ALBANY, Bahamas — As he aimed a wedge shot at a floating target set up in the largest water hazard at Albany Club, Aaron Rai was asked whether he ever had hit a golf ball so close to Tiger Woods.
“Only in my dreams,” he said.
Reality was pretty cool, too, as Rai earned the Hero Shot at Albany championship on Tuesday to kick off the 2024 Hero World Challenge. Rai defeated Jason Day in the final round, walking off with the championship thanks to landing two of three shots on the platform floating between the ninth-hole and 18th-hole greens.
Rai defeated a field that also featured Nick Dunlap, Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre, Justin Thomas and Day. The pressure mounted as the points added up and tournament host Tiger Woods watched on and commented (not hitting any shots) as the players took aim at the target 87 yards away from the tee box situated behind the 18th green.
Day, for one, expressed frustration he had to listen to Tiger chirping at him that he had hit his shot fat.
“Some of them were,” he conceded.
The first round of the Hero Shot featured each player taking six shots at the target, with balls landing in an outer ring worth 250 points, those coming to rest in the inner circle worth 500 and any ball splashing down in the two-foot-diameter cup worth 1,000 and an automatic advancement to the next round. The sixth ball in each round – the “Hero Ball” – was worth double points.
Bhatia kicked things off as he dunked his fourth shot of the first round on the bullseye to advance. Rai and Day set the pace with 4,000 first-round points each. Dunlap fell just short of advancing to the second round, falling just 500 points behind the advancing trio.
In the second round, Bhatia and Day each scored 3,000 points and were forced into a shot-for-shot playoff to face Rai (4,000 second-round points) in the final. A game of rock-paper-scissor determined the order of play. After Bhatia hit the inner circle, Day knocked it closer to advance.
Check out photos from the Hero Shot.
