The sprint is coming down the final stretch as the PGA Tour and PGA DFS 2020 season is coming to an end. With just this tournament, the Mayakoba Golf Classic and the European Tour’s DP World Tour Championships left on the docket, the long sprint is finally coming to an end. Before we go on our break, though, we get a rather strong field here in Mexico with the last chance to earn FedEx Cup points before the new year. So we need to make these PGA DFS picks count for our fantasy golf lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel.
But don’t fear. After just a short 2 1/2-week break, we are back at the turn of the new year for the Tournament of Champions out in Maui. Primetime golf to start the year is always a blessing, especially when the sites and sounds are from some of the most beautiful places on earth.
From one beautiful site to another, Playa del Carmen in Mexico sits on a body of water that has some rough seas. Playa Del Carmen itself is nice — quaint and quiet. The resort that this course sits around is quite magnificent. El Camaleón Golf Club features quite a few out of the ordinary things.
Mayakoba Fantasy Golf: DraftKings + FanDuel PGA DFS Picks
The Tournament and Format
Running on Eastern Standard Time with the same seasons as me here in Florida, daylight is relatively limited. So the field is reduced to 132 to accommodate for that, which should give the golfers plenty of time to complete each of the rounds, barring any weather setbacks, of course. The top 65 and ties will make the cut.
The Course: El Camaleón Golf Course
This week’s venue is known for its unique cavern-like structure sitting in the middle of the fairway, seen here:
Torneo Amateur de esta semana / This week Amateur Tournament #Golf⛳
Latin America Amateur Championship en El Camaleón Golf Club Mayakoba, México pic.twitter.com/ymD1DrKq2B— Golfsportint55 (@golfsportint55) January 13, 2020
There are plenty of other picturesque spots on the course as well, as the entire course winds the resort and the mangroves that encapsulate it. The epitome of this tournament was then-defending champion Graeme McDowell sitting in his hot tub drinking a beer in his fairway-side suite, just off of one of the holes, while the tournament was going on.
He’s just one of a few short hitters that have done well around this track, but are they the only kind of golfer that can win here? Let’s dig in and find out.
Course Facts & Figures
Par and Yardage
- Par 71: 7,100 yards
Course Difficulty
- 39/49 70.999 or slightly under par
Hole Dispersion:
- The Par 3s: 116, 151, 200, 155
- Par 4s: 438, 428, 389, 416 ,462, 451, 452, 485, 386, 458
- The Par 5s: 554, 554, 532
Grass Types & Hazards
- Grass Type: Seashore Paspalum
- Average Green: N/A
- Water Hazards: N/A
- Bunkers: N/A
- Rough Length: N/A
Facts and Figures
- Off the Tee: The fairways narrow out in certain spots, but by and large, hitting the fairway is just above average at Camaleón at 63.5%, 20th easiest last year. Driving distance saw an average of 287 yards per tee shot, which ranked 32nd out of 49. There’s reason to believe why the shorter hitters have had such good success in the past.
- Approach to the Green: Above-average fairways-hit percentage and resort-style shorter rough equal easier-to-hit greens. The average last year was just over 70%, which was good enough for 13th easiest.
- Around the Green: I’d apply the same sentiment about the rough to the around-the-green complexes here.
- On the Green: That trend continues once as the greens here ranked 12th easiest in terms of overall putting average last year.
PGA DFS Course Summary & Statistical Comparison:
A beautiful course makes for a nice place to work for the golfers this week. With only three par 5’s and a handful of tight driving holes, driving distance is incredibly mitigated. Even still, elite bombers like Cameron Champ were still able to get into the top 10 here a couple of years ago. I wouldn’t put distance into my model with a high weight at all this week.
Designer
- Greg Norman
Mayakoba Golf Classic: Fantasy Golf and PGA DFS Sweatsheet
There may be only three par 5’s on the course, but all of them had more than five eagles last year, and two of them had over 20. Those three holes combined for 35% of the total DraftKings scoring. Holes three through eight all average greater than 5% of the total DraftKings scoring, so there will be several quality chances at birdie streaks.
Previous Winners for The Mayakoba Golf Classic
- 2019: Brendon Todd (-20)
- 2018: Matt Kuchar (-22)
- 2017: Patton Kizzire (-19)
- 2016: Pat Perez (-21)
- 2015: Graeme McDowell(-18)
PGA DFS Player Preview
Typically, with a tournament this late in the calendar, we are lucky if we get 10 golfers that are ranked inside the top 100 in the world. This year we get 29. That’s quite a strong field, comparable to that of the Waste Management Open out in the desert. Justin Thomas has done just about everything but win lately, while Brooks Koepka will look to get back into the winner’s circle. Daniel Berger also returns to action, as does Viktor Hovland, both of whom were well inside the criteria to qualify for The Masters, but not in March of 2020. They’ll look to add to their impressive streak of golf here this week on the gulf.
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