Tournaments / 2015-2016
Hero World Challenge
2015-12-03 · Albany GC
- Winner
- Bubba Watson
- Winning score
- -25
- Field
- 18
- Field strength
- +1.059 SG
The 2015-2016 Hero World Challenge was played at Albany GC, starting 3 December 2015. Bubba Watson won at 25 under par (263), 3 strokes ahead of Patrick Reed. The winning card was 67, 67, 63 and 66, and the win paid $1,000,000. Patrick Reed finished second, and Rickie Fowler was third. 18 players started the event. The field averaged +1.059 strokes gained per round against the tour baseline. The full leaderboard below lists every player's finish position, round scores and total to par. Every figure on this page comes from the PGA Tour's published final leaderboard for the event — nothing here is estimated or modelled.
Final leaderboard
Top 20 of 18. Search finds any player in the field, including those who missed the cut.
- Bubba Watson
- Pos
- 1
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 67
- R3
- 63
- R4
- 66
- Total
- 263
- Patrick Reed
- Pos
- 2
- R1
- 69
- R2
- 65
- R3
- 66
- R4
- 66
- Total
- 266
- Rickie Fowler
- Pos
- 3
- R1
- 70
- R2
- 68
- R3
- 65
- R4
- 64
- Total
- 267
- Jordan Spieth
- Pos
- 4
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 66
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 67
- Total
- 268
- Bill Haas
- Pos
- T5
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 66
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 269
- Paul Casey
- Pos
- T5
- R1
- 66
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 63
- R4
- 70
- Total
- 269
- Brooks Koepka
- Pos
- 7
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 65
- R4
- 68
- Total
- 270
- J.B. Holmes
- Pos
- T8
- R1
- 71
- R2
- 68
- R3
- 68
- R4
- 64
- Total
- 271
- Jimmy Walker
- Pos
- T8
- R1
- 66
- R2
- 67
- R3
- 71
- R4
- 67
- Total
- 271
- Adam Scott
- Pos
- T10
- R1
- 67
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 66
- R4
- 69
- Total
- 272
- Chris Kirk
- Pos
- T10
- R1
- 69
- R2
- 65
- R3
- 66
- R4
- 72
- Total
- 272
- Zach Johnson
- Pos
- 12
- R1
- 66
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 67
- R4
- 70
- Total
- 273
- Justin Rose
- Pos
- 13
- R1
- 71
- R2
- 72
- R3
- 70
- R4
- 62
- Total
- 275
- Matt Kuchar
- Pos
- 14
- R1
- 70
- R2
- 66
- R3
- 69
- R4
- 71
- Total
- 276
- Dustin Johnson
- Pos
- 15
- R1
- 68
- R2
- 69
- R3
- 72
- R4
- 71
- Total
- 280
- Billy Horschel
- Pos
- 16
- R1
- 71
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 73
- R4
- 67
- Total
- 281
- Anirban Lahiri
- Pos
- T17
- R1
- 69
- R2
- 70
- R3
- 73
- R4
- 72
- Total
- 284
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Pos
- T17
- R1
- 75
- R2
- 73
- R3
- 70
- R4
- 66
- Total
- 284
Model score
Backtest · reconstructedOur course-fit model re-run as it would have seen this week — using only data that existed before the first tee shot — then compared with how the 18 players actually finished. It was not published in advance, so this measures the model, not a call we made.
- Rank correlation
- -0.088
- Top-9 hit rate
- 33%
- Top-10 avg model rank
- 10.3
Grade is this event’s percentile (0th) against every other event we have scored — not an absolute pass mark. Rank correlation runs −1 to +1, where 0 is a coin flip and a full-field golf model landing near +0.35 is a genuine read.
Who the model liked
Its top 10, and where they finished.
| Player | Model | Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Justin Rose | 1st | 13th |
| Matt Kuchar | 2nd | 14th |
| Hideki Matsuyama | 3rd | 17th |
| Adam Scott | 4th | 10th |
| Jordan Spieth | 5th | 4th |
| Dustin Johnson | 6th | 15th |
| Bubba Watson | 7th | 1st |
| Zach Johnson | 8th | 12th |
| Rickie Fowler | 9th | 3rd |
| Paul Casey | 10th | 5th |
Where it was most wrong
Largest gaps between rank and result, either direction.
| Player | Model | Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Hideki Matsuyama | 3rd | 17th(+14) |
| Patrick Reed | 15th | 2nd(−13) |
| Justin Rose | 1st | 13th(+12) |
| Matt Kuchar | 2nd | 14th(+12) |
| Dustin Johnson | 6th | 15th(+9) |
| J.B. Holmes | 16th | 8th(−8) |
| Bill Haas | 12th | 5th(−7) |
| Adam Scott | 4th | 10th(+6) |
| Bubba Watson | 7th | 1st(−6) |
| Rickie Fowler | 9th | 3rd(−6) |
One known caveat. Player stats, form and course history are all restricted to what existed before this event. The course archetype is not — it is derived from the venue’s full history, including this edition. That flatters the model slightly and equally at every venue. How the model works.
The venue
This event was played at Albany GC in Albany, BAH. The venue page carries its scorecard, hosting history and every other tour event played there.
Common questions
Who won the Hero World Challenge in 2015-2016?
- Bubba Watson won the 2015-2016 Hero World Challenge at Albany GC, finishing 25 under par.
Where was the 2015-2016 Hero World Challenge played?
- The 2015-2016 Hero World Challenge was played at Albany GC, starting 3 December 2015.
What was the winning score at the 2015-2016 Hero World Challenge?
- The winning score was 25 under par (263 strokes), posted by Bubba Watson.
How many players were in the Hero World Challenge field?
- 18 players started the 2015-2016 Hero World Challenge. Every one of them appears on the leaderboard below.
Where these numbers come from
Finishes, round scores and to-par figures are the PGA Tour's own published final leaderboard for this event. Nothing is estimated or interpolated — where the tour published no value, this page shows a gap rather than a guess. Full sourcing notes are on the methodology page, and every stat name is defined in the glossary.