It may not be an official event on the PGA Tour, but Scottie Scheffler’s name is officially atop a star-studded leaderboard after the first round of play at the 2025 Hero World Challenge. The world No. 1 looked the part Thursday at Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas as he posted an opening 6-under 66 to share the lead with Wyndham Clark, J.J. Spaun, Sepp Straka and Akshay Bhatia.
Scheffler pushed his total all the way out to 7 under before making a bogey on the par-4 18th — his first dropped shot at Albany GC in 41 holes dating back to last year’s tournament.Â
“I felt pretty good. I think there’s always going to be some rust in there,” Scheffler said. “But I don’t really think about that when I’m out there playing; I’m just trying to shoot a score.”
With a new driver in play, Scheffler was up to his old antics. He delivered a large diet of fairways and greens — hitting 11 out of 13 and 15 out of 18, respectively — taking on risk when he felt it was warranted. For someone as methodical as the two-time defending champion, those spots were few and far between.
“I didn’t see anything off the face that I didn’t feel in my hands, so that’s typically a pretty good thing for me with the driver,” Scheffler said. “When I feel something, when I look up, I want … it to match, so today, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so that’s a pretty good spot to be in.”
Scheffler rolled in just about a 30-foot birdie bomb on his second hole, took care of a couple of par 5s and placed his tee shot just short of the putting surface on the short par-4 7th. Even when he failed to make a birdie on the par-5 9th, he walked off the green and made the turn in 4 under, barely breaking a sweat, it seemed.
Cruise control continued to be put in place despite some left misses creeping into his swing — the same miss which held him back at times in the early portion of this calendar year — and some uncharacteristic chip shots squandering scoring opportunities.Â
“I think the grain has a lot to do with it,” Scheffler said. “The ball has a tendency to sit down in the turf. And a lot of it’s rough here, so you’re below the green, ball’s sitting down. It can be pretty challenging.”
Scheffler sauntered on and pencilled a turkey of birdies onto his scorecard on Nos. 13-15: the first from 11 feet, the second courtesy of a two-putt after driving the putting surface, and the third on the final par 5 on the golf course after reaching the green in two.Â
His lone dropped shot on the last may have dropped Scheffler out of the solo lead, but it has not dropped him out of the minds of the other 19 players in this tournament who all know they will have to go through him if they are to prove victorious.
New bagman, man
It’s that time of the year when guys are debuting new clubs and testing out new swing feels, but for Bhatia, it is a time to work with his new caddie. Joe Greiner, of course, was alongside Max Homa for multiple years and experienced a short stint with Collin Morikawa this past season.
With both of his previous players hailing from California, Greiner added another California kid in Bhatia to his list of bosses. Unlike Homa and Morikawa, however, Bhatia stands on the other side of the golf ball — the same spot where Greiner does when he plays — which he believes will prove beneficial when visualising and discussing golf shots with his new caddie.
“It’s been really cool. We grew up in the same town in California,” Bhatia said. “Obviously, it’s really cool to have a lefty on my bag …I’ve really been eager to work with him. Finally, it just worked out timing-wise. So, it’s been really cool this week just to kind of understand each other, and yeah, it’s been fun.
“I think certain golf courses, certain shots, certain cues that we have, he really understands that. And again, I think from the majority of lefties that I’ve met, Phil, Bubba, myself, very creative, and I think lefty has something to do with that I believe. … It’s an exciting thing for me for someone to see a shot the way I do.”
Clark calls upon a coach
After two straight stellar seasons, Clark came back down to Earth in 2025. With only seven top 20s and two top-five finishes to his name across 25 starts, the former U.S. Open champion now looks to get back to where he was during that major-winning campaign a couple of years ago.
And that starts with the swing and his usual left-to-right shot shape. Clark admitted he saw the left misses creep into his game this past season, and with the help of a new swing coach, he is working to eliminate that side of the golf course by wheeling and dealing a hefty doses of fades.Â
“[I’m] coming off a really poor year, and I’ve worked really hard,” Clark said. “The nice thing is kind of like the last two, three weeks I’ve started to see some improvement, so I’m excited about that.
“I’d kind of gone three years without really seeing anyone. I saw Butch [Harmon] a couple times last year. Right now, I just hired and started working with this guy, Pat Coyner. I was spending some time in the offseason in Colorado at Cherry Hills, and he just became the new teaching pro there. We started bouncing ideas off each other, kind of liked what he had to say. I started hitting it better, and I said, ‘Alright, why don’t you come help me.'”
Jordan Spieth reemerges
The three-time major champion said he weighed playing in the FedEx Cup Fall but decided otherwise, opting instead to work on his game with his last official start coming in the St. Jude Championship in August. Spieth’s game was working for him early in his round as he was 3 under through seven holes before he slowly but surely started to go in the wrong direction.
Spieth played his final 11 holes in 3 over to offset his early gains and settle into a share of 17th place. Statistically, he ranked second-to-last putting and outside the top half in both ball striking categories. Rust is to be expected this time of year, and while the swing continues to be worked on, the putter is the club to watch over these next 54 holes. It typically serves as a lightning rod to his game — a momentum saver or momentum killer — and unfortunately, it killed just about all his mojo in Round 1.