Damien Kayat previews the 2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba taking place at the El Cameleon Golf Club.
2021 US PGA Tour
World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba
El Cameleon Golf Club, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
4th-7th November
Lucas Herbert’s victory in Bermuda last week actually made it three consecutive victories for non-Americans on the PGA Tour. The Aussie will once again be teeing it up this week as the Tour continues visiting some of the most beautiful courses in world golf. The PGA Tour moves from one coastal event to another, swapping the idyllic Bermuda setting for the equally captivating climes of Mexico. This will be the first PGA Tour event staged in Mexico this year after the WGC event was moved to Florida due to Covid-19 logistics. This event was first staged back in 2007 and this will be the 15th consecutive edition. The event has acquired a fancy new sponsorship deal that has resulted in quite a captivating November field. Nine of the world’s top 25 will be in attendance this week as we once again tee off from the Greg Norman-designed El Cameleon.
Opened in 2006, El Cameleon has a wonderfully schizophrenic design that combines jungle, marshland and coastal gusts. Quite a number of the holes run adjacent to the Caribbean Sea, making wind a potential factor. The picturesque par 71 only measures a smidge under 7,000 yards. This would suggest that length could overwhelm this unique Paspalum layout. But the tree-lined fairways and sticky rough could seriously punish any errant driving. But once players are in the fairway there are plenty of scoring opportunities out there. Since this event moved from its original February date to its current fall setting, the average winning score has been 19.75 under par. Any player who keeps it consistently in the fairway this week should prosper. Players will need to be accurate with their short irons as they look to attack these smaller-than-average greens.
Justin Thomas understandably leads the markets while Viktor Hovland returns to defend his title from last year. Abraham Ancer will be looking to match Hideki Matsuyama’s recent heroics by lifting a PGA Tour title in front of his fanatical fans. He won the WGC event in August and he has a decent record at El Cameleon. Billy Horschel and Tony Finau are in excellent form and could be strong dark horses this week. Brooks Koepka looks like decent value at 33/1 while there are plenty of apparent course specialists who should offer excellent value this week. The likes of Aaron Wise and Rickie Fowler should offer great value further down the betting pyramid.
Past Winners (at Mayakoba)
2020: Viktor Hovland (-20)
2019: Brendon Todd (-20)
2018: Matt Kuchar (-22)
2017: Patton Kizzire (-19)
2016: Pat Perez (-21)
To Win Outright:
Justin Thomas 14/1 | Viktor Hovland 18/1 | Abraham Ancer 20/1 | Tony Finau 25/1 | Billy Horschel 30/1
Value Bets
Talor Gooch- To Win 40/1 | To Place 17/2
Gooch will be making his 3rd appearance at El Cameleon this week. But he doesn’t possess much form in his previous appearances. I’m selecting him on the basis of his excellent current form. He finished T4 at the Fortinet Championship prior to a T11 at the Shriners Children’s Open. He also collected an excellent T5 at the CJ Cup. He is currently 3rd on tour for Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green and 7th for Scoring Average.
Rickie Fowler- To Win 45/1 | To Place 19/2
Rickie Fowler is slowly starting to get his game back into shape and he needs a couple of big results to secure Major Championship golf next season. A recent T3 at the CJ Cup seemed to show that he may be ready to emerge from the doldrums of world golf. El Cameleon is also a course that perfectly suits his game. He finished in solo 2nd in 2018 before a decent 16th place finish in 2019. I have been backing him relentlessly of late and I see no point in stopping this week.
The Man to Beat- Abraham Ancer- To Win 20/1 | To Place 44/10
I am leaning towards Abraham Ancer emulating Matsuyama’s recent performance at the Zozo Championship. Ancer has had a fairly quiet start to the season, with a T14 finish at the CJ Cup his best result thus far. But Ancer will be returning to El Cameleon as a PGA Tour champion after claiming the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August. He also possesses an excellent record at this course, finishing in the top 12 in three of his last four visits. It’s little wonder that he does so well on these tight, intricate affairs. In 2020 he ranked 5th on the tour in Driving Accuracy and 22nd for GIR.
