If you’re among the tens of millions of people disrupted by winter weather over the weekend, you still may have appreciated its festive timing as the holidays transition from Thanksgiving into Hanukkah and Christmas. Travel snafus personal to you aside, when better for several inches of snow to fall (and stick)?

A similar seasonal vibe follows as it concerns this week’s Hero World Challenge.

The experience of relaxing in your warm abode while consuming live action in HD amid the twinkle of holiday lights is as much of a gateway into December as your first snow removal of the season. The juxtaposition of watching golf in The Bahamas as the grating sound of a nearby snowplow barges into your ears is an oddly welcome reminder that you are exactly where you want to be.

Twenty PGA TOUR members will echo that sentiment, albeit on the other side of the glowing rectangle as they form the field at Albany on New Providence Island. Details of the 10th edition on the Ernie Els design are below the ranking of all entrants.

As a gift that keeps on giving, the Hero World Challenge is as good a gig as there is for the qualifiers to get. There is no cut; the purse is $5 million, and the winner banks $1 million. Every golfer also collects Official World Golf Ranking points.

Of course, to max out on the perks, the winner must go through Scottie Scheffler, which, and also of course, is a familiar path. In both of his first two appearances, he finished second to Viktor Hovland. Scheffler took the title in his next two trips, so he’s going for the threepeat this week. (Hovland didn’t qualify for a second straight year.)

In 16 competitive rounds at Albany, Scheffler averaged 67.25 on the par 72. His average in only his victories was 66.38. When he scored 25-under 263 last year, he tied the course tournament record with its largest margin of victory of six strokes. It was the site of the last of his nine wins worldwide in 2024. His win total in 2025 stands at six.

Give Scheffler 72 holes, and he figures out a way to total the fewest strokes better than most, but Albany doesn’t discriminate as a playground. It stretches to 7,449 yards with five par 3s and five par 5s, so there are all kinds of opportunities to have fun. Its scoring average of 69.94 last year was identical to where it landed in 2023. As comps to other par 72s are concerned, Grand Reserve Golf Club, which hosts the relatively nearby Puerto Rico Open, checks in closest annually.

While Grand Reserve features paspalum across its layout, there’s nothing but Bermuda grass at Albany. Wayward strikes intended for generous fairways will often find the 2-inch rough, but finding the shortest grass plays up on approach as greens average just 4,500 square feet.

Putting surfaces are governed to 12 feet as measured by a Stimpmeter, but they might be throttled down mid-tournament when easterly winds are expected to blow a bit. There is no significant threat of rain throughout, and temperatures will rise to right around 80 degrees daily.

While the dispersion of pars at Albany gives it a twist of the unique, it’s also noteworthy that there hasn’t been a playoff on the course. The small field is the primary reason and only two winners have prevailed by as little as one stroke since Albany assumed the role as host in 2015.