Aldrich Potgieter 1/1
Brian Campbell 9/4
Stephan Jäeger 4/1
Alex Smalley 20/1
Aaron Rai 40/1
Ben Griffin 40/1
Alejandro Tosti 125/1
Isaiah Salinda 150/1
Patrick Rodgers 200/1
Nicolai Højgaard 250/1
Akshay Bhatia 400/1
Justin Hastings 500/1
Harry Hall 1000/1
Joel Dahmen 1000/1
Kevin Roy 1000/1
Ryan Gerard 1000/1
Ryo Hisatsune 1000/1
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The Mexico Open was first played back in 1944 and notable winners of the tournament have been Roberto De Vicenzo who won the title three times, Tony Lema, Lee Trevino and Stewart Cink are all double winners and Ben Crenshaw is also a past champion.
This years event will be played at the Greg Norman designed signature course at the Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta resort. The Norman course runs by the Ameca River and can only be accessed by the worlds longest golf cart suspension bridge. Unlike a lot of resort courses the Norman course isn’t surrounded by lots of properties and sits on its own little parcel of land.
There are 15 lakes, 98 bunkers, huge sandy waste areas, indigenous vegetation, large undulating greens which are well protected by some vast bunkers. The greens range in size from average to huge with plenty of slope and contours – which includes tiers and valleys – and are raised with lots of false fronts. The course also has some forced carries and from the tips weighs in at 7,287 yards.
Notable holes to look out for are; the opening hole which is a 398 yard par 4 risk and reward hole with the fairway horseshoeing around a lake with 2 big bunkers in the landing zone, three more guarding the raised and contoured green, plus 3 large oblong shaped bunkers on the left front side of the green.
The 15th is a challenging 459-yard par 4 with water running from tee to green, there are also 8 bunkers, including a huge waste bunker on the left and a bunker in the middle of the fairway, and then there are 4 more to contend with that surround the green.
For another trusted Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta reviews click here
My tips to Win:
Coming into this week on the back of his first Top 10 finish of the year is Akshay Bhatia 14/1 – with BetFred – who has been playing some solid golf, but has not quite challenged. Akshay will take a lot of positives from his final round 67 at a tough Torrey Pines, and coming back to a course where he had a Top 5 finish in his only start over the VidantaWorld course
Three starts in this event and three Top 10 finishes for Patrick Rodgers 25/1 – with SpreadEx – who comes into this week after his third-place finish at the weekends Genesis Invitational
Another player that has played in all three Mexican Open tournaments since it came back on the PGA Tour rotor is Stephan Jäeger 30/1 – with BetFred – who has three Top 20 finishes, including last years third-place finish
Each-way tips:
This week’s defending champion is Jake Knapp 40/1 – with BetFred – who has been playing some solid golf without really challenging and has missed one cut in his six starts this year. But Jake’s first Top 20 finish of the year came at the weekend at a tough Torrey Pines and I am sure he will want to put up a good defence of his title
As I said I feel Niklas Nørgaard Møller 55/1 – with UniBet – has the game to do well on the PGA Tour and with the field this week, which has quite a few European Tour players teeing it up, his power should see him challenging come Sunday
Outside tip:
Great little story about Kris Ventura 100/1 – with QuinnBet – who’s father is Mexican and he lived in Mexico before moving to Norway at age twelve. Kris had a Top 5 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open this year and I am sure he would love to win here this week for his dad, and his first PGA Tour title
