2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta Breakdown and Picks
The PGA Tour travels south of the border once again for the inaugural playing of the Mexico Open at Vidanta Vallarta.
A week after the Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf fans will once again be treated to a different event, this time however it isn’t a different format, it’s a new course that will be seen for the very first time as part of the PGA’s schedule.
The PGA is no stranger to events in Mexico with the Mayakoba Classic taking place annually, and the WGC-Mexico having been around up until this year. The World Golf Championship is no more and a new event at a new venue has filled its place.
It’s not all great news for the brand new event though as the Mexico Open at Vidanta will have arguably the weakest field of 2022 in attendance. The 151 field rating bests just two events on the 2022 schedule this year, the Puerto Rico Open (6), and the Corales Puntacana Championship (26), and both of those events were alternate field events that took place at the same time as the Arnold Palmer and the WGC-Dell Match Play.
Jon Rahm is the only player inside the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings that has elected to venture down to Mexico. The Spaniard is joined by just one other top 20 ranked player in Abraham Ancer (20), with Tony Finau (25) following the two of them to round out the three inside the top 30.
The Greg Norman-designed Vidanta Vallarta is set to host this week’s event and it will be the first time that we get to see this Par 71, roughly 7,500 yard layout. Length will be important this week with the courses’ Paspalum grass offering little to no rollout and Vidanta Vallarta featuring several Par 4’s ranging between 475-520 yards.
A few of the regular Par 5’s have been converted to lengthy Par 4’s in an effort to increase the difficulty for the professionals, but we’ll see how successful that proves to be. Players with length off the tee and those that can hit their long irons well should find success here. Let’s dig into this week’s favorites and pick out a few players that should do well this week.
Favorites to win the 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta
(All odds courtesy of WynnBet)
- Jon Rahm (+450)
- Abraham Ancer (+2000)
- Gary Woodland (+2000)
- Tony Finau (+2250)
- Cameron Champ (+2500)
- Kevin Na (+2500)
- Chris Kirk (+3000)
- Sebastian Munoz (+3000)
- Patrick Reed (+3000)
- Cameron Tringale (+3000)
- Aaron Wise (+3000)
light. More. Fantasy Golf: 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta DFS Player Selections
Pick to Top 20: Callum Tarren (+500)
Callum Tarren is coming off of a solid week at the Zurich Classic where he and his partner made it through to the weekend before finishing 34th. The Englishman absolutely crushes it off the tee rating out 18th in strokes gained off the tee, and 24th in total driving distance so far this season.
Tarren should be able to utilize his length off the tee to his advantage this week, much like he did at the Puerto Rico Open where he finished T5 in early March. An encouraging result given the similarities between that event, which is also played on Paspalum, and this weeks.
Pick to Top 10: Matt Jones (+475)
When Matt Jones was last seen in action he was polishing off a runner-up finish at the Valero Texas Open, an event that just so happens to be played on another Greg Norman co-design. The Aussie is one of the longer hitters on Tour rating out 34th in total driving distance this season. He also is excellent at making the most of his opportunities when using his length off the tee to present himself with great scoring chances, Jones rates out 6th in total Eagles gained this year.
Should the 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta play out as expected this week, Matt Jones should be able to use his length off the tee to excel here. The Aussie has a recent history of success on what can be considered comparable courses to Vidanta Vallarta as well, he finished 3rd at the lengthy Kapalua Plantation Course during the Sentry Tournament of Champions to begin the year, and also was T14th at the Corales Puntacana Championship in 2020.
Pick to Top 5: Sebastian Munoz (+600)
Muoz is the type of high-upside player to target in an event like this week’s, and in this field, he can certainly excel.
He hasn’t played since the WGC-Dell Match Play in March but prior to that, he had been playing some solid golf. The Colombian rates out middle of the pack in strokes gained tee to green this season, but he is one of the better long iron players on Tour rating out 34th in approaches from 200 yards and beyond.
Sebastian is another player who has had some success at the Valero Texas Open with finishes of 9th, and 27th, in previous appearances at the Greg Norman co-designed TPC San Antonio. Vidanta Vallarta is a design that should suit Munoz’s game well and he can excel here.
Pick to Win: Tony Finau (+2250)
It hasn’t been a great year for Tony Finau up to this point and it is hard to imagine that he is still searching for his first top 10 finish in 2022, especially for someone who has made a career out of consistently cashing in top 10’s.
So why go with Finau to win here? a couple of reasons, first is the fact that he finally looked to have found something in his last start at the Masters, at one point and time the 2021 Northern Trust winner was 10th on the leaderboard at Augusta, this before eventually finishing T35.
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Tony is one of the longer hitters in this week’s field (9th), and he has been exceptional with his approach play this season rating out 17th on Tour. Both aspects should serve him well in his quest for a third career PGA win this week. Finau is a previous winner of the Puerto Rico Open and he has had finishes of 7th and 8th at Mayakoba, so clearly he likes playing on courses of a similar ilk. I believe this is the week that we see Tony return to form and pick up another win.