World Wide Technology Championship: The Punter's Preview

• Bubble boys and hot putters fancied

• Mexico Open and Black Desert Championship form to consider

• Read my Abu Dhabi Championship preview here

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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 11 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 in February last year so the event was moved to a brand-new venue 12 months ago - 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
Scoring average in 2023 - 68.99

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 last year's 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 used at the Norman Signature Course at Vidanta Vallarta - the host course for the Mexico Open.

The bigger than average greens were set at 11.5 on the Stimpmeter last year and with no rough to contend with, the pros tore the place apart 12 months ago.

The field averaged more than three strokes under-par, only four holes averaged over-par for the week and Erik Van Rooyen won with a total of 27-under-par.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 19:00 on Thursday

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Last Eight Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

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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The tale of 2023

Given we've only been here once previously, it's well worth looking back at how the 2023 edition panned out at El Cardonal.

Neither length not accuracy appeared particularly vital off the tee.

Justin Suh, who ranked fourth, was the only player in the top-14 to rank inside the top-15 for Driving Distance so it can't hardly be described as a bomber's paradise and the first six home ranked T27th, T27th, T44th, T44th, T4th and 65^th for Driving Accuracy.

The top-two in the Greens In Regulation stats, Suh and Ryan Palmer, both finished inside the top six, and the first three home ranked 18^th 16^th and 14^th so that appears like a stat to consider but as you'd expect with what basically transpired to be a birdie-fest, Putting Average was the key stat. The front three ranked second, first and fourth for that stat.

The wind picked up fractionally on Saturday afternoon but in what were described as unusually benign conditions for the location, El Cardonal was pretty defenceless, hence Van Rooyen's winning score of 27-under-par, but the course is likely to play tougher going forward if we do get some wind.

Although the scoring was sensationally low last year, you had to be right on your game to score and it wasn't an entirely defenceless layout.

Stephan Jaegar and Ludvig Aberg, who have both got off the mark on the PGA Tour since, were trading at single figures at halfway but they demonstrated on Saturday, with rounds of +3 and level par, that this is a tough place if you're slightly off your game and that was in relatively calm conditions.

The fairways are ridiculously wide and as many as 32 players hit every fairway on day one. Adam Long hit all 58 throughout the entire week but as Matt Kuchar demonstrated on Saturday, 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!

Although huge, finding the right spots on the greens was essential, and although last year's renewal was all about holing putts, the more accurate iron players may well prosper over the hot putters in future, especially if the conditions are trickier.

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Will the Bubble Boys Figure Again?

As was the case 12 months ago, this is the fifth of seven FedEx Cup Fall Series on the PGA Tour, so time is running out for anyone outside the crucial top-125 in the Fed Ex Cup standings.

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-125 to secure their playing privileges for next year.

After this week, the Tour takes in the Bermuda Championship before signing off with the RSM Classic and anyone outside the top-125 after that event will lose their cards for next season so the pressure is on.

Only two weeks ago we saw a number of players on and around the number for keeping your playing privileges contending at the final counting event on the DP World Tour - the Korea Championship - and Van Rooyen began last year's edition sitting on number 125 in the FedEx Cup Standings 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 the Mexico Open over the last three years may well be worth examining closely and I suspect last month's inaugural Black Desert 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 three editions of the Mexico Open - won by Jon Rahm, Tony Finau and Jake Knapp - 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 R & C 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 Black Desert Championship, won by Matt McCarty in 23-under-par.

Although that venue is bentgrass and not paspalum, it's equally generous off the tee just like last year's renewal of this event, the Black Desert Championship was effectively a birdie-fest.

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Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four

2023 - Erik Van Rooyen - solo third, trailing by one 5.14/1

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In-Play Tactics

Van Rooyen sat tied for 28^th and six off the lead after round one but he was inside the top five at halfway and trailing by just a stroke after round three.

The two players to finish tied for second, Kuchar and Camilo Villegas, were always in the van and being up with the pace in a low scoring event is nearly always essential.

Villegas was inside the top two places all week long and Kuchar moved up to second at halfway, having sat sixth after round one.

Although being up with the pace should be key, we witnessed plenty of drama last year and it's clearly 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 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 three holes to play in round four, shot a remarkable eight-under-par 28 on the back-nine!

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Suggested Selections

I'm away until Thursday so I won't get a chance to look at the market leaders or confirm any selections but Dave Tindall will be back later in the week with his each-way fancies and he's also standing in for me with the Find Me a 100 Winner column.

Look out for both of those two pieces but in the meantime, here are a couple to consider when the market does open.

Having missed six of his previous eight cuts, the recent Procore Championship winner, Patton Kizzire, was in poor form when he finished 15^th here 12 months ago and I fancy him to contend.

There was almost a month in-between his two Korn Ferry Tour wins back in 2015, and he won the Sony Open just two months after he'd won this event in 2017 so in his fourth start following his impressive five-stroke victory in California, he may just be ready to go in again.

At number 60 in the FedEx Cup standings, Ben Griffin, will be looking to make a push to get in to the two aforementioned Signature Events and it looks like he can't wait to tee it up on Thursday so he's another to consider.

Trending just in time for the best event of the year @WWTChampionship @wwt_inc https://t.co/WDBYNkvmtZ

-- Ben Griffin (@bengriffingolf) October 28, 2024

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Read my Abu Dhabi Championship preview here

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*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter

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