam Burns. While his wins lack the lore of some of his partners, the numbers are still impressive.

Two-time champion in the Bahamas, twice in Mayakoba, twice in Europe and once in Puerto Rico, it’s a kid from Norway who has established himself as king of the tropics. You will see how powerful a striker can be on the ball, the consistent improvements around the green area combined with the implementation of the aim on the green area make the future prospects of the current world No. should be more attractive.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Hovland said of how the win will help his 2023 season. “The short career I have, I tend to play very well at the end of the year and at the beginning of the year. The next goal is to try to keep playing like this throughout the year. It’s nice to end the year with a win. win and kind of sit on the couch for a few weeks with a smile on your face.”

While his demeanor on the golf course and his ever-present wide smile may not match the ferocity of his musical choices, perhaps it will soon. A powerful punch after his winning putt gave us a glimpse of this and showed what it means to end up on the 20-man court in The Bahamas. While not a PGA Tour or DP World Tour event, it is a tournament that brings together the best players in the world and is a powerful reminder that Hovland is certainly among them. Grade: A+

Here are the scores for the rest of the standings at Hero World Challenge 2022

2. Scottie Scheffler (-14): What a nice end to what truly was one of the great years in modern PGA Tour history. While this doesn’t count toward his total of 13 PGA Tour heads in 2022, it’s still emblematic of the 12 months Scheffler has put together. While he’s not technically the best player in the world at this point, you could (and I probably would) argue that if you look at the past year of golf, No one on this planet is better than him. Grade A

6. Collin Morikawa (-9): Morikawa doesn’t really need a good week, but a year after he lost his chance to win world No. 1, it’s good to see him grow even as he’s finished a bit short of the title. its first brand. 2022. A confidence-boosting event after a year of ups and downs will be helpful for Morikawa, who will enter 2023 with a slight undervaluation. However, not much has changed with him. Statistically, he didn’t fall off the cliff, nor was he in a bad condition. If anything, public opinion has gone too far after he won two of his first eight majors and now it’s gone too far in the other direction. This is a good opportunity to buy low someone who I believe is one of the eight best players in the world. Grade A-

T8. Jon Rahm (-5): It was not the tournament I expected from Rahm as he entered this week after being beaten by four players in his last four outings worldwide. Was it a bad week? I don’t know about that. Rahm still draws or beats 12 of the world’s top 20 players this week and heads into 2023 with perhaps the highest record of anyone not named “McIlroy”. Class B-

15. Jordan Spieth (+1): Should we draw some broader conclusions as it relates to Spieth’s 15th place this week in the Bahamas? History says nobut also by Spieth history says no. He finished last at this tournament at this point a year ago and continues to have a solid 2022 that includes one win and six top 10 finishes. A bad week for him at Hero , but it doesn’t change my bullish (always?) outlook for him over the next few months. Grade: EASY

Tiger Forest (N/A): Unfortunately, Big Cat didn’t compete in the week that he was scheduled to compete, but it was still great to see him circling the field, jumping into the booth with Dan Hicks and Paul Azinger to give out commentary and staring at players trying as they try to somehow land good shots against the best person to ever do it. If that’s all we get from Tiger going forward, I’m still going to be a huge fan of that dynamic (and perhaps even more so when he’s in the game). Grade A