Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion from Japan, won the US$ 5 million prize money Hero World Challenge for a second time, closing with an 8-under 64 to finish at 22-under 266 and then beating Alex Noren with a birdie on the first playoff hole
The bigger news around the event for Indian golf fans, though, is Hero MotoCorp’s title sponsorship of the Hero World Challenge tournament lasts till 2030, keeping the Hero World Challenge at Albany, Bahamas for the rest of the decade.
Hero first became title sponsor in 2014 when the event was held at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida, before it moved to Albany in 2015.
The tournament is also a Tiger Woods signature event, managed by TGR Live, created by Woods and his father Earl in 2000 to raise funds for the TGR Foundation and its education programs, including TGR Learning Labs.
Hero’s long-standing association with this PGA Tour specially sanctioned event gives India a premium global profile—yet it also highlights a contradiction: An Indian company’s name is on the trophy, but Indian players are still largely missing from this elite stage with no nationally sponsored, player development program in sight back at home.
Will anything improve at home for player development in the next 5 years while Hero continues to fly the Indian flag globally?
