Who has won the most Hero World Challenge titles? Past winners explored
The Hero World Challenge tee-off is still more than a month away, but it is already generating a lot of buzz in the golfing world. This Tuesday, the field for the 2023 edition was unveiled with one notable detail: there is still one name to be announced. The possibility that the position will be filled by the leading winner of the tournament has left no one indifferent.
The host of the Hero World Challenge himself, Tiger Woods, is the player who has won the tournament the most times with five victories. Woods won in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011.
It is worth noting that of the 23 editions of the Hero World Challenge to date, Tiger Woods has missed four (2008, 2009, 2021, and 2022) due to health and other personal issues.
Other multi-time winners of the Hero World Challenge include Davis Love III (2), Graeme McDowell (2) and Viktor Hovland (2). The Norwegian achieved the feat of winning two editions in a row (2021 and 2022), tying Tiger Woods (2006 and 2007).
The list of winners is completed by the great names of world golf, such as Tom Lehman, Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm and Henrik Stenson.
So far, three former champions will be trying to repeat their triumph in the 2023 edition: defending champion Hovland, as well as Spieth and Fowler. It remains to be seen if this list will be expanded when the missing competitor is announced.
Hero World Challenge details explored
The tournament is promoted by Tiger Woods as a major fundraiser for his TGR Foundation. As such, it does not award points toward the FedEx Cup, nor does the prize money go toward the players' official earnings list. The event does, however, count toward the world rankings.
The idea is to bring as many of the world's best players as possible to the Albany Country Club in the Bahamas. At the same time, the idea is to create a highly competitive field. In the beginning, only 16 players were invited, and now the list is 20.
World number one Scottie Scheffler and seven other members of the top 10 answered the call for the 2023 edition: Viktor Hovland (4th), Patrick Cantlay (5th), Xander Schauffele (6th), Matt Fitzpatrick (7th), Max Homa (8th), Brian Harman (9th) and Wyndham Clark (10th).
In addition, 5 other major winners were confirmed: Keegan Bradley (16th), Collin Morikawa (20th), Jordan Spieth (13th), Jason Day (23rd) and Justin Thomas (25th).
Completing the field are five other members of the top 25 and one of the top 30 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). They are Cameron Young (15th), Sam Burns (19th), Sepp Straka (21st), Tony Finau (22nd), Rickie Fowler (24th) and Will Zalatoris (29th).