The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas becomes the focus of the PGA Tour this week as the Albany resort community hosts the 2015 Hero World Challenge, and the top ranked golfer in the world had high praises for the country, calling the event a “celebration of the year.”

Jordan Spieth, who dominated the season with wins in the Masters Tournament and the US Open, relishes the opportunity to regain his Hero World Challenge title and also enjoy the Bahamas in his time away from the course.

“It’s paradise, it’s fantastic. Just flying in, when you fly over and we can see Freeport and we can see a couple of other smaller islands. This whole Caribbean area is fantastic,” Spieth said. “I mean, I love the water, I love being in the water. We’re going to try and get out boating a couple days or maybe fishing. Island life is a lot of fun and it’s certainly a change of pace from the cold, wet Dallas that we have right now. So it’s good to be down here. To go from Sidney to Nassau isn’t too bad, it’s a good life we live.”

Spieth, 22, swept all the major awards for the season: PGA Player of the Year and PGA Tour Player of the Year (Jack Nicklaus Trophy), Vardon Trophy and Byron Nelson Award for leading the tour in scoring average, and Arnold Palmer Award for leading the tour’s money list.

“This is a very easy week for us. I mean, obviously with 18 guys and we’re travelling to some of the coolest courses to play whether it was Sherwood or Isleworth or here,” he said. “This is just a great kind of cap on the year, celebration of the year almost. but it’s still world ranking points, it’s still a nice purse and a quality field that you need to really practice to try and beat.”

This year’s field had an opportunity to experience the Albany golf course for the first time yesterday in a pre-tournament pro-am.

Based on the outing, Spieth said he expects low scores as Sunday approaches.

“It’s different than I thought. I thought there would be ocean views, we’re on an island. It’s a beautiful place. It plays well. Bubba [Watson] will like it, there’s nothing blocking the tee shots. It’s very exposed to the wind. You’ve got to keep it in between the sand areas because once you get into those it’s very spotty, you either get a good break or a bad break. So if you can control the wind nicely off the tee you’ll be able to hit into these small greens with less club and that’s key I think, greens in regulation. They’re very grainy, difficult to read the amount of breaks that’s in them and they’re kind of sneaky,” he said. “So I would look for scores, the way it played the last two days, I would look for scores to be pretty low this week even if there breeze kicks up, but you just never know on bermuda [grass].”

Spieth, who signed a 10-year-deal with Under Armour this year, said he draws inspiration from his peers also aligned with the sports equipment giant - particularly, the reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry who has improved his play this season.

“What Steph is doing is ridiculous this year. To follow the season he had and to come out even better is inspiring and it’s something that I can certainly try and work towards next season,” he said. “With Under Armour we’ve had Tom Brady as the MVP, Bryce Harper now is an MLB MVP, and you’ve got Andy Murray and what he’s been able to do. It’s really, really cool seeing everyone talk about Under Armour as being a family and being a part of a team. I mean, we all believe that we’re with each other. I root for Under Armour guys over anybody else now because they support me and I’ve built relationships with quite a few of them.”

A stacked field also includes Major championship winners Bubba Watson, Jason Day and Zach Johnson among a field featuring 18 of the world’s top ranked golfers.

The remainder of the field includes Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepa, Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Matt Kuchar, Jimmy Walker, JB Holmes, Patrick Reed, Paul Casey, Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk and special exemptions are Anirban Lahiri and Bill Haas.

Scott, who is originally from Australia but lives in the Bahamas, said the event is a homecoming of sorts.

“My second home, yeah, it’s great that the event’s here. It’s exciting for me,” he said. “Obviously I’ve come back from Australia to play and I’m expecting a really fun week here this

week, a lot of familiar faces will be around all week and certainly something I wanted to be a part of, so very happy to be here.”

Scott, 35,  was the former World No. 1 ranked golfer, from mid-May to August 2014. He has won 27 professional tournaments around the world, on many of golf’s major tours. His biggest win to date was the 2013 Masters Tournament.

With familiarity with the Albany course, he offered his insight on what the players can expect.

“It’s quite unique really, this golf course. It is difficult. However, it’s probably playing a little softer surface-wise than maybe ideal. It seems there’s been a fair bit of rain and that’s probably a good thing for everyone that it’s not playing too hard and fast because they’re very small, raised greens and they’re quite tough to hit because it is normally windy here. So with the ball stopping in the fairway and on the green, that’s going to save everyone a little headache because when it runs out into the big waste areas, you always think you can advance it more than you can and then find yourself getting in a lot of trouble, especially when you’re up near the green in the waste area. 50 yards out it gets a little unpredictable what’s going to happen,” he said. “It can be very demanding, but again, the best players in the world are here and this is what they do on a weekly basis is figure out how to play golf courses, so I don’t know how much of an advantage I have this week. Maybe if it was a bit more fiery, I think I do, but I think these guys can figure out how to play a golf course.”

The Hero World Challenge is a four-round, 72-hole stroke play event with a $3.5 million purse, a $1 million winner’s prize and Official World Golf Ranking points awarded. It will be held at the challenging par-72, 7,267-yard Albany for the first time.

Live television coverage of the Hero World Challenge will be provided by Golf Channel during all four rounds and by NBC during the third and fourth rounds. Good-any-day grounds tickets and a limited number of luxury hospitality packages for the Hero World Challenge are available for purchase at www.HeroWorldChallenge.com.

The field of 18 PGA TOUR players is invited as follows: the current four major championships winners, the top 11 players available from the Official World Golf Ranking as of September 28, 2015 (following the TOUR Championship), the defending champion and two special-exemption players.