Mayakoba Classic Preview

Apologies for the delay but there was no great rush and had other things on my mind and although I said I had three players in mind for the Mayakoba Classic that’s now down to two as Brian Gay has withdrawn – again. There is plenty of history here and whilst we have had a few younger winners in general you need to look for the older, strategic shorter hitter and with that in mind I have picked out two. Chris Kirk hasn’t been mentioned by anyone as far as I am aware but he ticks all the boxes for me. The 35 year old has four PGA wins to his name and form at a lot of the courses that correlate well, one of his wins came at Sea Island, he has been 2nd and 5th at the Sony, 4th at the CIMB in Malaysia, basically he is at his best on where short hitting strategic golf is required. He has only played here three times, he was 7th on his debut where he led after an opening 63 and last years 33rd catches the eye as it was his first start back having taken six months off to battle drink problems. He won back in the Summer, admittedly on the Korn Ferry Tour, but it shows he still has the erm bottle! His last four starts have shown an upturn in form going mc/53/44/18 and each week he has increased the number of good rounds over bad with one, two and three last time out. All he needs to find is that one extra good round to be competitive here. I have backed him in a few different markets 100/110 e/w, 100/1 e/w FRL, he’s 100/1 with Betfair/Paddy without the top five, and also 190 average on Betfair. Player number two has been mentioned in a few circles and that’s Nate Lashley, he is now 38 and is definitely a short but straight hitter. It is only two months since he was 4th in the Dominican Republic a course he had previously won at on the Korn Ferry tour. He has great form in Mexico with a 1st, 3rd, 4th and 8th on the KF and Latino tours, although they were inland courses. He played here just the once before when missing the cut in 2017 but he is a much better player now with a PGA victory under his belt. He has gone on my slate at 250/1 e/w with a win only bet on Betfair struck at 360 average.