The beginning of the last month of 2025 indeed turned out to be one busy week for golf. Three events unfolded in the same timeline. While Tiger Woods hosted a star-studded holiday event Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, the real action in the golf world was happening a continent away, leaving analysts to label Woods’ tournament a ‘snoozefest’.
Rory McIlroy’s earlier remarks about the Hero World Challenge lacking hype suddenly feel prophetic when golf media personality Brendan Porath sarcastically shared on X, “Thank god they have rope lines at the Hero World Challenge. It would be pure chaos if not.”
Now, yet again, Porath and Andy Johnson, sitting for The Shotgun Start podcast for Fried Egg Golf, expressed how they are extremely disappointed regarding how Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge turned out this season, as Porath blatantly took a dig and stated, “…the Hero World Challenge. This event s–ked.”
“I’m going to just leave it out there. Sleepy, not interesting in my opinion…I generally find it to be entertaining. It’s a nice little holiday treat there going into December. I thought this year it was a snoozefest and totally uninteresting.”
Right after the event concluded, Wyndham Clark, Sepp Straka, and Scottie Scheffler shared their thoughts on the conditions of the event. But Porath had more grounds to reflect upon, which made the event a failure, according to him.
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Porath explained his take while also reflecting on the complaints that came from Clark. He added, “It is not in good shape. You’re always chipping into the grain, and there are a lot of chips that are up and over. So, you have to chip up, and you’re coming from really bad lies in Bermuda, and you have to hit up, and there’s just very little margin for error. So, is he equating good shape with easy, or is it bad shape because it’s too hard? Scottie Scheffler continued on the same subject. I mean, I think the grain has a lot to do with this. The ball tends to sit down in the turf, and a lot of it’s rough here…It’s just really grainy.”
Furthermore, he reflected on the ground conditions and stated how the ball was not gaining any height. He added, “The greens are all raised up a little bit. So, kind of hitting from low areas, softer, tighter… I’m sorry. These are professional golfers. Shouldn’t it be important that they have good contact? What do I think? Maybe it’s enjoyable. Probably not. Is this probably what they want and like this kind of hidden giggle going to the holidays?”
Echoing the same thoughts, Andy Johnson added how he, too, is dissatisfied. He said, “You’re playing a 20-person field. The worst place finish gets 150 grand.” He unapologetically added how he would prefer the Australian Open to stay an independent classic and would not want PGA Tour management to take over the already successful tournament.
Johnson referred to Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge and stated, “…this event s–ks, is that it’s in a vacation for all these guys where they get paid an exorbitant amount of money.” He also added, “The only reason it’s been newsworthy is because Tiger Woods makes returns there.”
And before the analysts shared their blatant critical take on the event, the golfers, too, shared their areas of concern.
How Wyndham Clark and Sepp Straka criticized the Hero World Challenge
Taking a closer look, the Albany Golf Course in Nassau has been presenting the topmost stars with some really difficult situations. Firstly, there were recent reports about how the attendance was extremely sparse. And now, the likes of Wyndham Clark and Sepp Straka have criticized the course significantly. After Round 1 concluded, the 2023 US Open champion stated how the course is “not in a good shape.” With a lot of grains and chips all over, Clark felt that short game and chipping were extremely difficult on the course.
“It’s not in good shape. You’re always chipping into the grain, and there’s a lot of chips that are up and over, so you have to chip up, and you’re coming from really bad lies in Bermuda, and you have to hit it up, and there’s just very little margin for error,” said Clark.
And Clark was not the only one complaining about Tiger Woods’ multi-million dollar event. Straka, too, found the greens slightly raised.
“It’s so grainy. It’s really grainy, and the greens are, most of them are just subtly raised. It’s nothing crazy,” Straka said. “Like if it was an easy lie, it wouldn’t be too bad, but they’re just raised enough to where, into the grain, it’s hard to bump it into the slopes, and if your lie’s into the grain, you can’t really loft it up.”
Thus, with the Hero World Challenge this year facing a lot of criticisms, it now remains to be seen if steps are taken to improve the overall conditions in the coming days.
