Welcome to the strangest week of the professional golf schedule

The 2025 PGA Tour season just ended. This also applied to the 2025 season of the DP World Tour. So how is there a PGA Tour event this week – and two DP World Tour events? Why are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland each headlining? different events? And what does it mean, for example: the big picture?

Welcome to the strangest week of the professional golf schedule.

(I think there’s enough competition.)

I’m writing to you from the Bahamas, where I bravely ventured to spend a few days beating the Hero World Challenge and exploring local tiki bars. But you could say I should have flown the other way instead. Let’s take a quick look at this week’s three events – and what makes each one intriguing.

1. Tiger’s Tournament (ft. Scottie Scheffler)

The Hero World Challenge is Tiger Woods’ tournament; He has served as an enthusiastic host for a quarter of a century, and every year top professionals flock to join him and try (unsuccessfully, for some of those years) to beat him too. Woods isn’t playing, but this year’s event features another strong field, headlined by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and supported by Ryder Cuppers like JJ Spaun, Bob MacIntyre, Cameron Young, Sam Burns and Justin Rose – you get the idea.

There’s plenty of reason to pay attention to the hero, especially if your NFL team is already past playoff contention. The action really kicked off Tuesday morning when Woods held a press conference and took questions from the on-site media, addressing (and gently sidestepping) hot topics like his potential run on the PGA Tour Champions, his work on the Tour’s Future Competitions Committee, his impending 50th birthday and more.

On On the road, it will be fun to see if Scottie Scheffler can three-peat in Albany, if Keegan Bradley can continue his preseason superiority, if Spaun can cap off a dream season, and how Jordan Spieth looks in his first start in nearly four months.

Still, it’s fair to describe this as a slightly lower wattage from the Hero than we’re used to, considering Scheffler is the only top-five talent present. That’s partly a result of natural attrition at the top of the game, but it’s also something else.

So who’s missing?

The big names are not Despite having played it here in recent years, this includes LIV pros (think Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton), PGA Tour pros taking a break (think Tommy Fleetwood, back surgery. But there are also notable pros playing elsewhere, such as Rory McIlroy, Joaquin Niemann and Scott in Australia, as well as Viktor Hovland and Zalatoris in South Africa.

Speaking of which…

2. Africa’s Major (ft. Viktor Hovland)

In recent years we have seen professionals such as Max Homa and Justin Thomas head to South Africa; You can guess the cost structure of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, but they seem to get a few top professionals every year.

This week that includes Viktor Hovland, who enters as tournament favorite and whose quest for global dominance continues after a stop in India in October.

South Africa has been a golf hub for generations and the birthplace of great champions, from Gary Player and Bobby Locke to Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen and many more. There is a reason why LIV has provided and will organize support for its South African contingent first event there next year – this feels like a place with untapped potential.

So while this week’s event features some of the DP World Tour’s top talent (such as Marco Penge, Thorbjorn Olesen, Kristoffer Reitan) and some of South Africa’s current best (Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Garrick Higgo, Thriston Lawrence, Christo Lamprecht) and some strong Tour players (Hovland, Zalatoris, Nick Taylor) plus LIV pros (Tom McKibbin, Laurie Canter, Aldrich Potgieter) It’s easy to wonder: if it was only on the calendar, then what? That could look like.

Instead, it is a jointly sanctioned event between the Sunshine Tour and the DP World Tour, and competes directly with…

3. Australian Open (ft. Rory McIlroy)

This is a big one because it is located in Royal Melbourne, one of the best golf courses in the world and a great watch. It’s a big one because it’s the return of the original format of the Aussie Open. It’s a big one because for the first time a Masters invitation is on the line. And it’s a big one because Rory McIlroy is in town, the reigning Masters champion making his return Down Under for the first time in a decade.

The Aussie contingent is also in full force, from PGA Tour players Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and Cam Davis to LIV boys Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert. Other top LIV pros are here too, chasing the Masters invite: Niemann, David Puig, Carlos Ortiz, Abraham Ancer and more. Other PGA Tour players have also made the journey, from Si Woo Kim to Matt McCarty to Charley Hoffman.

But the multiplier effect of McIlroy coming to town is undeniable. Front office sports his world travels in detail; this week will be his 22nd start in nine different countries. And Aussie Open tournament director Antonia Beggs said interest from fans and sponsors alike is huge as they expect 100,000 fans in the coming week.

“Everything from last year has probably multiplied five to 10 times,” Beggs said FOS.

This is also a DP World Tour event, co-sanctioned by the Australasian Tour; While the PGA Tour no longer has a full schedule, the DPWT still has a handful of events in 2026 before the 2026 even starts.

The worldwide memory of Golf

What does this all mean? Above all, it reminds us that there are more competing interests globally than ever for the time and talents of these guys. Sure, we’re in a PGA Tour offseason hiatus, but there’s more of everything else than ever. There are other ways to compete (and make money) outside the confines of 72-hole stroke play: Xander Schauffele played last week’s Skins Game, Shane Lowry is playing the Optum Golf Channel Games in a few weeks, Jon Rahm is filming some kind of Krispy Kreme Challenge YouTube video. Would more professionals play the Hero if the second season of TGL wasn’t just around the corner?

All of this comes in the context of Harris English’s comments last week about the potential for a smaller 20-event PGA Tour schedule. New Tour CEO Brian Rolapp addressed these comments and confirmed that this is something they are taking into account as they avoid the NFL schedule. But it’s also a reminder that even outside the confines of a busy PGA Tour schedule, players will continue to add events.

A shorter schedule would have one potential benefit: It could make golf’s non-PGA Tour schedule make a little more sense. Australia’s biggest event shouldn’t be taking place the same week as South Africa’s biggest event, especially when Tiger Woods’ exclusive event is also taking place that same week.

But the safer bet in the short term is that things will only get more complex. From changing schedules to additional golf-related events to LIV golfers and DPWT fines, they continue to build the plane as they fly it.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the golf. There should be something from every time zone.

Pretty good for the low season.

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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