Young takes early HWC lead as Theegala, Bhatia share third place

Event leader Cameron Young of the US in action at Albany on Thursday. Image courtesy heroworldchallenge.com.

By Rahul Banerji

Riding on eight birdies, Cameron Young jumped into the early lead with an 8 under par 64 at the $5 million Hero World Challenge in Albany, the Bahamas, on Thursday.

Fellow-Americans dominated the leaderboard behind Young with Justin Thomas on 6 under 66, and world number one Scottie Scheffler in a group of five in shared third place including Sahith Theegala, Akshay Bhatia, Patrick Cantlay and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg on 5 under 67s.

Young, the only player in the 20-strong field without a PGA Tour title, said after his bogey-free run on Thursday, “I drove it great. I’m sure I missed a fairway or two, but for the most part I was really well in position.

“Then I made a couple putts early, which was nice. Just kind of got off to a nice start with the putter. There’s a bunch of par-5s and a couple drivable holes, so I feel that if you’re on top of it, especially off the tee, you can make a bunch of birdies.”

Young had five birdies on the front nine before adding three more after the turn but it was Thomas, starting in a late group who really set the closing nine ablaze with six birdies – four of them in a row – having parred the first nine.

Sungjae Im was the leading Asian scorer, tied 12^th at 3 under 69, with Joohyung Kim tied 18th at 74 and Australia’s Jason Day tied 20th at 3 over 75.

Solid record

Defending champion Scheffler extended an excellent record at the Hero World Challenge with his 67 on Thursday, making it the 13^th straight round he has shot an over-par 18-hole score at Albany and the 11^th in the sixties.

Three of the eight players making their tournament debuts shared third place in Åberg, Bhatia, and Theegala.

Of the other first-timers, sponsor exemption recipient Nick Dunlap was tied for eighth on 4 under 68 with Robert MacIntyre, Russell Henley was T12 on 69, Aaron Rai (16^th with a 1 under 71 and Matthieu Pavon T18 on 74.

Bhatia was pleased with his first competitive run at Albany. “I played the par 5s pretty well today. I haven’t played too much competitive golf so I was a little more nervous and so all in all, it was pretty good.

“I have this new prototype driver in the bag which is a big thing for me. I felt like my driving stats last year kind of went downhill a little bit. I was fighting a two-way miss, making good swings. Some weeks it was good and some weeks it just wasn’t there.”

Added Theegala, who celebrated his 27th birthday earlier in the week, “Playing this event has always been a big thing.”

New grip

Scheffler, who won seven times in 2024 besides the Olympic gold medal, brought a new putter and a new putting coach to this event last year and he went on to win.

This time he was ‘trying’ out something else this time – a new grip which was neither a ‘saw’ nor a ‘claw.’ He simply used it for some putts depending on the length of the putt.

“Typically the further I am away from the hole I’d say the more likely I am to use the conventional grip because. I feel like my speed has always been extremely good, especially from long range.

“I think I’ve always been a really, really good lag putter. That’s an area where I don’t think I would see much improvement with the grip. The closer I get to the hole, kind of that inside 15-foot range, I think that’s where I’m seeing a lot of the benefits of it.”

Also read: Rai wins Hero Shot ahead of Woods-hosted World Challenge