After a quick stop in Bermuda, the PGA TOUR heads to another short, coastal course for this week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.
There are just two more FedExCup events in the fall, after this week, so it’s time to stockpile some points ahead of the holidays.
That is especially true for the Korn Ferry Tour graduates who need to consider the next reshuffle which takes place after The RSM Classic.
The field starts at 132 golfers this week before trimming to the top 65 and ties after 36 holes.
The Course
El Camaleon Golf Course returns to host this week’s event. It has hosted all 15 of the previous editions of the Mayakoba.
As a Greg Norman design, it’s very likely that the course’s days are numbered in terms of being a PGA TOUR venue, with Norman running the show over at LIV Golf.
We’ll get to see it at least one more time (this week) so what do we know about the course?
This par-71 layout plays to 7,034 yards which is beefy compared to last week at Port Royal but still on the short side of the spectrum when it comes to PGA TOUR course lengths.
There are two par 4s over 460 yards, including the 515-yard, par-4 16th. Other than that, it is a lot of holes that will put short irons into the hands of these pros.
Water is in play on roughly half the holes and there is jungle (mangroves) lurking off the fairways on many of the holes. The landing areas are generous but big misses are certainly punished in the form of double bogeys, most of the time.
It’s a course where accuracy is more heavily rewarded than the average TOUR stop and the recent winners reflect that with Brendon Todd, Matt Kuchar, Pat Perez, and Graeme McDowell winning four of the last seven editions. Viktor Hovland has also won the last two runnings and steady driving is one of the strengths of his game (although he has plenty of power to boot).
On approach, golfers will have a lot of short irons which puts less emphasis on typical approach stats. The golfers that usually gain the most strokes on approach do it in a way that comes on longer approach shots but there aren’t as many at El Camaleon.
Golfers also get larger green surfaces (7,000 average square feet) which makes the task of landing GIR a bit easier.
For turf talk, golfers will see paspalum this week which is kind of like the grainy cousin of bermudagrass. The greens typically run between just 10 and 11 feet on the stimp, slower to protect from the coastal winds.
As for the overall scoring environment, the wind is the only thing that can toughen the course and even then it’s usually pretty low scoring. The winner has reached or eclipsed the 20-under mark in four straight years and they’ve reached or exceeded 17-under in nine straight editions. The field averages around a 22.5% birdie rate and just 14.7 bogey-or-worse rate, both much easier than TOUR average (20.1% Birdie, 17.3% Bogey or Worse).
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Course Quotes
Sifting through some past quotes, let’s try to break down the course to see how it will play.
Jon Rahm: “technically it doesn’t suit my game. I mean, it’s really a course for shorter hitters, it’s not really long off the tee. There’s a lot of emphasis and importance on keeping the ball in play off the tee, so that means I’m not able to use my driver as much as I would like to, which is one of my main tools.”
Vaughn Taylor: “The grass is different. It’s Paspalum, it’s grainy. If you haven’t been on it before, you might be a little confused.”
Matt Kuchar: “If you’re missing fairways, it means you’re in the mangroves, you’re in the hazard, you’re taking penalty drops, you’re really in trouble. If you’re driving it well, you have a chance to perform well from there, but the wind typically will pick up in the afternoons and when the wind picks up, you had better be hitting the ball solid, you had better be in control. Even if you do find the fairways, the approach shots are awfully challenging as well. "
Cameron Champ: “This course, it’s not a very bomber’s course. Like I said, you have to place it off the tee, and some holes the rough is very thick and you’ve just got to whack it out. This course I feel like is very suitable for everyone. So like I said, just to be able to place my ball right in the fairways and on the greens and make the putts when I needed to.”
Danny Lee: “You have to hit the fairways first. Off the tee it’s very critical here because it’s pretty generous fairway, but if you miss it, it looks like you’re going to be in the water, so tee shot is very important. Other than that, it’s almost a good short iron shots and putting contest.”
Correlated Courses
Using historical data we can look at overperformance and underperformance at this week’s host course and compare that to all of the courses played out on TOUR. Here are the ones that shared a lot of overlap:
Harbour Town GL
Waialae CC
Colonial CC
TPC Twin Cities
The theme of the week is short, less-than-driver tracks that don’t put a premium on power. TPC Twin Cities hops in the mix as well as a hazard-heavy layout with an easy scoring environment.
The Weather
Thursday: Rain possible with a high of 85 degrees. Winds at 10 to 15 MPH.
Friday: Sunny with some potential afternoon showers. Winds at 5 to 12 MPH.
The weather looks good to go, outside of a few stray showers along the way. Keep an eye on the wind forecast as the first tee time draws nearer.