6. Aldrich Potgieter
Possibly the breakout performer from Farmers earlier this year, Potgieter's length off the tee should be a massive benefit to him this week. With Vidanta Vallarta having the longest yardage for par 4s and 5s on Tour, the driver is going to be a very important tool in the bag for everyone in the field this week. Obviously, we're going to include the guy currently leading the Tour in driving distance in the rankings. It also helps to note the three winners of the Mexico Open at Vidanta Vallarta (Jon Rahm, Tony Finau, Jake Knapp) all finished their tournament weeks as some of the longest drivers in the field. Is choosing Potgieter a play in just hoping the variance swings in my favor this week? Yeah, for sure. But sometimes it's just cool to root for a guy that hits a ball a long way.
5. Kurt Kitayama
Why hasn't Kurt Kitayama played this event more often? He played the event once before in 2022, finished tied for 2nd, one shot behind Jon Rahm, and then never played it again until this year. His game makes sense for Vidanta Vallarta, he's long off the tee, he hits his irons very well, and he can piece it together around the green (it's not super important to be good around the green here). He's not in the strongest stretch of his career currently, but Kitayama going back to a course that he has performed very well at in the past has the makings for a strong bounce-back week to get Kitayama's 2025 on the right track.
4. Patrick Rodgers
Rodgers is obviously going to be disappointed in his Sunday performance at Torrey, but there are a lot of positives that he can take from the week. Rodgers was 3rd in strokes gained off the tee, 4th in around the green, and 4th in putting for the week, with only his approach play letting him down and keeping him from the win this week. Vidanta Vallarta plays very similarly to Torrey Pines, and Rodgers has the perfect mix of recent form and historical performance at Vidanta Vallarta (three straight top 10s in the Mexico Open) to justify the expectation that he has another strong performance this week in Mexico.