Find Me a 100 Winner: Get with the monstrously long hitters in Mexico

Steven Rawlings
27 April 2022
4 min read

Kurt Kitayama - fancied to take to this week's course in Mexico

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The DP World Tour remains in Spain for the inaugural Catalunya Championship and the PGA Tour takes in the Mexico Open for the first time. Our man has longshot selections for both events here...

"Kurt Kitayama won his second DP World Tour event (the 2019 Oman Open) on a long, coastal, wide open Greg Norman design with paspalum fairways and greens."

As highlighted in the preview, although the Catalunya Championship is a brand-new event on the DP World Tour, we have plenty of course form to look back on as the Stadium Course has been used for four other DP World Tour events and it was also the Q-school venue between 2008 and 2016 but my sole selection, Aaron Cockerill, is playing the course for the first time.

Cockerill can keep the good run going

The Stadium Course at the PGA Catalunya Resort is a tricky tree-lined track where I suspect we'll get a winning score of somewhere between 10 and 15 under-par and it might just correlate neatly with another tree-lined venue - Muthaiga Golf Club - which the DP World Tour visited at the beginning of March.

Ashun Wu won the Kenya Open at Muthaiga by four strokes on 16-under-par and he's a viable triple-figure option here but given his form figures since read a regressive 23-25-49-MC, Arron Cockerill, who finished tied for second on -12, may make for a better option at a similar price.

That second in Kenya is the Canadian's best result on the DP World Tour but unlike Wu, Cockerill has maintained his momentum.

He followed his Kenyan second with a 28th in the MyGolfLife Open, a 21st at the Qatar Masters, and days after celebrating his 30th birthday, he finished third last week in the ISPS Handa Championship in Spain, where he traded at a low of 2.942/1.

There's obviously a risk that there could be some degree of mental let down after Sunday's disappointment, but I like tracking players around significant life events, like a 30th birthday, and I was impressed by the way he performed on Sunday.

Aaron Cockerill.jpg

Having been tied for the lead through three rounds, he opened round four with three straight birdies and after a double-bogey at the 10th, he fought back brilliantly with three more birdies in-a-row from the 11th to tie the lead again. And had it not been for Pablo Larrazabal's brilliance, he may well have fared better than third.

2 pts Aaron Cockerill @ 130.0129/1
Place order to lay 10u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.01/1

Get with monstrously long in Mexico

As highlighted in the preview, the Mexico Open at Vidanta has been elevated to a PGA Tour event for the first time this week and it's also taking in a brand-new venue - the imaginatively named Greg Norman designed - Norman Signature Course at Vidanta Vallarta - for the first time too.

That makes things tricky for us punters but measuring in at almost 7,500 yards, with wide open fairways and little rough, it looks like a bomber's paradise and I'm keen to side with the big hitters.

Peter Uihlein certainly gets it out there from the tee and having won on the Korn Ferry Tour for a second time almost a year ago and having been beaten in a playoff at the Louisiana Open a month ago, he might just be ready to step up and win on the biggest stage of all in a tournament that isn't that strong.

2 pts Peter Uihlein @ 160.0159/1
Place order to lay 10u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.01/1

At an even bigger price, Kurt Kitayama looks an even better fit.

The 29-year-old Californian, who finished third in the Honda Classic at the end of February, should take to this track like a duck to water.

He won his first DP World Tour event on Bermuda at the Mauritius Open (the same surface as used at PGA National - home of the Honda) but he won his second (the 2019 Oman Open) on a long, coastal, wide open Greg Norman design with paspalum fairways and greens.

I highlighted the few courses used on the PGA Tour with paspalum in the preview but if I was to pick one track out that's been played on either of the major Tours that matches this new venue the best, , Al Mouj Golf in Muscat, where Kitayama won three years ago, despite racking up a quadruple-bogey eight on the first hole in round three, would probably be it.

1 pt Kurt Kitayama @ 240.0239/1
Place order to lay 10u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.01/1

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter