The 2020 PGA Tour is beginning to heat up and this week we head to Mexico for the 2nd World Golf Championship event of the season. The top golfers in the world will converge in Mexico, competing for a monster $10,500,000 prize pool and the all-important Fed Ex Cup points on offer.
As usual, we have a full preview and betting tips for the weekend’s action below.
WGC-Mexico Championship Betting Picks
It has been a scramble for some golfers in the past few weeks in an attempt to get into the top 50 ranked players in the world to earn automatic qualification into the WGC-Mexico event. The top players in the world will be just one week removed from the Genesis Open, which was won by Adam Scott, who became the third Australian in just six weeks to win on the PGA Tour.
The Field
As we mentioned above, the top 50 players in the world golf rankings automatically qualify for the WGC event, while the rest of the field will be made up of top players from both the Fed Ex Cup rankings and the European Race to Dubai.
As you’d expect with such strict qualification rules, it is an absolute star-studded field for the WGC-Mexico event. Six of the top 10 golfers in the world will be competing in Mexico, headlined by European duo Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, who are arguably the two in-form golfers in the world at the moment.
The other names at the top of the list include the likes of Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Xander Schuffele, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott and Gary Woodland.
Notable absentees from the top ranked golfers in the world include No.2 Brooks Koepka, No.8 Tiger Woods and No.10 Justin Rose.
The Course
The Club de Golf Chapultepec is a 7,345 yard, Par 71 which was designed by brothers Willie and Alex Smith, a two-time U.S. Open winner and was the primary site for the Mexican Open from 1944-1960. Since 1960, the club has hosted the tournament on four occasions, and will host the WGC-Mexico event for the fourth consecutive year this season.
Altitude is a massive factor at Club de Golf Chapultepec, which at it’s highest point, sits about 7,800 feet above sea level. This means that long hitters will hit the ball even further at this altitude, giving them a massive advantage, particularly on the Par 4’s which are regularly approached with wedges.
Dustin Johnson has had great success at the course, winning two of the three tournaments there so far, while other long hitters in the likes of Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy have also performed well over the past three years.
Betting Tips
Long drivers are our focus this weekend, so how can we look past the in-form Jon Rahm. Rahm has been spectacular this season but is yet to record a win. In five events, the Spaniard has racked up five top 20 finishes, including a 2nd at the Hero World Challenge, 10th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, 2nd at the Farmers Insurance and a T9 at the Waste Management Open.
Rahm was impressive back in 2017 at the WGC-Mexico event, finishing T3 behind only Dustin Johnson and Tommy Fleetwood. He is one of the best drivers of the ball on tour, sitting in 12th place on tour in shots gained off the tee and averaging over 300 yards with the big stick.
If you’re hunting some serious value this weekend, don’t look past young Aussie gun Lucas Herbert, who will be competing in his first WGC event. The 24 year old captured the first big win of his career just a few weeks ago when he won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, surging into the top 80 in the world and earning a big pay day.
Herbert is a long driver of the ball, averaging almost 310 yards and ranking highly in shots gained off the tee in the European Tour. Definitely an outside chance this week but with the success of the Aussies of late, Herbert could finish with a decent placing.
Lucas Herbert top 40
$2.40
