You might have noticed that the 2019 Hero World Challenge started on Wednesday from Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. And you might be wondering if, suddenly, this Challenge event sanctioned by the PGA Tour has become a 90-hole, Wednesday-to-Sunday affair.
It has not.
The 2019 Hero World Challenge is starting on Wednesday, with the winner of the 18-man event crowned on Saturday afternoon. The reason for the change is the 2019 Presidents Cup.
Tiger Woods is, of course, host of the Hero World Challenge, so he's competing in the event which features only players from the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He's also the playing captain of the American Presidents Cup team, and he'll be competing alongside a number of players in the field at Albany.
In fact, more than half of the field features American players on the 12-man Presidents Cup roster. Eleven of the 12 players on the American side, including Woods, are competing. The only American player not competing is Dustin Johnson, who withdrew from the tournament as a precaution to give extra healing time to his surgically repaired knee.
Woods has made pairings in the first day of the event that are suggestive of the pairings he might deploy in Australia. They're on purpose. However, after the first round, players are re-paired based on their standing in the tournament.
On Saturday, the event will conclude, and the American team will then travel to Australia to prepare for the Presidents Cup. The Americans have only lost the Presidents Cup once, back in 1998 at this same classic Alister Mackenzie-designed venue.
Woods explained after the 2018 event there was a llot ahead of the Saturday flight out.
"There are so many things that are up in the air," Woods said last year. "I know that we're trying to make sure that one of the logistical things I'm trying to figure out is try to get where there's like eight to 10 guys plus four, five more, you're getting close to 50 people from the Bahamas to Australia in time for a practice round, opening ceremonies and the event. We have our work ahead of us trying to logistically try to make this all happen."
