The LIV rebel rousers have the chance to be heard as the big guns prepare for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the PGA Tour’s third $20 million ‘elevated event’.
On Friday, the second edition of the Golf Circus – sorry circuit – will begin in Mexico.
Even though they may not have been able to sign any new big names, the Honda Classic in Canada still has enough power to rival it.
Dustin Johnson leads the market for the opening of the 14 LIV tournaments. He hasn’t fired a single shot this year because he backed out of the Saudi Invitational before it started due to a back injury.
As you would expect, the former world number one has been LIV’s shining star so far. After all, he was paid $125million to sign. He will be under-cooked, however, for this event.
It may pay to stick with players that have a good warm-up, and who are familiar with conditions in Mayakoba.
It may be worthwhile to take a chance on some of the top players in the world at odds of three figures ….
Mexico’s number one golfer, Mayakoba, competed on the PGA Tour five times at this course, and enjoyed playing before his home fans.
He faced much more experienced players than he would in a 48-player field, including some deadwood.
Ancer was rusty after missing the cut at Dubai Desert Classic. He showed that he had learned from his mistakes by winning the Saudi Invitational with a resounding victory. Cameron Young was beaten by him by three shots. This will be enough for me.
It’s true, it seems obvious to pick a second Mexican player on his home turf. There are valid reasons to support Ortiz and Ancer.
Ortiz has had his best performances at Mayakoba, aside from winning the 2020 Houston Open. He finished runner-up in the PGA tournament there in 2019 and again in 2020.
The second close call propelled the Mexican No. 2 into the top fifty in the world, and two top five finishes at LIV events showed that he could still play. Since he has played TWO times this year, rust shouldn’t be an issue.
Na didn’t exactly blow the world away in his first season as a LIV-player – he only managed to finish among the top 10 in six attempts. But he is much better than that.
In less than 18 month, he was tied with Jon Rahm at the Tour Championship for the best score of 72 holes. He is still on the right side forty.
If Na can get his competitive juices flowing after he finishes counting the money he earned from joining the Rebels, a year like this could be very exciting for him.
Sepp Straka won this Florida pipe opener a year earlier, and the event looks set to be a hit again.
Ben Martin is priced attractively at 150-1 following a good showing at Pebble Beach.
At 400-1, Brian Stuard – who ranked in the top ten last year – could pay a small interest each way.
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