Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview- Mayakoba Classic

OVERVIEW
After a week off of golf on the PGA Tour, the schedule fires back up with it’s first event with a cut in over a month. As you may remember, last year’s edition of the Mayakoba ended with a ton of turmoil for champion Matt Kuchar, something that I think may have an impact on him this week (making him someone I’d prefer in GPPs only). The course itself is exposed to high winds coming off the coast. The fairways are actually a bit tighter than most resort courses, but they’re still pretty wide and the rough is basically non-existent, which makes the fairways about average in width. The greens are slow at Mayakoba and that has to do with the grass type on them – seashore Paspalum. They’re a “stickier” green, which doesn’t help us much, but it does help really good ball strikers hit it really close without having their ball zip back 10-15’. This grass being “sticky” also keeps them slower than other grasses when mowed short, which might be a reason why we haven’t seen the setup change over the years. The Par 5’s makeup the three easiest holes on the course and when you mix in two of the Par 3’s you already have five of the six easiest holes on the course. You might want to put some emphasis on P3 & P5 efficiency this week. If the forecast looks windy, we could see higher scores, if not, expect another week where -20 to -25 wins. Also, this is the type of course that could provide an edge when looking at tee time splits, so keep an eye on those as well.

TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND

o The Course
• El Cameleon Golf Club
• Par 71
• 6,900 yards
• Seashore Paspalum greens
o Location: Mexico
o Corollary Courses/Performances: Coco Beach Golf Club, Corales Golf Club, TPC Kuala Lumpur
o Past Champions:
• 2018: Matt Kuchar -22 over Danny Lee
• 2017: Patton Kizzire -19 over Rickie Fowler
• 2016: Pat Perez -21 over Gary Woodland
• 2015: Graeme McDowell -18 in a playoff over Russell Knox & Jason Bohn

KEY STATS TO TARGET

o Strong Emphasis – SG: APP, Birdies or Better, Par 5 Scoring
o Important – Par 4 Scoring 450-500 yards, Driving Accuracy, Scrambling

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