December 2024: the Must-See Competitions on the PGA Tour (🏆*post updated with the Winners)
- clairebambino
- Nov 27, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 23, 2024
🗓🏌🏽♂️DECEMBER 2024 ⛳️
🇧🇸 🏌🏽♂️ Hero World Challenge – Dec 5-8, 2024 – Albany Championship Golf course • Bahamas
The Hero World Challenge is held every December at Albany’s championship golf course. Hosted by Tiger Woods, the tournament, established in 2000, is broadcast internationally and features an elite field of 20 of the world’s top-ranked professional golfers while showcasing exceptional patron, player and sponsor experiences.
🏆 Past Hero World Challenge champions include: Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler and five-time champion Tiger Woods.
The tournament has been held in various prestigious locations, including Sherwood Country Club in California and Trump National Doral in Florida.
💸 The Hero World Challenge drives strong philanthropic support for TGR Foundation, Tavistock Foundation and the Bahamas Youth Foundation. In 1999, Tiger Woods and his father Earl established the Hero World Challenge to benefit TGR Foundation and today, the tournament continues to raise funds for youth-focused charities and empower youth through education. 🔎 The primary goal of the TGR Foundation is to empower students through education, focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields.
📐 The Championship Golf course was designed by Ernie Els; Albany’s 18-hole championship golf course combines the best of links and desert features with windswept dunes and challenging water features.
🏌🏽 Scottie Scheffler claimed victory at the 2023 Hero World Challenge, marking his 3rd PGA Tour win of the year. After finishing second in the previous two editions of the tournament, Scheffler dominated the field. His consistent play throughout the tournament, highlighted by a bogey-free final round of 68, propelled him to a three-stroke victory over 🇦🇹 Sepp Straka.
💰 Purse: $5,000,000
Previous winner: 🇺🇸 Scottie Scheffler ($1,000,000).
🏆 Winner 2024: 🇺🇸 Scottie Scheffler ($1,000,000) - Age: 28 - Turned Pro in 2018.
With birdies on three of the first four holes on Sunday, Scottie Scheffler took the lead and cruised to a comfortable victory six shots clear of 🇰🇷 Tom Kim, marking his 9th win of the year.
He finished with a birdie on the final hole to sign for a score of 9 under par (63) at the Albany Club, with a total of 25 under par (263) over the 72 holes.
Over the last 40 years, Scheffler's win rate (43%) worldwide is third behind Woods in 2006 (nine wins from 19 starts) and Woods in 2002 (10 wins from 22 starts).
🇺🇸 🏌🏽♂️ PGA Tour Q-School presented by Korn Ferry – Dec 12-15, 2024 – Dye's Valley Course, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida • USA
The PGA Tour Q-School (Qualifying School) presented by Korn Ferry is a rigorous multi-stage tournament that serves as the primary pathway for professional golfers to earn their playing privileges on the Korn Ferry Tour and, ultimately, the PGA Tour.
Q-School has a rich history, dating back to the 1960s, and has produced countless legendary golfers.
Traditionally, the tournament consisted of a series of progressively challenging qualifying rounds where golfers competed to earn tour membership. Participants would navigate through multiple stages, including local and sectional qualifying events, with the final stage being a grueling six-round tournament that determined who would receive tour cards. However, in recent years, the qualification process has been modified, with the Korn Ferry Tour now playing a more significant role in determining PGA Tour membership.
The event represents a critical moment in many professional golfers' careers, where talented players can transform their dreams of playing at the highest level of professional golf into reality. For many aspiring professional golfers, successfully navigating Q-School is a pivotal milestone that can define their competitive trajectory and open doors to potentially lucrative professional opportunities.
At Final Stage of 2024 PGA Tour Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, the top 5 finishers and ties will earn PGA TOUR cards for the 2025 season. Final Stage will also determine 2025 season eligibility for the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR Americas.
📐 Pete Dye is the primary architect of the Dye's Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass. He is renowned for creating challenging and visually stunning golf courses.
💰 Purse: $510,000
Previous winner: 🇦🇺 Harrison Endycott ($50,000). This victory was a significant achievement for Endycott, who had already spent a year on the PGA Tour in 2023 but had only secured conditional status for the following year. Endycott's dominant performance at the Q-School was highlighted by his consistent play throughout the four rounds. He opened with a strong 65 and followed it up with three more rounds in the 60s, ultimately finishing at 15-under par. This impressive score was enough to secure a four-shot victory over the field and earn him one of the five coveted PGA Tour cards.
🏆 Winner 2024: 🇺🇸 Lanto Griffin ($50,000) - Age: 36 - Turned Pro in 2010.
Griffin secured his PGA Tour card by winning the 72-hole final stage of Q-School with a three-shot lead and a stunning final-round 63. In addition to Griffin, Hayden Buckley, Takumi Kanaya, Alejandro Tosti, Will Chandler and Matthew Riedel also earned PGA Tour cards for the 2025 season by finishing among the top five and ties.
🇺🇸 🏌🏻♀️🏌🏽♂️ Grant Thornton Invitational – Dec 13-15, 2024 – Tiburon Golf Club, Florida • USA
This is a unique professional golf tournament that stands out in the PGA Tour landscape for its innovative team format. The event pairs PGA Tour professionals with LPGA Tour players to compete as a two-person team in a competition that blends individual and team play styles.
🔎LPGA: 'Ladies Professional Golf Association' - The LPGA Tour is the premier professional golf tour for women. It's the leading women's golf circuit globally, featuring top-tier female golfers from around the world.
🧐 Originally known as the Franklin Templeton Shootout and founded by Greg Norman in 1990, the tournament was renamed the Grant Thornton Invitational in 2022 after the professional services firm became the title sponsor.
The LPGA and PGA Tour's best are once again teaming up in a unique mixed team invitational where they’ll compete for equal prize money of $4 million.
The 32-player team event is held at the world-class Tiburon Golf Club and The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburon, and features nine hours of live coverage on Golf Channel and NBC—all while benefiting a variety of charitable organizations.
📐 Greg Norman is the architect of Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. He designed both the Black and Gold courses, which are renowned for their challenging layouts and stunning scenery.
💰 Purse: $4,000,000
Previous winners: 🇳🇿 Lydia Ko, 🇦🇺 Jason Day - The pair displayed exceptional teamwork and skill throughout the tournament. Their strong performance, highlighted by a stunning opening round of 58 in the scramble format, set the tone for their eventual victory. They maintained their momentum throughout the week, consistently delivering solid rounds and outperforming their competitors. Ultimately, Ko and Day secured a one-shot victory over the 🇨🇦 duo of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners. Their triumph marked a historic moment in golf and showcased the exciting potential of mixed-team events.
🏆 Winners 2024: 🇺🇸 Jake Knapp, 🇹🇭 Patty Tavatanakit ($500,000)
Victory went to the duo of Jake Knapp and Patti Tavatanakit, two former UCLA students, who finished the third and final round with a cumulative score of minus-27. Knapp, 30, won his first PGA Tour title in February 2024 at the Mexico Open. Tavatanakit, 25, won her first LPGA title at a major, the ANA Inspiration 2021, and added another LPGA title in February at the Thailand Open. The inaugural champions, Jason Day and Lydia Ko, had to settle for a score of minus-20, seven shots behind the winning duo.
🧐 The 2024 PGA Tour schedule is complete, but the golfing world will witness the return of Tiger Woods and his son Charlie at the PNC Championship (a parent-child tournament).
The two-day tournament begins on 21 December 2024 at 🇺🇸 The Ritz-Carlton Club in Orlando.
Woods did not take part in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas as he was recovering from his latest operation, a back operation. It was Woods' sixth publicly announced back operation, and his first since 2021. 🎂 Woods will turn 49 on 30 December 2024.
🏌🏾♂️🏌🏾 This will be Tiger and Charlie's fifth appearance at the PNC Championship. They will be one of 20 teams competing in this prestigious event on the PGA Tour Champions.
🏆 Winners 2024: 🇩🇪 Bernhard and Jason Langer, the defending champions, who are now four-time winners of this tournament. Tiger and Charlie Woods were beaten in the play-off.
🔎 The oldest player in the competition, Gary Player (89) and his grandson Alexander Hall, shot 62 in the 2nd round.
