Hero World Challenge 2025 rankings: Scottie Scheffler just behind after 36 holes

Another day, another group of players gathered at the top of the leaderboard at the Hero World Challenge 2025. Akshay Bhatia, Hideki Matsuyama, Wyndham Clark, JJ Spaun and Cameron Young make up the five-headed monster sitting at 10 under midway through proceedings at the Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas.

Bhatia bounced back from a bogey on her penultimate hole with a birdie on her last to join the other four at the top. This as world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler stumbled slightly with a double bogey on No. 16 due to wayward practice, falling from 11 under to 9 under, where he ultimately finished.

Scheffler is tied for sixth alongside Alex Noren and Sepp Straka, while Justin Rose matched an opening 68 with another on Friday to move to within two of the lead heading into the weekend.

“I think if you play well you can always take advantage of good momentum,” Scheffler said. “I wouldn’t go too far if I didn’t have a good week this week, I wouldn’t really try to carry that momentum even further. But overall I feel like it’s a good place to see where my game is at and then get ready for the season. It feels like a good preparation event.”

The biggest mover from the field was Scheffler’s Ryder Cup teammate Young, who followed an opening 70 with a 64 in the second round – the lowest of the 20 players in the second round. The powerful right-hander got through his day before finding another gear on the turn, playing numbers 12-17 in 6 under. Without a bogey on the last, Young would have shot a score under 30 on his second nine.

“I made a couple of putts late, but it was just one of those courses where, I told Kyle yesterday, I felt like we played pretty well and we could have comfortably shot 4, 5, 6 under, and the score was 2.” [under] “I felt a little bad yesterday,” Young said. “But the reality is, day to day here, you can just have stretches of holes where it starts to look easy, and it’s not that different from yesterday. I feel like I played the same way and I just made a few putts down the stretch.”

Young’s co-leader Clark mentioned he didn’t putt well two rounds, and the stats back up his thoughts as he ranks 16th out of 20 players with putter in hand. Coincidentally, it’s another co-leader in Spain who ranks last in the field, making the current US Open champion a dangerous proposition for the future if he includes this club.

For Clark, though, his entire game stems from what he does with all his momentum. Noting that he has started working with a swing coach for the first time in a long time, the three-time PGA Tour winner makes sure to bring one thought to the swing on the golf course, leaving the rest to the driving range. And so far, it’s an idea that’s worked for him.

“Right now, I only have one thought on my mind when I play,” Clark said. “When I’m on the stand, I think about a few things I want to do, and while I’m playing, I just think about the heel leading the toe, so I have an open face. It’s just a simple thought, and that’s what I do.”

The year of youth?

An emerging Ryder Cup star, Young has kept his game in good shape over the past couple of months. The Wyndham Championship winner is among the leaders in the Bahamas and has the chance to follow in the footsteps of previous tournament champions, using this event as a springboard for their year to come.

In 2022, Hovland won this tournament the year before his FedEx Cup victory, while Scheffler used this week to test some adjustments in his game ahead of his all-time campaigns in 2024 and 2025. Young seems to have a similar mindset about these 72 holes and how valuable they could prove to be despite their laid-back nature.

“It’s definitely possible. I’m not using the week as training, but I’m using the week to try to build on some things that we’ve done and less to look at the results just because I haven’t played any competitions in the last couple of months,” Young said. “So it’s more just an opportunity to continue to build on what we were doing mentally. I don’t think the outcome is necessarily going to dictate the outcome. I think it’s going to be more about how we go through our process and how we attack the golf course.”

Possible bookends

Matsuyama made noise in the first week of the year with a record-breaking performance at Sentry en route to victory…and hasn’t been heard from since. Without a top 10 finish in his PGA Tour season following his victory at Kapalua, the Japanese aims to end his 2025 in style with another victory this week.

What was interesting about Matsuyama’s play through 36 holes was how he went about his job. He leads the pack in driving accuracy and is in the top five in putting – thanks in large part to his performance on Friday – while being near the bottom in iron play, where he generally thrives.

“I worked on everything…we won the first game in Hawaii, but we didn’t play well the rest of the season,” Matsuyama said. “So I try to play well [the] the next two days and I’m looking forward to next season.”