The PGA Tour will visit its fourth country this season when it hosts the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba starting Thursday.
It’s a strong field getting ready to tee it up at El Camaleon Mayakoba Golf Course in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
For those of us who are geographically challenged, El Camaleon sits about 50 miles south of Cancun near the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Scottie Scheffler, ranked No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking, is the highest-ranked golfer in the field. Rory McIlroy recently overtook him for the top spot, but there’s a chance Scheffler could return to No. 1 with a win.
Collin Morikawa, ranked ninth, is also in the field, as is two-time defending champion Viktor Hovland.
It’s been 11 years since a golfer won the same event three years in a row, something Steve Stricker did from 2009 to 2011 at the John Deere Classic.
Tony Finau is making his season debut. Billy Horschel and Justin Rose are also in the field.
The fall portion of the 2022-23 PGA Tour schedule has already visited the U.S., Japan and Bermuda. This is the first of two visits to Mexico for the Tour this season, as the Mexico Open at Vidanta is set for late April.
Carlos Ortiz, who has defected to LIV Golf, finished solo second a year ago, but he will not return. Nor, for the same reason, will Matthew Wolff and Joaquinn Niemann, who tied for fifth, or Abraham Ancer and Sergio Garcia, who tied for seventh.
El Camaleon was designed by Greg Norman and opened in 2004. Three years later, it became the first course in Mexico to host a PGA Tour event.