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TSN Senior Reporter

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After a wicked weather week in Bermuda, the PGA Tour heads to Mexico for the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, which is located near Playa del Carmen, a spot familiar to many Canadian snowbirds. The field is much deeper here, with seven of the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking set to tee it up.

The El Camaleon Golf Course was designed by Greg Norman and winds its way through holes lined by thick brush, mangrove wetlands and, finally, the Caribbean sea coast. There are also several cenotes or sinkholes on the course, which might best be described as super-charged ball-grabbing bunkers.

It’s a short course by PGA Tour standards, coming in under 7,100 yards, with rough that isn’t that penal. That means plenty of low scores with four of the last five winners breaking -20.

Past champs include short knockers such as Brendan Todd and Graeme McDowell. Those with great short games will likely be up near the top of the leaderboard this week.

 

Favourites

Abraham Ancer +1500

Playing at home, you wonder if Ancer gets the same treatment as Canadian players do at the RBC Canadian Open where they are asked time and time again about winning in their native land. This will be Ancer’s seventh time playing in Mayakoba, and he’s been tied for 12th, tied for eighth, tied for 21st and tied for ninth in his last four starts, so his performance has been solid. He’ll need to utilize his usually strong putting skills this week if he week if he wants to win at home.

Tony Finau +3000

Finau has some good results in his five visits to this event with two top-10s and a tie for 16th. He’s only made one start since the Ryder Cup, that being a tie for 45th at the CJ Cup, but he did have a stellar finish to last season with a win, a tie for 15th and a tie for 11th in the three FedEx Cup playoff events. His good short game won’t hurt around this place.

 

Mid-Range

Billy Horschel +3100

Great run here in the last two editions with a tie for fifth and a tie for eighth. Horschel is making his season debut at this tournament but picked up a big win in September at the European Tour’s BMW Championship. That came after he finished up the PGA Tour campaign with a tie for ninth at the Tour Championship.

Patrick Reed +3700

After a lacklustre finish to last season brought on by illness, Reed played brilliantly through the awful Sunday weather in Bermuda to finish tied for second. That’s his best finish since his win at the Farmers Insurance Open last January. Owner of one of the best short games in on the PGA Tour, Reed should be able to make plenty of birdies on this course.

 

Dark Horses

Adam Long +10000

A tie for third and a runner-up finish in his last two appearances at this tournament show that Long likes the El Camaleon course. During those two finishes, he was a combined 36 under par. So far this year he’s had two top-30 finishes and two missed cuts but what stands out is his hot putter. He’s ranked eighth in Strokes Gained: Putting through that quartet of starts.

Graeme McDowell +16000

A winner here back in 2015, McDowell is coming off a forgettable golf season hampered by injuries and the desire to be at home with his kids. But he’s declared himself healthy and raring to go with the new season. He posted a solid tie for 12th last week in Bermuda and has won in the Caribbean and on Paspalum grass before at Punta Cana back in 2019.