Scottie Scheffler coasts to ninth win of season with title defence at Tiger Woods event

Scottie Scheffler capped off a sensational season in style by clinching a ninth victory of 2024 with a successful title defence at Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge at Albany in The Bahamas.

Scheffler, 28, fired a stunning final-round 9-under 63 to seal a dominant six-shot victory over Tom Kim on 25-under par.

Despite taking more than a two-month break from the game to spend some much-needed time with his wife Meredith and baby boy Bennett after a whirlwind season, Scheffler returned to Albany as if he had never been away from the game.

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Scheffler won seven official titles on the PGA Tour in 2024 highlighted by a second Masters title in three years in April and a first FedEx Cup title in September. 

He also won a gold medal for the first time at the Olympics in Paris over the summer. 

Scheffler then captured a ninth title of the season after running away with Tiger Woods' 20-man Hero World Challenge.

Scheffler pocketed small change of $1m for his week's efforts in The Bahamas.

The red-hot American becomes the first player to defend the Hero World Challenge since Viktor Hovland in 2022.

He joins Hovland and Woods as the only players to have won multiple Hero World Challenge titles. 

"It's very satisfying to end the year like this," said Scheffler. 

"I did a lot of good stuff today on the course, really solid, got off to a good start, feels good to take a nice break and come back and play well and see good results."

Scheffler still has one more event left on his 2024 schedule, and that is The Crypto.com Showdown alongside Rory McIlroy and against LIV Golf duo Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau at Shadow Creek GC in Las Vegas on 17 December. 

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Scheffler adopted a new claw grip for the first time in his career during the Hero World Challenge and it appeared to pay instant reward as he ranked third for Strokes Gained Putting (3.780) for the week. 

He admitted to having spent a number of weeks working on a new claw / saw grip for both short and mid-range putts alongside his coach Phil Kenyon. 

Scheffler made 97% of his putts from inside 10 feet this week.

His season average on the PGA Tour from that distance was 87%. 

Scheffler maintained his conventional putting grip on mid to long-range putts during the Hero World Challenge.

It would appear given the early success Scheffler has enjoyed with the claw grip that he will continue to use it on the PGA Tour in 2025. 

Tournament host Woods spoke to NBC during the live broadcast of the final round.

Despite being pushed for an answer about his participation in the upcoming PNC Championship with son Charlie Woods, the 15-time major champion declined to give an official answer. 

"Slow down, Dan," Woods smirked as he replied to lead NBC host Dan Hicks.

"We'll see, I know, I know, I understand..." 

READ MORE ON WOODS' COMMENTS WITH NBC HERE

Woods was unable to participate in this week's 25th Hero World Challenge as he felt he still needed more time to recover from a recent back surgery.

The former World No.1 underwent the sixth back surgery of his injury-plagued career in September.

Woods claims he will not be returning to PGA Tour action until he believes his game is at a level with which he can compete against the world's best. 

VIEW FULL HERO SCORES HERE

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