World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba Betting Underdogs
With only three events left in the fall portion of the PGA Tour’s 2021-2022 wraparound season, some of the top players have decided to take a shot at the wealth of available FedEx Cup points and prize money available in the remainder of the calendar year. Thirteen of the top 32 players in the world are in the field at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, including defending champion Viktor Hovland who is ranked 11th in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).
There are also 14 former major champions with 18 wins in those events playing this week, representing one of the deepest fields of the season. Seven members of the recent Ryder Cup teams from the United States and Europe will be playing, with a number of Presidents Cup hopefuls from both squads also teeing it up at the 7,017 yards, par 71 Greg Norman designed El Camaleón Golf Course in Riviera Maya, Mexico.
Hovland won his second Tour event last year by firing a final round 65 with a 72nd hole birdie to hold off hard-charging Aaron Wise, who moved up the leaderboard with a closing 63 to finish in second place by a shot, two strokes clear of Tom Hoge and Adam Long who tied for third. The winning score of 20 under par of 264 was two shots shy of the tournament record of 262 set by Matt Kuchar in 2019, but fairly indicative of what it takes to win at El Camaleón.
Betting Odds
Seventh-ranked Justin Thomas leads the wagering odds at +1100 in his second tournament entry of the season and first since the CJ Cup @ Summit where he finished in a tie for 18th. He’s followed at +1600 by defending champion Hovland and Tony Finau with odds of +2200, who broke through in a playoff event to pick up his second Tour win after over five years of trying to add to his initial victory.
Brooks Koepka, four-time major winner and the United States Ryder Cup team member, is at +2500 along with former FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel and Abraham Ancer, who is looking to become the first Mexican golfer to win a Tour event on his home soil. Two other Ryder Cup participants Tyrell Hatton and Scottie Scheffler are at +2800 followed by Patrick Reed and Aaron Wise with odds of +3000 to round out the top ten.
Underdog Picks
Matthew Wolff appears to have addressed some of the issues he faced in the spring that prompted him to take a break from the Tour, finishing in second place in his last start in the Shriners Children’s Open which followed a tie for 17th in the Sanderson Farms Championship. At +3300, 2019 3M Open champion is in a good position to pick up his second career Tour win.
Eventually, Rickie Fowler will return to the winners’ circle in a PGA Tour event, and in three trips to El Camaleón, he has a second-place finish, a tie or 16th, and a missed cut. He has success on the course and the five-time Tour winner will continue to be a sentimental favorite, especially at +5000.
Another sentimental pick is Matt Kuchar at +7000, who owns the course record and won his eighth of nine PGA Tour wins in this event in the first of his two victories in 2019. Kuchar hasn’t played well in the last six months, but he wouldn’t be the first player to bounce back to win in a fall event after a tough stretch of poor play.
