Mayakoba Golf Classic
Golf fans, the putters are back! Tyler and I took some time off these past couple weeks for personal reasons and to start up some new things involving the blog. Plus we were both traveling for the holidays as well. As promised however, we are back with a lot of new things to talk about. The most notable thing that has happened in the past two week is the new collaboration between the European Tour and the PGA Tour, then we will dive into the last tournament of the calendar year, The Mayakoba Classic in Mexico, and finally talk about who was a bust and who take advantage of the covid season.
The biggest news in golf right now is however the collaboration between the European and PGA Tour. The tours released a statement a week or so ago stating that both tours have created a strategic alliance to help create and promote a “significant new era for global golf.” The purpose for this alliance was to create a global tour of sorts. Now this alliance doesn’t create a whole new tour but what it does create is the first stepping stone towards that ultimate goal. It's no secret that the European Tour struggled this year due to Covid-19. The alliance essentially shifted the idea from the PGA Tour being a competitor of the European Tour to a partner. The major event that really sparked these conversations was the new tour called the Premier Golf League. This new tour that never really came to fruition proposed a full season of events with larger purses, however those larger purses came with a price. If you decided to play in this new league you couldn’t play in anything else. Nevertheless when players like McIlroy and Rose and other top players were asked about potentially playing in this league they quickly stated they wanted no part. Ultimately the European Tour followed suit and wanted nothing to do with this new league. What will come from the new alliance should prove to boost the game ten folds. We can expect to see larger purses/prize money, larger, stronger fields, and the availability or more resources at the tours disposal. Since the PGA is the stronger of the two tours, the PGA now owns a small portion of the European Tour and the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monohan sits on the 15 person board as well. This was such a promising move for professional golf, the idea of having one global golf tour would bring professional golf into a new era. However a global tour is far off in the future, for now we will enjoy the new alliance between the top two tours in the world.
This week on the PGA Tour we have the Mayakoba Classic down in Mexico. Typically this event has a less than stellar field as its right before the holidays and the two week break for the players. However this year assumingely due to Covid the field is STACKED. This week fans will be able to watch the likes of Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger, Brenden Todd last year's champion, and Brooks Koepka. This event is key for some young players to continue to make a name for themselves. Will Gordon and Will Zalatoris will be teeing it up this week. Will Gordon received PGA Tour status due to his strong play last season gaining him enough non member FedEx Cup points, however as of late his play has been less than stellar. A strong finish this week would really help his rankings. Another young guy is Will Zalatoris, he's been the complete opposite of Gordon. Will has moved his way from the Korn Ferry Tour up to the PGA. He's won twice on the Korn Ferry this season and has three top 10’s in his PGA Tour Starts this season. Look for him to really make a statement this week before the tour takes a break until January for the Hawaii swing. El Camaleon, the host for The Mayakoba Classic is somewhat of a birdie fest. In the past two years the winners have reached 20 and 22 under par so expect for some low numbers all week long. However birdie fests are not my favorite type of golf. It'll be a fun week before the long break. (Mike)
My Hot Take
I texted Mike about this during the Masters and I have thought about it more recently. I understand that there is certainly some recency bias here, but I think the argument can be made that DJ is the second most gifted golfer of all time behind Tiger Woods. I did not have the privilege to see many golfers in their prime, but I personally think DJ is beating everyone in their prime except Tiger when he is on. Nobody hits it as far and straight as he does. He turned his wedges into a massive strength after struggling with them for so long. He is not the best putter in the world, but he is very serviceable and when he is rolling it well, it is poetry in motion. His brother has to get a lot of credit for helping DJ read the greens, but if my life depended on any golfer not named Tiger Woods winning a tournament in their prime, I am picking DJ. I think this year’s Masters tournament is the beginning of a run that golf has not seen in a long time. In his last 8 starts DJ has not finished outside of the top 6 and winning another major will give him even more confidence going forward.
Augusta Humbles Bryson
The blog has been a notorious hater of Bryson so The Master’s was so great on so many different levels. From losing a ball into the rough, to multiple triple bogeys and watching the clear frustration on Bryson’s face was one of the more enjoyable parts of the weekend for me. Bryson acting all high and mighty declaring Augusta a par 67 to him was another foolish remark from someone who has made a career out of talking out of his ass about things he really does not know about. It is cool to see how his length as evolved recently and he is clearly a really good player based on his US Open win, but he really rubs me the wrong way and he does himself no favors in the eyes of other tour players and fans around the globe. The sight of him winning the US Open looked a lot different than DJ winning The Master’s. It was even more shocking to see Bryson make some ludicrous excuses as to why he played poorly rather than just admitting he played poorly and accepting that gracefully. As long as Bryson continues to act a fool, I hope to see many more weekends where he struggles and is humbled by the beautiful game of golf. (Tyler)
Now onto picks of the week!!
Pick’s of the Week:
Mike: Tournaments like these it's a huge toss up because players will need to get to at least 18 under par to even have a chance so ball striking and putting needs to be 100% on target. This week my winning pick goes to Daniel Berger. Berger is playing with a chip on his shoulder right now. After being left out of the Masters this year he’s coming back more ready to continue his strong play. Berger’s putting is ranked in the top 30 on tour, so expect him to bring his A-game with the flat stick.Berger comes in with 20-1 odds and my winning score for Berger is 19 under par winning by one shot.
The most notable to miss the cut is Rickie Fowler. I think Fowler is playing better than he has of late, like I said this course is a birdie fest and the cut might get to four-five under par. I don't think Fowler has it all together to put two solid rounds like that together. Although his Master’s appearance was stronger than expected, I'm not confident in his play right now. However, like I always say I hope to be proven wrong with this prediction.
Lastly my underdog/sleeper pick of the week goes to Will Zalatoris. As I said earlier Will has come to play and he's ready to run with the wolves. Will knows how to go low and he's shown that time and time again. Will is hungry and confident and that's a dangerous combination. Will’s odds come in at 33-1 so i'm not the only one believes Will is a solid pick this week. (Mike)
Tyler: I am not too disappointed in how my Masters picks played, they both played well outside of Justin Rose imploding on Saturday. A solid field this week at the Mayakoba with plenty of big names to choose from. Here is to another week to get it right…
My pick this week is Abraham Ancer at 22-1. I feel like I have picked him a lot to win or contend, but I am such a fan of what I have seen from him lately and I know a win is coming sooner rather than later for him. I think this is a strong field, but he has played well lately and especially at The Masters. I think he is criminally underrated in the golfing world and a win would be big time for him. He will not have the home country support like he would in other years because of Covid, but I expect him to play well back home and be right there Sunday.
My dark horse for this week is Adam Hadwin at 125-1. This is a pretty out of the box pick for me. There is nothing that makes me think he will contend this week other than I think he shows up and plays well this week. He has not finished better than 28th since the new tour season started. He is a streaky player and I would not be surprised to see him end his cold streak on tour this week. I expect at least a top 15 for him this week. (Tyler)