Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest 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 his picks below for the 2025 World Heroes Challenge, which starts Thursday in the Bahamas. Along with Kannon’s recommended shows, you’ll also see data from Chirp Golf, a mobile app featuring free and daily fantasy golf contests where you can win money and prizes with every round and tournament.
With the calendar turning to December and winter temperatures approaching, who wouldn’t want to play on Tiger’s golf tour in the Bahamas? Not a bad gig if you happen to be one of the lucky 20 players in this week’s event – World Challenge of Heroes in Albany.
This is our final column for 2025. Next up is the Sony Open in mid-January as the 2026 PGA Tour season gets under way. Normally, we would have set our sights on Kapalua on Maui, but Sentry has been canceled for 2026 due to drought conditions in northwest Maui. Interestingly, I played the Plantation course at Kapalua last summer and was warned about the dry conditions. We got some of that typical afternoon fog in the days leading up to our reservation that is so often experienced in Hawaii, and I didn’t notice any drought-like conditions. Fast forward to late October and the announcement was made that the PGA Tour event that has kicked off the season since 1999 would not be happening in 2026. A real disaster. Mother Nature has dealt Maui some rough hands in recent years.
Off to the Caribbean/Atlantic Ocean, where the Tour has been underway for several weeks. About a month ago, Adam Schenk won the Bermuda Championship and then Sami Valimaki won the RSM Classic before Thanksgiving. Now it’s a short trip to the Bahamas, the tip of Florida, before we take a six-week vacation.
Albany Resort is located on New Providence Island in the Bahamas about 20 minutes from Nassau. The championship golf course is a par 72 that stretches to just one tick over 7,300 yards. It’s an Ernie Els design that opened in 2010 and has hosted the event since 2015. A two-time Open Championship winner, Els likens this course to an Open-like design. He says the bunkering is reminiscent 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, links style with sand, water hazards and dunes bordered by fairways. The greens are on the smaller side and the turf is wall to wall Bermudagrass. When you look at that list of past winners, Els’ reference to a British Open type design makes sense with a lot of Open Championship success on that list. Total driving and ball striking jump out at me in terms of skill sets, and also the success of the WM Phoenix Open comes to mind with many 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 scoring, strokes gained: approach, strokes gained: putting (bermudagrass), scrambling and proximity with holes from 175 to 200+ yards.
In terms of related courses, we have mentioned the link in design with the Open Wheel courses. Specifically, I looked at Royal Troon, Royal Liverpool and Royal Portrush. Here at home, I watched 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 number of close misses and we’ve also had some wins. It started big in January with Matsuyama in Kapalua. We also found the winner’s circle at Torrey Pines for both the Farmers Insurance Open and the Genesis Invitational. We correctly landed Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin in New Orleans and finished the season with Tommy Fleetwood in the tournament championship. Most recently, we had Europe win the Ryder Cup by 1-3 points. We’ve been on Scottie Scheffler correctly each of the last two years here at the World Hero Challenge. Let’s see if we – and he – can make it a Hat Trick.
Scottie Scheffler (+140)
It’s really something to see at this price and the next closest competitor is in the 12-1 neighborhood. Two years ago, I was in Scheffler around 4-1. Last year it was +225. My feeling is that he really must be on less than even money, as crazy as that means. Over the last 24 rounds, for every stat I looked at this week, Scheffler ranks either No. 1 or No. 2 in this field – except for SG: Putting (Bermudagrass), where he is fifth. And by the way, he’s won at Royal Portrush, at TPC Craig Ranch and twice at TPC Scottsdale.
Hideki Matsuyama (+1800)
Matsuyama basically comes second to me in everything I’m short on. He is right up there with Scheffler in Hole Proximity from 175 to 200+ yards and is one of the best putters in the world. He won here in 2016, won at TPC Southwind in 2024 and, like Scheffler, has also won twice in Phoenix. Matsuyama was 16th last summer at Royal Portrush, 13th at Royal Liverpool in 2023 and 14th at Royal Birkdale in 2017, the latter specifically referenced by the Els Open course when he said Albany reminded him of Open designs.
And finally, thanks to all the readers for another great year. Happy Holidays and see you in Waialae in January.
