The 2025 PGA Tour season just ended. So did the 2025 season of the DP World Tour. So how does a PGA Tour event this week – and two DP World Tour events? Why Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland are each a starter different events? And what does, like, big picture mean?
Welcome to the strangest week of the pro golf schedule.
(I think. There’s a lot of competition.)
I’m writing to you from the Bahamas, where I’ve bravely ventured out to spend a few days covering the World Heroes Challenge and scouting out local tiki bars. But you could argue that I should have flown in the other direction instead. Let’s take a quick look at three of this week’s events — and what makes each one intriguing.
1. Tour of the Tigers (ft. Scottie Scheffler)
The World Hero Challenge is Tiger Woods’ tournament; he has served as enthusiastic host for a quarter of a century, and every year the top pros have flocked to join him and try (in vain, for a set of those years) to beat him as well. Woods doesn’t play, but this year’s event boasts another strong field, headlined by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and backed by Ryder Cuppers like JJ Spaun, Bob MacIntyre, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Justin Rose — you get the idea.
There are plenty of reasons to pay attention to Hero, especially if your NFL team is already out of playoff contention. The action really began on Tuesday morning, when Woods held a press conference and took questions from local media, addressing (and gently sidestepping) hot topics such as his possible participation in the PGA Champions Tour, his work on the Tour’s Future Competitions Committee, his upcoming 50th birthday and more.
ACTIvE Of course, it will be fun to see if Scottie Scheffler can win a three-peat in Albany, if Keegan Bradley can continue his silly season lead, if Spaun can put a cap on a dream season, how Jordan Spieth looks in his first start in almost four months.
Still, with Scheffler the only five-time talent present, it’s fair to describe this as a slightly lower-powered Hero game than we’re used to. This is partly a result of natural change at the top of the game – but it’s also something else.
So who’s missing?
The big names that they are not playing despite having made it here in years past include LIV pros (think Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton), PGA Tour pros taking a break (think Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Ludvig Aberg), others whose rankings have external disqualifications (Zadammaxla Scott) and even Woods’ friend Justin Thomas, who is recovering from 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. Major of Africa (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 Nedbank Golf Challenge submission fee structure, but they seem to deter a few top professionals every year.
This week includes Viktor Hovland, who enters as the tournament favorite and whose quest for global dominance continues after a stop in India in October.
South Africa has been a golfing powerhouse for generations, home to great champions from Gary Player and Bobby Locke to Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen and on down. There is a reason why LIV has leaned on its South African contingent and will host it the first event there next year – this feels like a place with untapped potential.
So although this week’s event includes some of the best DP World Tour 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 stalwarts of the NickloryH (Land, Plus, ZackloryH) Tours (Tom McKibbin, Laurie Canter, Aldrich Potgieter) it is easy to wonder, if it stayed only on the calendar, what that it might look like.
Instead, it is a co-sanctioned event between the Sunshine Tour and the DP World Tour, and is competing directly with…
3. Australian Open (ft. Rory McIlroy)
This is great because it’s at Royal Melbourne, one of the best golf courses in the whole world and a great watch. It’s big because it’s the return of the original Aussie Open format. It’s huge because for the first time there’s a Masters invitational on the line. And it’s a big deal 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 full, 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, following what the Masters invite: Niemann, David Puig, Carlos Ortiz, Abraham Ancer and more. Other PGA Tour players have also made the trip, from Si Woo Kim to Matt McCarty to Charley Hoffman.
But there’s no denying the multiplier effect of McIlroy’s arrival in town. Sports Front Office detailed his world travels; this week will mark his 22nd start in nine different countries. And Aussie Open tournament director Antonia Beggs said interest from fans and sponsors is strong as they expect 100,000 fans for the week ahead.
“Everything that was last year has probably multiplied by about 5 or 10 times,” Beggs said FOS.
This is also a DP World Tour event, co-sanctioned with the Australasian Tour; while the PGA Tour has moved away from a closing schedule, the DPWT has a handful of 2026 events before 2026 begins.
Global Memory of Golf
What does it all mean? Mostly it’s a reminder that there’s more competing interest than ever from around the world for these guys’ time and talent. Sure, we’re in a lull in the PGA Tour offseason, but there’s more of everything else than ever. There are other ways to compete (and make money) beyond the confines of the 72-hole stroke play, too: Xander Schauffele played last week’s Skins, Shane Lowry will play the Optum Golf Channel Games in a few weeks, Jon Rahm is filming some sort of Krispy Kreme Challenge YouTube video. Would more pros be playing Hero if TGL Season 2 wasn’t around?
All of this comes in the context of Harris English’s comments last week about the potential for a downsized 20-event PGA Tour schedule. New Tour CEO Brian Rolapp addressed those comments, confirming it’s something they’re considering as they move away from the NFL program. But it’s also a reminder that even outside the confines of a busy PGA Tour schedule players will continue to add events.
A reduced schedule would have one potential benefit: It could allow the non-PGA golf tour schedule to make a little more sense. Australia’s biggest event should not take place in the same week as South Africa’s biggest event, especially when Tiger Woods’ exclusive event is the same week.
But the safest short-term bet is that things will continue to get more complex. From changing schedules to additional golf events to LIV players and DPWT fines, they are continuing 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.
Very good for the off season.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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