World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba
Overview
Dates: November 3, 2022 to November 6, 2022
Location: Riviera Maya, Mexico
Course: El Camaleon Golf Course at Mayakoba
Course Par: 71
Course Length: 7034 yards
Prize Purse: $7200000
Viktor Hovland is looking to win the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba for a third consecutive year, while Form Golfer are chasing our third consecutive tournament winner. PGA Tour Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler and two-time major winner Collin Morikawa are also teeing it up in Mexico. Despite the return to action of some of the bigger names and a stronger field than in Bermuda for sure, the field isn’t particularly deep and once again we’ve identified the value plays.
Results
Ultimately neither we nor Viktor Hovland were successful in the hunt for three-in-a-row, as Russell Henley produced a performance that nothing in his recent form suggested might be about to happen. For what it’s worth, I’d view that result as an anomaly and still view him as someone who’s likely to be costly to follow in the long run.
We got four of our six picks into the weekend, with both Taylor Montgomery and Lee Hodges looking to have lively chances of making the places before fading. Nothing to show for our efforts in the final analysis though, but we’re still showing a nice profit through the early stages of the season.
Preview
Mexico is the destination this week and course specialist Viktor Hovland is going for his third straight win at El Camaleon. He looks to be the obvious place to start in the hunt for the winner, but is he value at around the 11/1 mark? Scottie Scheffler has the chance to return to world number one and is vying for favouritism with Hovland. We think the value lies outside these two though.
It’s hard to know exactly what type of player we’re looking for this week – on balance it appears that there are a variety of ways to compile a low score at El Camaleon. One of Hovland’s wins was based on hitting a bunch of greens in regulation, while the other required a hot putter. Weighing in at just a shade over 7000 yards, it’s certainly not one of the longer tests on tour and perhaps represents a good chance for those who favour accuracy over brute force.
Outrights
| Player | Points | Type | UK Odds | Places | Outright US Odds |
| Taylor Montgomery | 3 | each way | 28/1 | 8 | +2800 |
| Andrew Putnam | 2 | each way | 66/1 | 8 | +6600 |
| KH Lee | 2 | each way | 45/1 | 8 | +6000 |
| Robby Shelton | 1.5 | each way | 80/1 | 8 | +8000 |
| SH Kim | 1.5 | each way | 125/1 | 8 | +13000 |
| Lee Hodges | 1 | each way | 80/1 | 8 | +10000 |
It won’t surprise regular readers to discover that leading the way for us this week is Taylor Montgomery (3pts each way, 28/1, 8 places). There’s not much to say that I’ve not said already in write-ups of this lad, but he remains one of the hottest players on tour (5 straight top 15s), is showing signs of being one of the finest putters in the world and has plenty of room to improve further. With doubts about some of the favourites, he has to be included.
Andrew Putnam (2pts each way, 66/1, 8 places) definitely fits the ‘accuracy over power’ mould and is another who comes into this in fine recent form, with a string of cuts made including several top 30s. His price jumps off the page as being decent value.
KH Lee (2pts each way, 45/1, 8 places) seems to be running into peak form and the fact that he has proven he can get over the line when in contention gets me interested at the price available. He’s the kind of player that is likely to pop up several times a season with big performances and can really post some low numbers when in the mood. All aspects of his game have been in good shape recently, which bodes well at a course with no clear evidence to favour one particular aspect of the game. Prices as big as 66/1 are apparently available with some smaller firms at the time of writing, but to be honest I’d be surprised if you could get much on, so we’ll use the more readily available price for our profit/loss figures.
I’m happy to give Robby Shelton (1.5pts each way, 80/1, 8 places) another chance after a good showing for most of last week providing further evidence that his second stint on the main tour may be more productive than his first. The field is a little deeper this week, but at twice the price we got for him in Bermuda, I’m happy to go in again.
Another player getting a second chance is SH Kim (1.5pts each way, 125/1, 8 places) who disappointed last week but to my mind the market has over-reacted to one poor showing. Remember he was only around 33/1 last week and we can get triple-figure prices this week. Anyone who’s played golf knows that form can come (and go) very quickly in this game, so it’s well worth taking the chance that last week was the anomaly.
Finally, we’ll go with Lee Hodges (1pt each way, 80/1, 8 places), who has missed a couple of cuts lately but in between times put in some very solid showings. Again it’s price rather than an overwhelming claim on the data that persuades me to get involved; I wasn’t expecting prices this big to be available about another player who could still be improving.
It was hard to leave out Collin Morikawa, for whom I feel a big week is overdue and he would just have to get his putter rolling to make prices around 20/1 look far too big. Scheffler and Hovland are easily enough left alone at the prices – Scheffler in particular has looked a way off his imperious form of last year for a while now (perhaps he’s one of the ‘big names’ that LIV are lining up for 2023). Jason Day was the other that was closely considered for inclusion, but the price was just a little short to get me excited given he’s not yet shown very much consistency as he works back towards full fitness and form.
Ultimately neither we nor Viktor Hovland were successful in the hunt for three-in-a-row, as Russell Henley produced a performance that nothing in his recent form suggested might be about to happen. For what it’s worth, I’d view that result as an anomaly and still view him as someone who’s likely to be costly to follow in the long run.
We got four of our six picks into the weekend, with both Taylor Montgomery and Lee Hodges looking to have lively chances of making the places before fading. Nothing to show for our efforts in the final analysis though, but we’re still showing a nice profit through the early stages of the season.