Last January, the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic came down to the par-5 18th, which is 575 yards long. Ian Holt bogeyed twice in a row on the back nine and was tied for the lead when he holed a nervy par putt on 17. Then he reached the 18th green in two and two-putted for birdie and a one-shot win. Golf Channel's Associated Press report puts the gusts at The Abaco Club on Winding Bay that afternoon at close to 30 mph. He finished at 12-under 276, one stroke ahead of Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands and Alistair Docherty.
The tournament comes back to the same course on January 21 through 27, 2027. The first three days belong to the club: the clinic, the fishing trip, the pro-am and both parties. The last four days belong to a field that is playing for more than any earlier field here has, and the wind will decide a lot of it.
Why the Golf Starts on a Sunday
The Korn Ferry Tour opens every season with two weeks in The Bahamas, back to back. That means the Abaco rounds run Sunday through Wednesday instead of the usual Thursday to Sunday. Golf Channel's report on the 2026 finish notes that the tour only returns to a Thursday-to-Sunday schedule once it leaves The Bahamas for Panama.
The first week of the 2027 swing is The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island, with rounds January 17 through 20 on the Atlantis Ocean Club Golf Course. The field then moves to Abaco and plays its four rounds January 24 through 27. That leaves the Thursday-to-Saturday gap between the two tournaments, and the event fills it on property:
Day | Date | On the schedule |
|---|---|---|
Thursday | Jan. 21 | Practice day, VIP golf clinic with Korn Ferry Tour professionals, unofficial pro-am |
Friday | Jan. 22 | Practice day, fishing trip for pro-am guests run by Black Fly Lodge, VIP Welcome Party at The Abaco Club |
Saturday | Jan. 23 | Official pro-am, VIP Awards Party at The Abaco Club |
Sunday | Jan. 24 | First round, live on Golf Channel |
Monday | Jan. 25 | Second round, live on Golf Channel |
Tuesday | Jan. 26 | Third round, live on Golf Channel |
Wednesday | Jan. 27 | Final round, live on Golf Channel, trophy presentation |
Golf, fishing and an evening event fall on the same day only on Friday, and only on Saturday do a competitive round and a party share the calendar. Guests who arrive Thursday and leave Sunday afternoon see the social side of the week in full and catch the opening round before they fly. Guests who stay through Wednesday are there for the tournament itself.
Saturday Is the Owner's Day
The Abaco Club calls itself a private club community reserved for its homeowners and members. During tournament week, the formal way to bring golfers into the club's side of the week is the Pro-Am Experience. The official 2027 package covers:
- Five days and four nights of accommodation at The Abaco Club
- Two 18-hole pro-am competition rounds on the course
- A place in the VIP golf clinic with Korn Ferry Tour professionals
- An Abaco fishing trip, with lunch on fishing day and on both pro-am days
- Two invitations per participant to the pro-am pairings party and the awards party, dinner included
- A tee gift package and tournament prizes
The entry fee is $6,500 per amateur with housing, which includes one guest per participant, or $3,500 without housing. On-property housing is only available to groups of four. The tournament's stay runs January 20 through 24, 2027. So the package ends the day the first round begins. An owner hosting a pro-am foursome has the house back for Sunday's opening tee times.
The package document has a few hosting details. Tournament transport covers participants' airport transfers, and the resort and course are both on club grounds. Concierge services are available, and taxis can be called for any downtime off property. Golf clothing works all day. Dinners are smart casual, which means trousers for men, and no social event requires a jacket. January averages a 77°F high and a 65°F low, so a light layer for the evening parties is enough.
Friday's fishing trip is run by Black Fly Lodge, so the week takes pro-am guests onto Abaco water beyond the club's own 500 acres.
Sunday to Wednesday Belongs to the Field
The weekday rounds carry more weight in 2027 than in any earlier year. The PGA Tour is moving to a new competitive structure in 2028, and as part of that change the 2027 Korn Ferry season will award 40 PGA Tour cards, twice the 20 handed out under the current model. The top 10 on the season points list go to the PGA Tour Championship Series, and the next 30 earn PGA Tour Challenger Series membership for 2028. Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin described the season this way in the PGA Tour's schedule announcement:
"The 2027 Korn Ferry Tour Season will be the most competitive season in our Tour's history, with players competing for 40 PGA Tour cards and direct access to the PGA Tour Championship Series."
Abaco is only the second stop in a 25-event season that runs through seven countries and ends in October. The wind tends to mix up the order here. Holt won in 2026 with a final-round 71 while Docherty climbed into a share of second with a 66. Two years before Holt cleared the field, he was going through Monday qualifying for the PGA Tour Americas circuit.
He isn't the only winner here who was just breaking through. Every edition since 2022 has been played at Winding Bay: Brandon Harkins in 2022, Ben Silverman in 2023, Aldrich Potgieter in 2024, Sudarshan Yellamaraju in 2025 and Holt in 2026. Potgieter's win made him the youngest winner in Korn Ferry Tour history, and Harkins, Yellamaraju and Holt all won their first Korn Ferry Tour titles on this course. The course was also the host for the first three editions, starting with Andrew Landry in 2017. The 2020 edition was played at Baha Mar's Royal Blue course.
The Bahamian Spot in the Field
Each of the two Bahamas events holds a single place for a Bahamian player, and the Bahamas Golf Federation runs a qualifier for each one. In January 2025, The Tribune reported that Devaughn Robinson won the Abaco spot and Cameron Riley won the spot for the other Bahamas event. For 2026, The Nassau Guardian reported that a 16-year-old Bahamian junior qualified through the exemption qualifier. He was the only host-country player and the youngest in the field. In a year when 40 cards are on offer, the Bahamian qualifier is the one storyline in the field that starts at home.
Following the Rounds From Anywhere
The official event site lists live Golf Channel coverage for all four round days in 2027. In 2026, the broadcast windows were 2 to 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and 1 to 4 p.m. ET for Wednesday's final round, which puts the last holes on screen in the afternoon, when last January's gusts were blowing. An owner who heads home after the Saturday awards party can still watch the finish on the 575-yard 18th from wherever the week ends. The event posts updates as @BahamasKFTour on Instagram and X, and as KFT242 on Facebook.
If you're planning January at Winding Bay around the pro-am, a foursome of guests or the four weekday rounds, the team at The Agency Bahamas knows South Abaco's calendar and the people who keep it running. Contact the team now!
