Horses for Courses: Mexico Open at Vidanta
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For the first time in history, the 62nd Mexico Open is an official PGATOUR event and for the first time in history it will be played at Vidanta Vallarta's Greg Norman Signature Course.
The PGATOUR is quite familiar with golf in Mexico and Greg Norman course design. Both angles are checked off annually at Norman's Mayakoba El Camaleon resort course at Playa del Carmen since 2007.
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The golf will shift from west coast to east coast but the elevation (sea level) and Paspalum will remain the same. The jungles, quarries and mangroves of Playa del Carmen will be replaced by lakes and mountain views but the course design features will be similar. With plenty of room to navigate off the tee and large undulating greens ready to receive approach shots, Vidanta will feel will resemble the challenge at Mayakoba, although no two courses are the same. Paspalum grass from tee box thru the green will less of an adjustment to those who have already played on it at Corales and Puerto Rico.
Scoring at Mayakoba, another resort course, has been 18-under or better in the last six editions with 20-under being the lowest total of the last three years. Mayakoba barely stretches to 7,000 yards but this week has been beefed up to 7,456 yards (Par-71) and has doubled the amount of bunkers (to 106) to challenge the best of the TOUR. Water penalty areas will be in play on 11 holes stemming from six lakes on property. Sea breezes later in the day will blow across the property adding more challenges.
The field of 144 will be cut to the top 65 and ties after two rounds. The remaining players will jockeying for their share of the $7.3 million purse with the winner taking home $1.314 million, 500 FedExCup Points plus all of the benefits of winning an official PGATOUR event.
Let's find some horses for courses!
Horses for Courses
(Leading all-time money winners at Mayakoba in the field this week)
| Mayakoba All-Time Money entered this week (rank/cuts made/events entered) | Top 10s | Top 25 | 2022 BET MGM ODDS Win, Top 10, Top 20 |
| * previous winners BOLD | |||
| Pat Perez (2nd; 8/10) | 3 | 5 | +8000; +700; +300 |
| Carlos Ortiz (4th; 6/8) | 4 | 4 | +6600; +500; +225 |
| Brendon Tood (6th; 4/6) | 2 | 3 | +4000; +400; +190 |
| Danny Lee (7th; 6/8) | 3 | 4 | +12500; +800; +350 |
| Russell Knox (8th; 8/9) | 3 | 4 | +5000; +450; +200 |
| Brian Stuard (10th; 7/9) | 3 | 4 | +10000; +800; +350 |
| Graeme McDowell (11th; 5/8) | 1 | 3 | +15000; +1000; +450 |
| Charles Howell III (12th; 11/13) | 3 | 9 | +5000; +450; +200 |
| Aaron Wise (15th; 4/6) | 2 | 3 | +2200; +225; +100 |
| John Huh (17th; 7/9) | 1 | 5 | +10000; +900; +400 |
| Adam Long (18th; 3/3) | 2 | 3 | +5000; +450; +200 |
| Brice Garnett (20th; 6/8) | 3 | 5 | +12500; +1100; +450 |
| Johnson Wagner (21st; 5/8) | 2 | 3 | +50000; +4000; +1600 |
| Abraham Ancer (24th; 6/7) | 3 | 5 | +1600; +175; -125 |
| Gary Woodland (25th; 4/6) | 1 | 1 | +2200; +220; +100 |
Odds sourced on Tuesday, April 26 at 1 p.m. ET. For live odds visit betmgm.
Recent Event Winner Stats
(Top recent finishers from 2021-2022 on Paspalum)
| Corales Puntacana Championship | Puerto Rico Open | World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba |
| Top Finishers (2/21/2022) | Top Finishers (2/28/2022) | Top Finishers (11/1/2021) |
| 01 Chad Ramey | 02 Max McGreevey | 02 Carlos Oritz |
| 02 Ben Martin | 03 Tommy Gainey | 07 Abraham Ancer |
| 02 Alex Smalley | 03 Brandon Wu | 07 Danny Lee |
| 07 David Lipsky | 05 Chad Ramey | 11 Brendon Todd |
| 07 Adam Schenk | 05 Callum Tarren | 15 John Huh |
| 07 Brian Stuard | 07 Brice Garnett | 15 Aaron Rai |
| 07 Martin Trainer | 07 Mark Hensby | 15 Michael Thompson |
| 11 Bryson Nimmer | 07 Nate Lashley | 15 Aaron Wise |
| 11 Andrew Novak | 07 Vaughn Taylor | 22 Adam Long |
| 13 Hayden Buckely | 16 Ben Kohles | 22 Andrew Novak |
| 13 Kramer Hickok | 16 David Lingmerth | 27 Doug Ghim |
| 15 Ryan Armour | 22 Patrick Flavin | 27 James Hahn |
| 15 Wesley Bryan | 22 Ricky Barnes | 27 Brian Stuard |
| 15 Nate Lashley | 22 Sung Kang | |
| 15 Justin Lower | 22 Andrew Novak | |
| 22 Wyndham Clark | 22 Brian Stuard | |
| 22 Chase Seiffert | ||
| 22 Sahith Theegala | ||
| 25 Greyson Sigg | ||
| 25 Vaughn Taylor |
Notes
Patrick Reed won the WGC-Mexico Championship in 2020 inland at altitude. ... Carlos Ortiz is 53-under in his last three starts in Mexico besting Brendon Todd (49-under) and Adam Long (48-under). ... Long has the lowest stroke average at Mayakoba at 67.00. ... Martin Trainer is the only player in the field who has won twice in Mexico regardless of TOUR. ... Russell Knox broke a streak of eight straight in November. ... Graeme McDowell's best payday since his victory is T23. ... Charles Howell III is making his 16th start in Mexico and leads the field with nine top 10s in Mexico. ... Danny Lee is 44-under in his last three visits and nothing worse than T26 in five of six. ... Ortiz has the most top 10s (4) of anyone entered. ... Gary Woodland (2nd, 2017) hasn't posted better than T34 in his last four visits.
Key stat leaders
Top golfers in each statistic on the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week.
| Strokes Gained: Tee to Green | |
| Rank | Player |
| 2 | Jon Rahm |
| 9 | Chris Kirk |
| 28 | Russell Knox |
| 30 | Aaron Wise |
| 35 | Matt Jones |
| 37 | Tyler Duncan |
| 38 | Gary Woodland |
| 41 | Tony Finau |
| 45 | Charles Howell III |
| 47 | Austin Smotherman |
| 48 | Chase Seiffert |
| 49 | CT Pan |
| Strokes Gained: Putting | |
| Rank | Player |
| 5 | Kelly Kraft |
| 5 | Brendon Todd |
| 12 | Martin Trainer |
| 17 | Adam Long |
| 20 | Jim Knous |
| 23 | Joshua Creel |
| 30 | Kevin Tway |
| 32 | Scott Stallings |
| 36 | Sung Kang |
| 39 | Wyndham Clark |
| 40 | Gary Woodland |
| 41 | Jonathan Byrd |
| 42 | Vince Whaley |
| 45 | Dylan Wu |
| Scoring Average | |
| Rank | Player |
| 28 | Aaron Wise |
| 32 | Chris Kirk |
| 35 | Mark Hubbard |
| 36 | Russell Knox |
| 36 | Cameron Tringale |
| 42 | Abraham Ancer |
| 42 | Charles Howell III |
| 44 | Matt Jones |
| 46 | Tyler Duncan |
| 55 | Nate Lashley |