Scottie Scheffler & Co. Echo the Same Complaint About Hero World Challenge Course After Round 1
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When four players in separate press conferences use nearly identical language to describe the same problem, it’s no longer a complaint—it’s a pattern. Thursday at the Hero World Challenge, Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Corey Conners, and Sepp Straka each pointed to Albany’s chipping conditions as the round’s hidden adversary. Their words revealed something deeper about what’s happening on the ground in the Bahamas.
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“I mean, I think the grain has a lot to do with it,” Scheffler said. “The ball tends to sit down in the turf. And a lot of it’s rough here, so you’re below the green, ball’s sitting down. It can be pretty challenging.”
His diagnosis centered on grain and lie quality. Balls sitting down in grainy Bermuda rough, combined with being below raised greens, create compounding difficulty that tests even elite short games.
Clark didn’t hesitate when asked about the chipping challenge.
“Do you want the politically correct answer? It’s not in good shape,” he said. “You’re always chipping into the grain, and there’s a lot of chips that are up, and over, so you have to chip up, and you’re coming from really bad lies in Bermuda, and you have to hit it up, and there’s just very little margin for error.”
His blunt assessment pointed directly at maintenance rather than design. The combination of into-the-grain lies, elevated shots, and bad Bermuda positions leaves almost no room for error.
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PGA, Golf Herren TOUR Championship – First Round Aug 21, 2025 Atlanta, Georgia, USA Scottie Scheffler reacts after making a putt on the first green during the first round of the TOUR Championship golf tournament. Atlanta Georgia USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xBrettxDavisx 20250821_bdd_ad1_094
Conners, one shot back at 5-under, echoed the same technical themes.
“Yeah, it’s really grainy, the ball just kind of sits down a little bit,” he explained. “The ground’s not very forgiving, and you’ve got to get some height on the shots. The greens are all raised a little bit, so kind of hitting from low areas, softer, tighter, really a grainy lie. It’s pretty important to make sure you have good contact.”
He identified the same pattern: grainy lies, balls sitting down, raised greens demanding height, and unforgiving turf that punishes anything less than perfect contact.
Straka completed the chorus with remarkable specificity, and his explanation revealed the technical bind: into-the-grain lies eliminate both bump-and-run options and lofted shots, forcing players into creative problem-solving with narrow margins.
“Yeah, it’s so grainy. It’s really grainy, and the greens are, most of them are just subtly raised,” he said. “It’s nothing crazy. Like if it was an easy lie, it wouldn’t be too bad, but they’re just raised enough to where, into the grain, it’s hard to bump it into the slopes, and if your lie’s into the grain, you can’t really loft it up. You have to get a little creative sometimes in trying to figure out a way to get the ball close to the hole.”
What makes Bermuda grass particularly unforgiving is its lateral growth pattern. Unlike bentgrass or Poa annua, which grow vertically, Bermuda blades grow horizontally along the surface. This creates grain that dramatically affects club interaction. Chipping into the grain causes friction that can slow the club down or dig the leading edge into the turf, producing fat shots. Chipping down-grain allows the club to glide more easily, but the ball rolls out unpredictably. Players must read grain direction by visual cues—grass appears dark when looking into the grain, shiny when looking down-grain.
But the unified player complaints raise a deeper question about what’s happening at Albany. Are these conditions the result of maintenance issues, as Clark suggested, or are they intentionally difficult by design?
Scottie Scheffler and the elite field face Albany’s intentional challenge
The conditions aren’t accidental. Tournament host Tiger Woods favors firm, fast greens that test every aspect of the game. The Ernie Els-designed course has drawn similar complaints since 2018. Last year, the course’s toughest hole—the 16th—yielded only 16 birdies from 30 players across four rounds.
Yet Clark’s assessment: “It’s not in good shape,” suggests players view these as maintenance issues rather than intentional design choices. The scoring tells a different story. Three players posted 6-under, Conners 5-under. Elite players can navigate the challenge, but the shared frustration reveals something deeper about how the conditions feel versus how they play.
When four leaders independently use words like “grainy,” “sitting down,” “raised greens,” and “into the grain,” it creates a collective narrative that validates the difficulty. The question becomes whether Albany is testing skill or creating randomness around the greens.
Three rounds remain for adaptation. But Thursday’s unified message is clear: even at 6-under and leading, navigating Albany’s short-game areas demands precision, the turf isn’t always rewarding.
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