World Wide Technology Championship Tips: Dave Tindall's picks from 22/1 to 80/1

• 22/123.00 Matti Schmid is the form horse and can bank a first win

• 75/176.00 Nate Lashley was 10th here last year and needs a good week

• 80/181.00 Hayden Springer is on the bubble but can go low

We're three tournaments away from the finishing line for PGA Tour Golf in 2024.

And after a week off following the shock win for Colombia's Nico Echavarria at the ZOZO Championship in Japan, the tour pitches up in Mexico.

With regular host venue, El Camaleón, being picked off by LIV, last year the tournament moved to El Cardonal, a new course situated in the golfing resort of Los Cabos.

It's a Tiger Woods design, the great man leaning on his experiences of classic California courses.

But with generous fairways and no rough, the pros - as they usually do at resort courses - had a field day when it debuted in 2023.

Erik van Rooyen won with 27-under and 30 players shot 17-under or better.

However, Tiger's bid to make this different from yet another bomber's paradise did work out as just two of the top 14 finishers ranked in the top 20 for Driving Distance.

Fairways were extremely easy to find and although the stats show that joint runner-up Matt Kuchar ranked only 44th for Driving Accuracy, he still hit 91.1%.

Adam Long hit every single one of them - 56 out of 56! That hadn't happened on the PGA Tour since 1992.

Justin Suh topped the Greens In Regulation stats, peppering 93.1%, and all the top eight found over 84% in the right number.

In benign conditions, it came down to the flatstick with the top seven finishers featuring the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th best putters (rated by Putting Average) of the week. No Strokes Gained numbers were recorded.

El Cardonal is a par 72 measuring 7,452 yards and features Paspalum grass. That should help us in our search, with form at the Mexico Open, Corales Puntacana and Puerto Rico Open worth a look given that they feature that same seaside strain.

Matti Schmid @ 22/123.00

In such a weak field - Max Greyserman is the 16/117.00 favourite - we have plenty of players at prices that seem hard to accept.

But if there's one rising star who may justify fairly short odds it has to be Matti Schmid at 22/123.00.

The German - the DP World Tour Rookie of the Year in 2021 after finishing Low Amateur at the Open Championship - is really starting to make an impact on the PGA Tour.

Four years at the University of Louisville gave him a solid grounding in golf Stateside and during the Fall Series Playoff events he's literally been getting better by the week.

After a 17th in the European Masters at Crans he returned to the United States and has reeled off finishes of 58-40-16-5-3.

The last three all came in October: 16th at the Sanderson Farms, fifth in the Black Desert Championship and third at the Shriners.

He's a combined 54-under in those three events so in perfect shape to cash in on a birdie-fest like this.

Schmid is worthy of a bet on current form alone but it helps that he had three good rounds here last year - 65-68-73-67 when tied 38th.

Sixth after 18 holes and still in the top 10 after 36, it was clearly a course he took to well.

Since then, the 26-year-old has made two starts on Paspalum grass and he performed strongly in both.

In March's Puerto Rico Open he was second with a lap to go before finishing 10th while just over a month later he added 11th at the Corales Puntacana.

After his top three in Las Vegas, Schmid said: "I go back home. Today actually there is a direct flight to Germany and then I go to Jackson for a week and practice."

Refreshed and raring to go again, this looks a great opportunity for him to get a first PGA Tour win on the board.

Nate Lashley @ 75/176.00

Taking Paspalum form and FedEx Cup ranking into account certainly proved a profitable strategy here last year.

Winner Erik van Rooyen sat right on the bubble at 125th while he'd shown his chops on Paspalum with a first, second and third in various locations around the world in his DP World Tour/Challenge Tour days.

So let's have a bet on Nate Lashley at 75s.

The American won't think he's safe yet at 107th in the FedEx Cup and this should be his best chance to get over the line and maybe even push for a top 60 place that brings the added rewards of getting into early-season Signature Series events.

Lashley has a top-notch record on Paspalum courses, registering seven top 10s in 18 starts.

That includes a win at the Corales Puntacana back in 2017, seventh (2022) and third (2023) in recent editions of the Puerto Rico Open and 10th in this very event last year.

Lashley was second after an opening 64 and finished strongly with a 66.

As for current form, there's plenty of encouragement there too.

He fired a pair of 65s on the way to 29th in Las Vegas and at the ZOZO Championship in Japan Lashley shot middle rounds of 66-63 to sit fourth in an elite field after 54 holes before ending 16th after a closing 71.

Also third in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines at the start of 2024, the 41-year-old loves a bit of coastal golf so let's back him at 75/176.00.

Hayden Springer @ 80/181.00

At 123rd in the FedEx Cup, Hayden Springer is in even great danger of losing his card.

But, as with Lashley, this isn't just about finding something due to incentive - even though that could easily prove a big factor.

Starting with Paspalum form, Springer hasn't played on it much but earlier this year in Puerto Rico he shot 68-65-69-68 to finish tied third, his best finish of this season.

Springer doesn't win any awards for consistency and you'll find a bunch of missed cuts when perusing his form.

But another reading of his last 10 results shows a trio of top 10s - a 10th at the Rocket Mortgage, seventh in the John Deere Classic and eighth at last month's Sanderson Farms Championship where he ranked 1st for Strokes Gained: Putting.

At the John Deere, he carded a magical 59, becoming just the 13th player to shoot a sub-60 on the PGA Tour. It came after a run of seven missed cuts in his previous eight starts.

His finishes in those events all bode well for someone trying to rack up the birdies - he was 21-under at the John Deere and 19-under in the Sanderson Farms.

The pattern of his play shows that when he's on, he's on, so let's hope it's a 'go' week for Springer and that he can do us a favour at 80s.

Read Steve Rawlings' Abu Dhabi Championship preview here