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World Wide Technology Championship tournament history

Fred Funk won the inaugural edition of the World Wide Technology Championship (initially called the Mayakoba Golf Classic) as recently as 2007.

The first six editions of the event were played in February as an opposite field event to the now defunct WGC Match Play before it switched to this November slot in the schedule 13 years ago.

The first 16 editions of the World Wide Technology Championship were held at El Camaleón Golf Course in Playa del Carmen but the PGA Tour decided to end its relationship with Mayakoba after El Camaleón was used on the LIV Golf Tour for the first time three years ago so the event was moved to a brand-new venue- the Tiger Woods designed El Cardonal Golf Course within the Diamante Cabo San Lucas resort.

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Venue

El Cardonal Golf Course, Diamante Cabo San Lucas resort, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

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Course details

Par 72, 7,452

El Cardonal at Diamante is Tiger Woods' first design and it opened as recently as 2014.

The course was inspired by the old-style Southern Californian layouts Tiger grew up playing and the designer had this to say about his first design prior to the 2023 renewal.

"El Cardonal is going to remind people of the old-style California courses.

"I set up the golf strategy to make golfers think and make choices. Regardless of your handicap, there are going to be different ways to play every hole. Angles of approach are going to be very important and will dictate the type of shots you should consider. I love this kind of golf."

Starting and finishing with a par five, El Cardonal is a standard par 72 layout (36-36) with four long holes and four short ones and water is in play on just one hole.

The bunkers have a traditional look while natural, irregular contours have been preserved on the generous fairways, which average 60 yards in width.

The entire layout is Platinum paspalum which is the same grass at the Norman Signature Course at Vidanta Vallarta - the host course for last week's Mexico Open.

The much bigger than average greens have been set at between 11 and 11.5 for the first three editions and with no rough to contend with, this is a very easy layout.

The three winning scores have ranged between 24-under-par and 29-under-par.

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Weather forecast 

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TV coverage         

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 20:00 on Thursday.

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Last 10 winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2025 - Ben Griffin -29 17.016/1
2024 - Austin Eckroat -24 42.041/1
2023 - Erik Van Rooyen -27 80.079/1
2022 - Russell Henley -24 55.054/1
2021 - Viktor Hovland -24 21.020/1
2020 - Viktor Hovland -20 28.027/1
2019 - Brendon Todd -20 110.0109/1
2018 - Matt Kuchar -22 85.084/1
2017 - Patton Kizzire -19 85.084/1
2016 - Pat Perez -21 150.0149/1

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A statistical look at the three editions at El Cardonal

No Strokes Gained stats have been produced for the tournament since it's venue switch but here are the top five and ties from the first three editions at El Cardonal with traditional stats.

(Key: DD - Driving Distance; DA - Driving Accuracy; GIR - Greens in Regulation; SC - Scrambling; PA - Putting Average)

2023
Erik Van Rooyen -27 DD 43 DA 27 GIR 18 SC 29 PA 2
Matt Kuchar -25 DD 56 DA 44 GIR 16 SC 29 PA 1
Camilo Villegas -25 DD 49 DA 27 GIR 14 SC 29 PA 4
Justin Suh -24 DD 4 DA 44 GIR 1 SC 69 PA 21
Andrew Putnam -22 DD 65 DA 4 GIR 23 SC 8 PA 7
Ryan Palmer -22 DD 33 DA 65 GIR 2 SC 11 PA 23

2024
Austin Eckroat -24 DD 55 DA 31 GIR 16 SC 13 PA 4
Justin Lower -23 DD 50 DA 10 GIR 2 SC 39 PA 22
Carson Young -23 DD 27 DA 10 GIR 9 SC 13 PA 11
Max Greyserman -23 DD 4 DA 51 GIR 39 SC 13 PA 1
Joe Highsmith -19 DD 2 DA 1 GIR 1 SC 24 PA 29

2025
Ben Griffin -29 DD 60 DA 31 GIR 13 SC 5 PA 2
Sami Valimaki -27 DD 62 DA 4 GIR 2 SC 20 PA 7
Chad Ramey -27 DD 54 DA 4 GIR 38 SC 8 PA 5
Trevor Cone -26 DD 23 DA 17 GIR 1 SC 4 PA 25
Garrick Higgo -26 DD 31 DA 39 GIR 6 SC 40 PA 4

Looking at the stats, neither length not accuracy have been particularly vital off the tee in any of the three editions, but you can't afford to be too wayward.

The fairways are ridiculously wide but as Matt Kuchar demonstrated on Saturday three years ago, one bad drive can be catastrophic.

The Floridian veteran was matched at a low of just 1.222/9 before he recorded a quadruple-bogey eight at the par four 15^th in round three that cost him the title.

Although all three winners have only ranked in the teens for Greens In Regulation, the top two in the GIR rankings for the week have finished inside the top five and ties so that's clearly a stat to consider but as you'd expect with what is basically a birdie-fest, Putting Average has been the key stat in each of the last three years, with the winners ranking second, fourth and second for PA.

Although the scoring has been very low over the last three years, it isn't an entirely defenceless layout.

Stephan Jaegar and Ludvig Aberg were trading at single figures at halfway three years ago, but they demonstrated on Saturday, with rounds of +3 and level par, that this is a tricky place if you're slightly off your game.

Although huge, finding the right spots on the greens is essential, and as the players get more familiar with the course, the more accurate iron players may well prosper over the hot putters in future, especially if the conditions are trickier, but so far, it's been all about how well you perform on the dancefloors.

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Will the Bubble Boys feature again?

Over the last three years, the World Wide Technology Championship has been the fifth of seven FedEx Cup Fall Series events on the PGA Tour, and this year, it's the fourth of six Fall Series events.

Time is running out for anyone outside the crucial top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings and that's been a factor in each of the last three years, with players in need of a good couple of weeks to save their cards raising their game.

Here's the top five and ties for the last three editions, together with where they were in the FedEx Cup standings before and after the event.

Please note, those that were inside the top 50 at the start of the Fall Series don't go up or down in the rankings. Only those outside the top 50 after the Tour Championship, can move up or down.

2023
Erik Van Rooyen -125 - 63
Matt Kuchar -66 - 52
Camilo Villegas -223 - 147
Justin Suh - 77 - 70
Andrew Putnam -Top 50
Ryan Palmer -156 - 136

2024
Austin Eckroat -Top 50
Justin Lower -95 -74
Carson Young -113 - 86
Max Greyserman -Top 50
Joe Highsmith -126 - 112

2025
Ben Griffin -Top 50
Sami Valimaki -103 - 76
Chad Ramey -123 - 89
Trevor Cone -179 -156
Garrick Higgo -57 -52

There's an incentive to finish between 51^st and 60^th at the end of the series as that earns you a spot in to both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational next year.

They're both Signature Events with juicy purses but with just three events to go, the big focus will be on who can finish the series inside the top 100 to secure their playing privileges for next year.

After this week, the Tour takes in the brand-new Austin Championship before signing off with the RSM Classic and anyone outside the top 100 after that event will lose their cards for next season, so the pressure is on.

Over the first two years, players finishing inside the top 125 kept their cards and the first course winner, Van Rooyen, was sitting on number 125 in the FedEx Cup Standings.

Having won the Cognizant Classic in March, Eckroat was safe two years ago, but the two men beaten by a stroke by him, Justin Lower and Carson Young, had been sitting 95^th and 113^th and Joe Highsmith, who finished fifth, had begun the week sitting at 125^th in the Standings.

As was the case in 2024 with Eckroat, last year's winner, Ben Griffin, was inside the top 50 and safe, having won both the Zurich Classic alongside Andrew Novak and the Charles Schwab Challenge, but the places were again filled with players with something significant to play for so that's definitely something to consider in an event were clues are few and far between.

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Two tournaments that should provide clues

Form at last week's event, the Mexico Open may well be worth examining closely and the recent Bank of Utah Championship may provide a few pointers too.

As highlighted in the course notes above, El Cardonal has the exact same strain of paspalum as that laid down at the Norman Signature Course, which has hosted the last five editions of the Mexico Open - and like El Cardonal, the Norman Signature Course has plenty of space of the tee.

In addition to the Mexico Open, both the Puerto Rico Open and the Corales Puntacana Championship are staged on paspalum tracks and form at this event's previous venue, El Camaleón, can't be readily dismissed either as that too is a paspalum course, but for more recent form that may hold up nicely, check out the Bank of Utah Championship, won by Matt McCarty in 23-under-par in 2023, by Michael Brenan in -22 last year, and Austin Smotherman in -26 a month ago.

Although that venue is bentgrass and not paspalum, it's equally generous off the tee and just like this tournament, the first three editions of the Bank of Utah have effectively been putting contests.

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Winner's position and Betfair Exchange price pre-round four

2024 - Ben Griffin - tied third, trailing by two 4.94/1
2024 - Austin Eckroat - tied fourth, trailing by one 8.88/1
2023 - Erik Van Rooyen - solo third, trailing by one 5.14/1

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In-play trends at El Cardonal

Griffin was inside the top eight after round one, the top five at halfway, and he trailed by just two in a tie for third with 18 to play. And he was never more than four strokes adrift at any stage.

Eckroat was inside the top five places all week in 2024 and although Van Rooyen sat tied for 28^th and six off the lead after round one, he was inside the top five at halfway and like Eckroat, he was trailing by just a stroke after round three.

Being up with the pace in a low scoring event is nearly always essential, especially in benign conditions, but we witnessed plenty of drama three years ago so it's a venue where all sorts can happen.

As already stated, Kuchar was matched at long odds-on as early as Saturday before one poor drive led to four dropped shots in one hole and having been matched at as high as 50.049/1 after a slow start on Sunday, Van Rooyen, who was still two behind Kuchar with just three holes to play in round four, shot a remarkable eight-under-par 28 on the back-nine to win by a stroke.

We have very little to go on but it's perhaps worth mentioning that we haven't seen a frontrunner with a round to go claim the spoils here yet.

There were two players tied for the lead after 54 holes three years ago, three were tied at the top in 2024, and both Garric Higgo (1^st) and Carson Young (2^nd) were in front of Griffin with 18 to play last year but none of the seven were able to kick on for the win.

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