The opening round at the WGC-Mexico is in the books. Here are some thoughts and takeaways from the opening round’s action.
We have to jump right into the biggest storyline from the opening round at WGC-Mexico. What is going on with Dustin Johnson? This is supposed to be his tournament. The one that, regardless of how he is playing elsewhere, he is able to come down to Chapultepec and dominate.
This year? Yeah, that’s definitely not going to be the case, unless we see some kind of miraculous & spectacular run from him over the remainder of the tournament. A bad beat for all of us that picked him to win this week.
He shot his worst career round at the WGC-Mexico Thursday, carding an awful 76, leaving him T-62nd in a field of only 72. He made the turn at +3, but birdied the 1st (his 10th hole), leading us to believe that he might be turning it around. Alas, that wasn’t the case, as he would bogey the 4th, 7th, and 9th holes to finish at +5.
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The only bright spot is that he will have three rounds to try and make an impact on the rest of the field, as this is a no-cut event. He currently trails the leader by 11 strokes, and a big part of that stroke difference comes in how they finished out their rounds.
Rory McIlroy shot -6 Thursday, which is good for a two-shot lead. It looked like he was going to be a part of a big cluster of golfers sitting at -3 and -4, at least up until the 6th hole, which was his 15th of the day.
Rory would birdie the 6th, 8th, and 9th holes to gain some separation on the rest of the field. That wasn’t the only way he was able to gain separation on the rest of the field, either. Rory averaged an astonishing 354.7 yards off the tee, good for 2nd in the field, and 6.5 yards clear of 3rd place Adam Scott. He is actually 5.5 yards behind the leader though, as Bryson DeChambeau averaged just a tick over 360 yards, although he only hit six out of 14 fairways.
DeChambeau was able to join that group at -4 and -3, as he is one of the ones T-4th at -3 after making five birdies and two bogeys in the opening round at the WGC-Mexico. Even though he didn’t hit many fairways, he was a GIR machine, hitting 13 of 18, which also was T-4th on the day.
Erik van Rooyen had one of the more interesting days Thursday out of any in the field. He was one of three people to make eagle, joining Paul Casey in eagling the par-four 1st hole. Adding in his four birdies, you would expect him to be up there near the top of the leaderboard. Unfortunately, he made five bogeys and sits at only -1, good for a T-14th place.
It should come as no surprise when you look at who is sitting in a T-2nd place. Well, at least one of the two golfers that are sitting there. Justin Thomas, current #1 in the FedEx Cup Standings, made five birdies and one bogey on route to a -4, as he looks for his third win of the season. The man he is tied with, Bubba Watson, is looking for his first win since 2018.
More so than almost any other tournament, which side you start on at the WGC-Mexico event can have a big impact on your round. The 10th hole scored as the 2nd hardest Thursday, with players averaging +0.347. Only six birdies were made, along with two doubles and one dreaded “other”. No, it wasn’t a hole in one either.
At least after the 10th, the 11th scored as the second-easiest, coming in at -0.292. Rory had the lone eagle here, although 25 other players managed to find birdies here.
On the other side, the 1st hole is the driveable par four. That, along with the 2nd, both scored in the red and were two of the six holes to do so. There were 39 birdies and two eagles combined on the two holes on day one, meaning just over half the field found a scoring opportunity here.
You’ll have to wait a while to see if Dustin Johnson is able
to put together a better second round, as he is in the 3rd to the last grouping of the day, teeing off on the 1st at 1:51 PM Eastern, alongside Francesco Molinari (+1, T-29th) and Abraham Ancer (-1, T-14th).
Rory McIlroy will actually tee off right after DJ, and from the 1st tee as well, going off at 2:03 PM. He is playing with Tommy Fleetwood (-1, T-14th) and Gary Woodland (-1, T-14th).
Tee times start a bit earlier than that, with Collin Morikawa headlining the group going off the 1st at 12:03 PM Eastern. The 10th tee will feature Lucas Herbert and Kurt Kitayama.