Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour betting tips column, featuring tips from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A veteran golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolferand you can read below his picks for the 2025 Hero World Challenge, which kicks off Thursday in the Bahamas. In addition to Kannon’s recommended plays, you’ll also see data from Chirp Golf, a mobile app that offers both free-to-play and daily fantasy golf competitions where you can win money and prizes at every round and tournament.
With the calendar turning to December and winter temperatures approaching, who wouldn’t want to play the Tiger Golf Tournament in the Bahamas? Not a bad showing if you’re one of the twenty lucky players at this week’s event: the Hero World Challenge in Albany.
This is our last column for 2025. Next up is the Sony Open in mid-January as the 2026 PGA Tour season gets underway. Normally we would have set our sights on Kapalua in Maui, but The Sentry has been canceled for 2026 due to the drought in northwest Maui. Interestingly enough, I played the Plantation Course in Kapalua last summer and was warned of dry conditions. In the days leading up to our reservation, we received some of the typical afternoon fog so common in Hawaii, and I barely noticed any drought-like conditions. Fast forward to the end of October and the announcement was made that the PGA Tour event that has kicked off the season since 1999 would not take place in 2026. A real disappointment. Mother Nature has given Maui a lot of trouble in recent years.
On to the Caribbean/Atlantic Ocean, where the Tour has been hanging out for a few weeks. About a month ago, Adam Schenk won the Bermuda Championship and then in the United States, Sami Valimaki won the RSM Classic before the Thanksgiving holiday. Now it’s a quick trip to the Bahamas near the tip of Florida before we take a break for about six weeks.
The Albany Resort is located on New Providence Island in the Bahamas, about 20 minutes from Nassau. The championship golf course has a par 72 that extends to just a tick over 7,300 yards. It was designed by Ernie Els and opened in 2010 and has hosted this event since 2015. Els, two-time winner of the Open Championship, compares this course to an Open-like design. He says the bunkering reminds him of Australian sand belt courses.
Here are the past winners of the Hero World Challenge:
2024 – Scottie Scheffler
2023 – Scottie Scheffler
2022 – Viktor Hovland
2021 – Viktor Hovland
2019 – Henrik Stenson
2018 – Jon Rahm
2017 – Rickie Fowler
2016 – Hideki Matsuyama
2015 – Bubba Watson
The golf course is relatively flat, a links style with sand, water hazards and dunes bordering narrow fairways. The greens are on the small side and the turf is wall to wall Bermudagrass. Looking at the list of past winners, Els’ reference to a British Open-type design makes sense as there is plenty of Open Championship success on that list. Total Driving and Ball Striking stand out to me in terms of skills, and the success of WM Phoenix Open also comes to mind, with several past champions also lifting the trophy here in Albany.
The layout of the golf course is unique with five par 5s, five par 3s and eight par 4s. In addition to Total Driving and Ball Striking, I also looked at Par 5 scores, strokes gained: Approach, strokes gained: putting (Bermudagrass), scrambling and hole proximity from 175 to over 200 yards away.
Regarding correlated courses, we have noted the connection in design to courses in the Open Schedule. I specifically looked at Royal Troon, Royal Liverpool and Royal Portrush. Here at home I was watching TPC Scottsdale where they play the aforementioned WM Phoenix Open, TPC Craig Ranch (Byron Nelson) and TPC Southwind (FedEx St. Jude).
It’s been a solid 2025 here in this column. We’ve had a few near misses and a few wins as well. It started in January with Matsuyama in Kapalua. We also found the winners circle at Torrey Pines for both the Farmers Insurance Open and the Genesis Invitational. We landed correctly on Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin in New Orleans and ended the season with Tommy Fleetwood at the Tour Championship. Recently we had Europe win the Ryder Cup by 1-3 points. We’ve been following Scottie Scheffler properly for the past two years here at the Hero World Challenge. Let’s see if we – and he – can make it a hat-trick.
Scottie Scheffler (+140)
It’s really something to see this price and be the next closest competitor at 12-1. Two years ago I was around 4-1 on Scheffler. Last year it was +225. My feeling is that he really should have less than even money, as crazy as that is to say. Over the last 24 rounds, Scheffler is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in this field for every stat I looked at this week – except for SG: Putting (Bermudagrass), where he is fifth. And by the way, he has won at Royal Portrush, at TPC Craig Ranch and twice at TPC Scottsdale.
Hideki Matsuyama (+1800)
Matsuyama actually comes second to me in everything I’ve handicapped. He’s there with Scheffler in Hole Proximity, at ranges from 175 to over 200 yards, and he’s one of the best scramblers in the world. He won here in 2016, won at TPC Southwind in 2024 and, like Scheffler, also won twice in Phoenix. Matsuyama was 16th at Royal Portrush last summer, 13th at Royal Liverpool in 2023 and 14th at Royal Birkdale in 2017, the latter of which Els specifically referenced when he said Albany reminded him of Open designs.
And finally, thanks to all readers for another great year. Happy holidays and we’ll see you in Waialae in January.
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