01 December 2023 , 21:40
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Winning the Hero World Challenge this weekend will make one golfer almost £800,000 richer after the tournament's prize purse increased.
The 20-strong field has added incentive to triumph, with 19 players out to stop Viktor Hovland prevailing again at Albany for the third straight year. The FedEx Cup champion has earned over £1.5million from those wins and would take that total to over £2million with a third success.
However, he faces stern competition, with the tournament traditionally featuring one of the year's best fields. World No 1 Scottie Scheffler is again among that group and will hope this year it is third time lucky after as the runner-up to the Norwegian by a combined three strokes over the last two tournaments.
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He is one of 15 Americans in the field, headlined by Tiger Woods, who returns to competitive golf. However, two Englishmen are in the Caribbean, Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick, while Australia's Jason Day and Austria's Sepp Straka are the other non-Americans there.
Despite the prevalence of players hailing from Stateside in the field, Europeans have won the last four tournaments. Not since Rickie Fowler in 2017 has an American had his hands on the trophy.
The 2020 tournament did not happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the previous year, Henrik Stenson beat out the reigning champion Jon Rahm by a single stroke. Including the 2016 tournament, when Stenson finished as the runner-up to Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, five of the last six winners were from outside the United States.
Crowds are flocking to see Tiger Woods playing againIf that is not enough motivation for the majority of the field, then the increasing prize money should do it. Hero MotoCorp executive chairman Pawan Munjal announced that earlier this week during a joint press conference with Tiger Woods, whose eponymous foundation benefits from the tournament and often receives his prize money, as they did when he won at Sherwood in 2007.
“I'm happy to announce that the prize purse for the Hero World Challenge in 2023 is being increased to $4.5 million, which in 2024 will go up to $5 million," Munjal said. "At Hero, we do believe it's very important to keep raising the stature of this event and also keep rewarding the players for their efforts and the time they spend for the game and especially at this event.”
Here is this year's full Hero World Challenge prize-money breakdown...
2023 Hero World Challenge Prize Money
1st - £786,610 ($1,000,000)
2nd - £294,979 ($375,000)
3rd - £176,987 ($225,000)
4th - £117,992 ($150,000)
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5th - £106,192 ($135,000)
6th - £94,393 ($120,000)
7th - £90,460 ($115,000)
8th - £88,887 ($113,000)
9th - £88,100 ($112,000)
10th - £86,527 ($110,000)
11th - £85,740 ($109,000)
12th - £84,954 ($108,000)
13th - £84,167 ($107,000)
14th - £83,381 ($106,000)
15th - £82,594 ($105,000)
16th - £81,807 ($104,000)
17th - £81,021 ($103,000)
18th - £80,234 ($102,000)
19th - £79,448 ($101,000)
20th - £78,661 ($100,000)