Players who got early exemption into the 2025 Hero World Challenge

Three players have received sponsor exemptions to play at the 2025 Hero World Challenge, including Akshay Bhatia, Billy Horschel, and Jordan Spieth. The 2025 edition is scheduled to take place at the Albany in the Bahamas in the first week of December.

The field features only 20 players, and three of them have earned exemptions. Nuclr Golf shared the news about the players on its X (formerly Twitter) account with a caption:

"Jordan Spieth, Billy Horschel, and Akshay Bhatia have been awarded exemptions into the 2025 Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas."

Akshay Bhatia is coming to play at the Hero World Challenge after his last PGA Tour outing at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He played two rounds of 72 and 73 and struggled to make the cut.

However, earlier this year on the Tour, he had decent outings and recorded four finishes in the top 10. His notable finishes are T9 at the Genesis Invitational, solo ninth at the Mexico Open, T3 at The Players, and T6 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Bhatia has shared his excitement to play in the event after earning the invitation. On Wednesday, he shared a story on his Instagram account in which he talked about the tournament.

“Pumped to be back at one of my favorite events to end the year," he wrote.

In addition, Jordan Spieth received the invitation, and he is coming to compete at the tournament after his last outing at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, where he settled at T38. He also had four finishes in the top 10 this season on the PGA Tour.

Billy Horschel, on the other hand, has played in 14 tournaments on the Tour this season and has had two finishes in the top 10. He competed at last week’s Bank of Utah Championship and settled at the T11 position.

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Who is playing at the Hero World Challenge?

The 2025 Hero World Challenge features a stellar field of some big names. Scottie Scheffler will play in the event alongside Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas, and Robert MacIntyre, among others.

Here is the field of the 2025 Hero World Challenge:

• Scottie Scheffler
• Justin Thomas
• J.J. Spaun
• Robert MacIntyre
• Harris English
• Keegan Bradley
• Justin Rose
• Sepp Straka
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Cameron Young
• Sam Burns
• Corey Conners
• Chris Gotterup
• Wyndham Clark
• Brian Harman
• Andrew Novak
• Alex Noren
• Jordan Spieth
• Billy Horschel
• Akshay Bhatia

Fans were expecting Tiger Woods to return to play at the Hero World Challenge. However, he is not included in the initial field of the event. The American golfer underwent lumbar disc replacement surgery earlier this month and has been recovering from it and will not be playing in the tournament.

Edited by Ankita Yadav