Who is leading the 2024 Hero World Challenge after day 1? Leaderboard explored
The first round of the 2024 Hero World Challenge was played on Thursday (Dec. 5) at the Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. The day ended with Cameron Young in the lead and several tournament debutants with good performances.
Young leads the Hero World Challenge at 8-under. Six players are three shots or less behind him, including defending champion Scottie Scheffler.
2024 Hero World Challenge Day 1 Leaderboard
Below is the Hero World Challenge leaderboard after the first round:
- 1 Cameron Young -8
- 2 Justin Thomas -6
- T3 Akshay Bhatia -5
- T3 Ludvig Åberg -5
- T3 Patrick Cantlay -5
- T3 Scottie Scheffler -5
- T3 Sahith Theegala -5
- T8 Robert MacIntyre -4
- T8 Nick Dunlap -4
- T8 Sam Burns -4
- T8 Keegan Bradley -4
- T12 Russell Henley -3
- T12 Sepp Straka -3
- T12 Sungjae Im -3
- 15 Brian Harman -2
- 16 Aaron Rai -1
- 17 Wyndham Clark +1
- T18 Matthieu Pavon +2
- T18 Tom Kim +2
- 20 Jason Day +3
Cameron Young's performance in the first round of the Hero World Challenge included eight birdies and no bogeys. This is Young's third appearance in the event, with his previous best result being a tie for third on his debut in 2022.
Following his first-round performance, Young had this to say (via Golfweek):
"Just kind of got off to a nice start with the putter. There’s a bunch of par 5s and a couple drivable holes, so I feel that if you’re on top of it, especially off the tee, you can make a bunch of birdies."
Justin Thomas finished the first round of the Hero World Challenge two shots behind Young. Thomas started the round with a bogey and no birdies through 6, but improved from there, making seven birdies and no bogeys.
"Just felt like I was maybe just trying a little too hard to get it going," Thomas said to Golfweek. “Yeah, just it was nice to make that birdie on 7 and had good chances there on 8 and 9, but then once 10, 11 happened I felt like I got in a nice rhythm there on the back nine."
Hero World Challenge debutants Ludvig Aberg, Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala are three of the five players tied for third. Aberg and Theegala had six birdies and one bogey, while Bhatia had seven birdies and two bogeys.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler also finished the round with six birdies and one bogey. The World No. 1 came to Albany with a new approach to making putts, a significant change given his success last season.
Scheffler told the PGA Tour News Service that he will alternate between his old grip and the new one for the time being. He will use the old one for longer putts and the new one for shorter ones.