Betting websites favor World No. 1 Dustin Johnson to win the 2017 WGC Mexico Championship, but that’s par for the course (hikme). Shockingly, none of these sites give No. 2 Jason Day a snowball’s chance in H-E Double Hockey Sticks to win the selfsame tournament. And by shockingly we mean naturally; the Australian golfer withdrew from the event due to “a double ear infection and the flu, which precludes me from preparing for and playing in the tournament,” Day said in a statement. He is either the sickliest PGA Tour member or a hypochondriac. And this was just a Day (hikme again) after the Mexico Championship twitted that the WGC “will be the 1st time all top 50 players in the world will compete in the same betting tournament since the PGA Championship.” Way to rain on their parade, Jay Day.
The other big story heading into the WGC Mexico Championship is the return of No. 3 Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman was last seen playing with the POTUS. Wee-Mac has been on hiatus since losing the South African Open to Graeme Storm in January. Rors played through a stress fracture on the left side of his ribcage but was medically advised to skip at least four tourneys; namely, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Omega Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour, and the Genesis Open and the Honda Classic on the PGA Tour.
Back to the betting websites favorite, Dustin Johnson. Fun fact: DJ is one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour. He’s like Lurch driving the Addams Family car up in here. And he’s married to Wayne Gretzky’s daughter. Of course, that fact is fun to him alone. Johnson will be looking to become the only golfer not named Tiger Woods or Ernie Els to win this competition more than once. DJ won it in 2015 when it was called the WGC Cadillac Championship and played at Trump National Doral in Doral, Florida whereas this edition will be held at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Naucalpan, Mexico, just west of Mexico City. The elevation of the course’s clubhouse is approximately 2,400 meters (7,870 ft) above sea level. Other than that, though, it is the exact same tournament – at least in the sense that Theseus’s ship remained the same ship even after the Athenians took away all the old planks and put in new ones.
The 2017 WGC Mexico Championship field will also include the following betting websites favorites and underdogs (in no order of favoritism or underdogginess): Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Alex Noren, Bill Haas, Bubba Watson, Emiliano Grillo, Brandt Snedeker, Henrik Stenson, Jimmy Walker, Hideki Matsuyama, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, Martin Kaymer, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Reed, Paul Casey, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Russell Knox, Sergio Garvia, Thomas Pieters, and Zach Johnson. Scott, Reed, Rose, and Mickelson will join DJ as past champions expected in the field.
