Aaron Wise and Sebastian Muñoz two good plays in Mexico Open

Oh, the irony of a brand new match on the PGA Tour schedule being hosted on a Greg Norman signature course.

The Mexico Open has been contested since 1944, however this week it should make its debut on the sport’s most elite circuit at Vidanta Vallarta, a course that was constructed not way back by the person now serving as CEO of a rival tour.

I’m not going to take care of that I personal a lot intimate information of this venue, so let’s persist with the details: It was in-built 2016 and performs to 7,456 yards as a par-71, suggesting it might need some enamel.

General view of 16th green prior to the Mexico Open at Vidanta on April 26, 2022 in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.
Normal view of sixteenth inexperienced earlier than the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Getty Photographs

Based on a course description: “Paspalum grass covers your entire format, which winds alongside the Ameca River and gives views of the Sierra Madre mountains from virtually each gap.” It continues: “The course has massive touchdown areas, however sandy waste areas and quite a few water hazards await to catch pictures that stray too far. The water additionally provides a strategic component to many holes, as do the bunkers [55 total] that dot the course.”

Additionally, and this one is much less reality than opinion: It appears downright lovely.

It appears size will likely be extra advantageous than accuracy off the tee, and method pictures will likely be key — particularly from 175 or extra yards, hinting that we should always contemplate the higher long- and mid-iron gamers in what's a predictably weaker discipline.

If there’s one other trace, it’s that historically when the PGA Tour travels to a brand new venue for what's theoretically an annual occasion — not a one-timer — the powers-that-be will err on the aspect of warning when organising the golf course. There’s a minimum of an underlying subplot that beating up on a number of the world’s greatest gamers isn’t precisely one of the best ways to get extra of them to play that occasion in future years.

All of which is to say that whereas a near-7,500-yard, par-71 seems like a brute, it would wind up being extra score-able than at first blush.

With that in thoughts, let’s get to the performs, that are ceaselessly an inexact science, however even much less actual and fewer scientific for this one.


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Outright Winner

Aaron Smart (22/1): Very similar to we’ll hear from some NFL basic managers main as much as the draft, I’m going with some mixture of the “greatest participant obtainable” and “large upside” theories right here. That’s to not recommend that Smart has a brighter future than, say, pre-tourney favourite Jon Rahm, however they'll’t all be No. 1 total picks, should you get what I imply.

Aaron Wise plays his shot from the second tee during the final round of the RBC Heritage at Harbor Town Golf Links on April 17, 2022 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Aaron Smart
Getty Photographs

Eschewing absolutely the high of the board, Smart is a participant I’ve been very bullish on since he posted 5 finishes of twenty sixth or higher in 5 begins in the course of the fall portion of this season’s schedule, although it hasn’t fairly come to fruition but this yr. Although he has missed the minimize in half of his eight begins to date, Smart does personal a T17 and T21 amongst his final 4 appearances and a discipline with out most of golf’s elite appears like an ideal place for him to say a long-awaited second profession title.

Prime-5 end

Sebastian Muñoz (6/1): Full disclosure — it basically got here right down to a coin flip for my fave outright play between Smart and Muñoz, and the truth is that I’ll have an funding in every participant on a number of totally different platforms.

Sebastian Muñoz of Colombia plays his shot from the eighth tee during the third day of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 25, 2022 in Austin, Texas.
Sebastian Muñoz
Getty Photographs

Muñoz will get the early-year Charles Howell III-Maverick McNealy good-but-not-great award, with all of his outcomes between twenty first and thirty ninth over his previous half-dozen begins. Whereas most gamers insist they attempt for this sort of consistency, one large efficiency and 5 stinkers are literally rewarded higher.

That stated, the kind of golf that has yielded these outcomes ought to depart him greater on the board this week

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