Here are Round 3 tee times and TV info for the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship in Mexico City.
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The World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship began Thursday at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, and the field includes some of golf’s best.
The field is comprised of eight of the top-10 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking and six of the top-10 players in the Golfweek/Sagarin ranking.
Bryson DeChambeau went 8-under 63 Friday to take the lead at 11 under. He sits two strokes ahead of Erik van Rooyen and Patrick Reed in second. Hideki Matsuyama, who recorded five birdies in his first six holes Friday, finished the second round with a 64. He sits tied in fourth with Justin Thomas at 9 under.
First-round leader and World No. 1 Rory McIlroy fell to sixth at 8 under after shooting a 69 in Friday’s second round.
Reigning champion Dustin Johnson is T-60 at 5 over after rounds of 76-71.
Round 3
All times listed in Eastern.
1st tee
Tee time
Players
11:18 a.m.
Matt Kuchar, Branden Grace, Benjamin Hebert
11:30 a.m.
Adam Scott, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Kevin Kisner
11:43 a.m.
Collin Morikawa, Justin Harding, Matthew Fitzpatrick
11:54 a.m.
Shane Lowry, Lanto Griffin, Sungjae Im
12:06 p.m.
Danny Willett, Jon Rahm, Zander Lombard
12:18 p.m.
Zach Murray, Ryan Fox, Abraham Ancer
12:30 p.m.
Louis Oosthuizen, Tommy Fleetwood, Gary Woodland
12:42 p.m.
Matthias Schwab, Billy Horschel, Bubba Watson
12:54 p.m.
Corey Conners, Lee Westwood, Kevin Na
1:06 p.m.
Sebastián Muñoz, Tyrrell Hatton, Paul Casey
1:18 p.m.
Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy
1:30 p.m.
Bryson DeChambeau, Erik van Rooyen, Patrick Reed
10th tee
Tee time
Players
11:18 a.m.
Scottie Scheffler, Carlos Ortiz, Jason Kokrak
11:30 a.m.
Shaun Norris, Brendon Todd, Robert MacIntyre
11:43 a.m.
Marc Leishman, Sugo Imahira, Lucas Glover
11:54 a.m.
Byeong Hun An, Xander Schauffele, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
12:06 p.m.
Chez Reavie, Lucas Herbert, Webb Simpson
12:18 p.m.
Brandt Snedeker, Pablo Larrazabal, Kurt Kitayama
12:30 p.m.
Bernd Wiesberger, Sergio Garcia, Jazz Janewattananond
12:42 p.m.
Cameron Smith, Francesco Molinari, Jordan Spieth
12:54 p.m.
Scott Hend, Dustin Johnson, Charles Howell III
1:06 p.m.
Michael Lorenzo-Vera, Marcus Kinhult, Graeme McDowell
MEXICO CITY – Par ran into turbulence in the thin air during Friday’s second round of the World Golf Championship-Mexico Championship. A day after the field finished a combined 100-over par, the sun-drenched Club de Golf Chapultepec, which rests …
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MEXICO CITY – Par ran into turbulence in the thin air during Friday’s second round of the World Golf Championship-Mexico Championship.
A day after the field finished a combined 100-over par, the sun-drenched Club de Golf Chapultepec, which rests 7,800 feet above sea level, was there for the taking as the wind was down and the greens were smooth.
And players took as much as they could.
Bryson DeChambeau made six birdies in a seven-hole stretch en route to an 8-under-par 63 to grab the lead through 36 holes at 11 under. Erik van Rooyen celebrated his 30th birthday by tying the course record with a bogey-free 62 to get to 10 under. He was joined there by Patrick Reed, who tied his career-best with nine birdies in a round and signed for a 63.
Hideki Matsuyama shot 64 and Justin Thomas, keyed by a birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle stretch, shot 66 as both wound up at 9 under.
First-round leader and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy got off to a slow start with no birdies through his first 11 holes but finished with four in his last seven holes for a 69 to stand at 8 under.
The field was 52-under par in the second round.
“Surely when you have days like that you can’t help but smile out there, and making those putts the way I did, striking the ball the way I did, it’s surely a joy out there,” said DeChambeau, who made 143 feet of putts. “The confidence (with the putter) is high, and it’s a lot of fun to see putts finally going in. I’m going to go out and do my work like I normally do, just a couple minutes, go putt a little bit, hit some balls, but overall everything is going pretty well, firing on all cylinders.”
Van Rooyen wasn’t firing on all cylinders when he woke up but by mid-afternoon everything was just fine.
“The first thing I told my wife this morning, man, I feel really old,” he said. “But I guess I’m still quite young, and what a way to kick off the 30th and shoot 9 under. A little bit of a gift to myself.
“I just hit it really well. Obviously a few really good chip-ins the last couple days, and then putted really well. I’ve been a little bit uncomfortable the last few weeks, but I’m working on that stuff, and you know how it goes, just stick to your process, just trust in the fact that you’re doing the right things, and 62s happen.”
Thomas, who lost in a playoff to Phil Mickelson here in 2018, wasn’t exactly beaming after his 66.
“I’m pretty ticked off, to be perfectly honest, with the last eight holes,” said Thomas, who was 1 over his final eight holes. “I feel I should have gotten two, three, four more (birdies), but I got two days left. It’s over with, and I have a lot more positives than I do not playing those last eight holes well.
“I feel like I’m playing well, seeing the lines well with my putter. My speed has been good. I feel like that’s why I’ve made some of those putts, but anything can happen out here. Low rounds are out there to be had, and we just hope that we can get one or two of them this weekend.”
Reed knocked in 150 feet of putts.
“I think the biggest thing for me was just get the ball on the green,” he said. “It seemed like the putter was working, especially early on. On a golf course like this, you get the ball in play off the tee, you’re able to kind of attack with irons, you’re going to have a lot of looks.
“Tomorrow is a new day. You don’t even think about what happened today going into tomorrow, and you just kind of move on and go out and continue making quality golf swings and continue making good putts because these are the type of greens when you get on Poa they get bumpy in the afternoon where you’re going to hit some good putts that are going to go in and you’re going to hit some good putts that are going to miss, and you’re going to hit some bad putts that are going to go in. You’ve just got to roll with the punches and keep on going and not let anything bother you.”
Patrick Reed’s name came up twice this week in interviews with major figures in the golf industry but he brushed off the comments.
Patrick Reed opened the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship with a 2-under 69 on Thursday that left him inside the top 10, four strokes off the pace set by Rory McIlroy. Performance aside, Reed had other things to answer after the round.
This week, Reed’s name came up twice with notable figures in the golf world. Brooks Koepka, speaking on a SiriusXM PGA Tour radio program from Oakland, California, following a PGA Championship media event, was asked what he thought about Reed’s action in a waste bunker at the Hero World Challenge in December. Reed took two practice swings – caught on camera – that removed a pile of sand behind his ball. He was subsequently given a two-stroke penalty for improving his line of play.
“I mean, I don’t know what he was doing, building sand castles in the sand but, you know, you know where your club is,” he said. “I mean, I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touched sand. It’s one of those things where you know, if you look at the video obviously he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.”
Peter Kostis, the former CBS golf analyst, also addressed actions he has seen Reed take on the golf course – that Kostis saw Reed “improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now.”
In Mexico City, Reed was asked after his opening round whether he’d seen Koepka’s statement and for his response to it. Kostis’ name did not come up in the question.
“Not really,” he said. “I mean, I said what I have to say about what happened in the Bahamas, and at the end of the day, all I’m trying to do is go out and play good golf and trying to win a golf championship and hopefully run Rory down.”
Using his old putter, McIlroy needed just 26 putts, including a 17-footer for eagle at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.
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MEXICO CITY – The Rory McIlroy Express hasn’t lost any steam in the thin air.
The world No. 1, who has two wins, two ties for third and a tie for fifth in his past five starts on the PGA Tour, kept on rolling Thursday with a 6-under 65 to grab a two-shot lead in the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.
With a victory this week at Club de Golf Chapultepec, which rests 7,800 feet above sea level, McIlroy can join Dustin Johnson as the only players to win all four WGC events. McIlroy closed with three birdies in his final four holes.
While McIlroy certainly has abundant firepower – he had four drives exceeding 350 yards, hit a 4-iron 275 and a 6-iron 230 – it was the smallest club in his bag that was pivotal in getting two clear of Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson.
Using his old putter, a TaylorMade Spider X Copper, McIlroy needed just 26 putts, including a 17-footer for eagle on the 11th (his second hole of the day), a 15-footer for birdie on the eighth and a 10-footer for birdie on the ninth to close his round.
“I was sort of trying out a new putter last week and it didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it to, so I went back to the 34-inch (length),” said McIlroy, who finished second to Dustin Johnson here last year. “I was using a 35 last week. I just felt a little bit more comfortable today and was seeing my lines a little bit better, and yeah, it was a good day.”
Turns out one inch can make all the difference.
“Sometimes with the 34, my right arm can get a little high and my right shoulder can sort of roll over, but with a 35 a little longer, it sort of puts my shoulder and my right elbow into better position, sort of more on plane with the shaft,” he said. “So it looked really good on video and it felt good. But once I got out (to last week’s Genesis Invitational), just that inch difference in the putter, it moves your eye line and you sort of stop seeing your lines the way you usually do, and I especially struggled on right-to-left putts. Because when it’s a longer putter and the ball is above your feet, you feel like the putter is up in your sort of belt.”
He has his distance control dialed in in the thin air. And with the fairways being on the soft side, he has confidence he can tee the ball up high and launch it.
“With the driver I can tee it up and I can launch it and maybe get a bit more out of it than some of the other guys,” he said. “I had a good session on Tuesday on the TrackMan, and we did all our numbers and got it dialed in and felt like distance control was good today.”
McIlroy’s distance has always been a weapon. And now he has confidence with the putter in hand. That’s a lethal combination.
“If I keep putting like that, I’ll be very happy,” he said. “If I can keep my strokes gained numbers in the positive and putt better than the field average on greens like this, then you’re doing something right. But it was definitely validation to going back to the putter I’d been using for the last 14 months, I guess. A little blip last week, but I’m back.”
Here are Round 2 tee times and TV info for the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship in Mexico City.
The World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship began Thursday at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, and the field includes some of golf’s best.
First-round leader and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy highlights a field comprised of eight of the top-10 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking and six of the top-10 players in the Golfweek/Sagarin ranking.
Reigning champion Dustin Johnson is back to defend his title but struggled in Thursday’s opening round with a 5-over 76. Johnson is paired with Francesco Molinari and Abraham Ancer for the first two rounds. The group will tee off Friday’s second round at 1:51 p.m. ET from the first tee.
Round 2
All times listed in Eastern.
1st tee
Tee time
Players
12:03 p.m.
Collin Morikawa, Benjamin Hebert, Zach Murray
12:15 p.m.
Robert MacIntyre, Justin Harding, Charles Howell III
12:27 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler, Michael Lorenzo-Vera, Erik van Rooyen
12:39 p.m.
Danny Willett, Kevin Na, Victor Perez
12:51 p.m.
Brandt Snedeker, Sebastián Muñoz, Matthias Schwab
1:03 p.m.
Jason Kokrak, Zander Lombard, Shugo Imahira
1:15 p.m.
Shaun Norris, Lucas Glover, Jazz Janewattananond
1:27 p.m.
Rafa Cabrera Bello, Ryan Fox, Billy Horschel
1:39 p.m.
Kevin Kisner, Xander Schauffele, Paul Casey
1:51 p.m.
Francesco Molinari, Dustin Johnson, Abraham Ancer
2:03 p.m.
Tommy Fleetwood, Gary Woodland, Rory McIlroy
2:15 p.m.
Patrick Reed, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Sungjae Im
10th tee
Tee time
Players
12:03 p.m.
Lucas Herbert, Tae Hee Lee, Kurt Kitayama
12:15 p.m.
Bernd Wiesberger, Bryson DeChambeau, Matthew Fitzpatrick
Bubba Watson says a missed cut isn’t the end of the world, and his life is really more about his family.
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MEXICO CITY – Bubba Watson has always marched to the beat of his own drum.
So it came as no surprise to learn how he dealt with missing the cut last week in the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, one of his favorite courses in the world and site of three of his 12 PGA Tour titles.
Instead of hopping on a plane for a quick trip to his home in Florida, he remained in the City of Angels and called up a good friend for a friendly round of golf before heading to the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.
A day after missing the cut, Watson was joined by Justin Bieber on the first tee at Lakeside Golf Club. Yes, that Bieber, the 25-year-old pop star. The two were joined by Watson’s caddie, Ted Scott, pastor Judah Smith and producers Mark Scoon and Ryan Good.
“Life sometimes throws you curve balls. I’ve had some ups and downs over the last five years in my personal life, in my mind, and I’ve reached out to some guys, and I’ve also helped some guys,” Watson said. “I was very disappointed missing the cut. But at the same time, you’ve got to live life. So I called my buddy and we got together and played some golf and freed it up and just had some fun. I was in a good frame of mind, and where my life is with my beautiful wife and my beautiful kids; who cares about missing a cut really.”
Watson has remained in a good frame of mind at Club de Golf Chapultepec, which rests 7,800 feet above sea level. One would naturally think the big-hitting lefty would love playing in the thin air, but his results in this tournament would indicate otherwise – he’s finished in ties for 27th, ninth and 38th.
But he got off to a great start Thursday with a 4-under-par 67 to place him two strokes behind leader and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy.
“Well, what my psychologist would say would be yes, I love it here. I don’t have a psychologist, but if I did, that’s what they would say,” said Watson, who had finished in a tie for sixth in the Farmers Insurance Open and in a tie for third in the Waste Management Phoenix Open before missing the Genesis cut.
“It’s one of those things where it’s fun. When we talk about four days of golf, me and you hit a shot and we land a foot apart, one is going to bounce, one doesn’t. And it’s just about getting the bounces to go your way, the putt to go your way, and today I made some putts. I missed a couple greens just off the green, so it looks like I missed a lot of greens today, but I putted the ball nicely.”
Watson one-putted 13 greens, including the final seven to close out his round.
“I know my ball-striking is where I want it to be. My mind is where I want it to be and everything,” he said. “Coming here, I was just hoping I’d get the right bounces and the right breaks. I know I can play around here if I stay committed to all the shots, and today I did that.
“The key is always patience. That’s the beauty of what Tiger Woods has been able to do, McIlroy has been able to do. It comes down to patience. When you have patience and trust in yourself and your ability, that’s when you can play good golf. I mean, all these guys at this field, at this event can play the game of golf. But it comes down to who’s got the most patience and the freed-up mind and mental attitude.”
The first World Golf Championship event of 2020 is here with the WGC-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City.
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The first World Golf Championship event of 2020 is here.
It’s the WGC-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, the fourth year in a row the club will host this event.
Resting 7,800 feet above sea level, the tree-lined, 7,345-yard, par-71 layout is a field of dreams for the long ball, where drives exceed 400 yards, 6-irons hit the 250-yard sign and 8-irons top two bills.
Rory McIlroy, No. 1 in the world, spoke on the Premier Golf League concept at the WGC-Mexico Championship.
MEXICO CITY – Rory McIlroy has given plenty of thought to a proposed new league that would rival the PGA Tour and European Tour.
He’s not jumping ship and turning his back on either tour.
“The more I’ve thought about it, the more I don’t like it,” McIlroy said ahead of Thursday’s start of the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. “The one thing as a professional golfer in my position that I value is the fact that I have autonomy and freedom over everything that I do.
“This (week) is a perfect example. Some guys this week made the choice to not come to Mexico. If you go and play this other golf league, you’re not going to have that choice. I read a thing the other day where it said if you take the money they can tell you what to do, so if you don’t take the money, they can’t tell you what to do. And I think that’s my thing, I’ve never been one for being told what to do, and I like to have that autonomy and freedom over my career, and I feel like I would give that up by going to play this other league.
“For me, I’m out.”
That is, unless one day comes where he’s forced to go to what is now being called the Premier Golf League because most of the game’s best would be in the league.
“My position is I’m against it until there may come a day that I can’t be against it,” he said. “If everyone else goes, I might not have a choice, but at this point, yeah, I don’t like what they’re proposing.”
The proposed league would feature 48 players playing an 18-event schedule in tournaments around the world with $10 million purses, with a season-ending team championship. The league would have a lot of guaranteed money for the players and include a team concept that would dole out ownership stakes for 12 players who would captain four-man teams.
In this Forward Press podcast, Steve DiMeglio recaps the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing and talks about where Tiger Woods’ game is heading.
In this edition of Forward Press, Golfweek’s David Dusek chats with Steve DiMeglio about the results from this year’s West Coast swing, where Tiger’s game is heading, the conditions and players at this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship and much more.
Forward Press is a weekly Golfweek podcast. In each episode, you’ll get insight and commentary on all that is golf from David Dusek, Steve DiMeglio, Beth Ann Nichols, Eamon Lynch and Adam Schupak, as well as special guests throughout the industry.
Like Gary Woodland, DeChambeau loves playing at elevation but it isn’t all that easy, the players say.
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MEXICO CITY – Bryson DeChambeau, at the end of his range session Tuesday, unleashed a drive that flew 397 yards before touching down on land.
“It’s completely unrealistic to normal golf,” DeChambeau said.
But it’s fun, he added with a big smile, hitting the ball that proverbial country mile. It makes him happy, especially when he launches a drive that goes so far he can’t track it with his own eyes.
While DeChambeau’s recent addition of 25 pounds of muscle had something to do with his enormous drive, the key ingredient was the air. More specifically, the thin air. Welcome to Elevation Central on the PGA Tour this week here at Club de Golf Chapultepec, home to the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.
Resting 7,800 feet above sea level, the tree-lined, 7,345-yard, par-71 layout is a field of dreams for the long ball, where drives exceed 400 yards, 6-irons hit the 250-yard sign and 8-irons top two bills.
Three years ago, this week’s defending champion Dustin Johnson increased his driving distance numbers hitting 2-irons. Think baseball’s Coors Field in Denver – and then place the hitter’s ballpark 2,600 feet higher in the Rocky Mountains.
“I love it,” DeChambeau said of playing in thin air. “It just makes the golf course super short. Which doesn’t mean it makes it easy.”
No, it’s not all wine and roses this week. First of all, players have to get their bodies adjusted to the thin air. One loses their breath here a lot quicker than down by the sea. A rule of thumb? Do not talk while walking uphill. Drink plenty of fluids, especially the night before to allow your body to catch up. And conserve energy as much as possible.
And the players aren’t going all John Daly – just grip it and rip it.
Swinging out of their golf shoes won’t be the norm, for this isn’t a long-drive contest. Instead, it’s a battle to find distance control.
Along with their caddie, the players have to take on the role of mathematician as all variables must be considered. The thin air can play mind games, and Trackman, a launch monitor that examines each shot’s characteristics including ball speed, spin rate and distance, is working overtime as players try and dial in their games.
The ball will travel some 10-18 percent farther than it does at sea level. But how far will the ball fly downwind or into the wind? When it’s cooler in the morning compared to hotter in the afternoon? Shots that draw or fade? A three-quarter shot vs. a full shot?
“You have to make sure you hit it solid every time,” Billy Horschel said. “And no matter what launch you want to hit it, you pick a window to hit it through. Let’s say, if you’re trying to hit 7-iron 212 yards, which is what I’m hitting it here instead of 180 that I regularly hit it, if I launch it too low, it won’t go 212 yards. It will go about 205 and that’s a big difference. If I launch it too high, it will go 220.
“Hit it through the window you want.”
Brandt Snedeker said you have to adjust on the fly.
“There is a lot of feel this week, when you feel the ball will go a lot longer than the numbers say, or you feel it won’t go that far,” he said. “How high you hit it makes a difference. You can’t get stuck on the numbers and the percentages.”
Gary Woodland plays his shot from the 18th tee during the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines – North Course. (Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)
When it comes to numbers, reigning U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland wants to hear just one number – the adjusted number. For instance, he doesn’t want to hear he’s 215 yards from the target, which would make him immediately think he’s hitting 5-iron because that’s what he hits at sea level. So his caddie goes through the equations and comes up with 175. That’s an 8-iron back home.
“The big deal for me is the mental side,” he said. “I just want to hear the adjusted number. Then I know I can make a better swing instead of trying to hit an 8-iron 215 yards and swinging a bit harder when I don’t have to.”
In the past, Woodland, who grew up playing in high winds and loves to hit the ball low, had trouble adjusting to the thin air. Hitting the ball lower in high altitude provides a bigger challenge to adjust numbers. So this week, Woodland and a few others are going with balls that provide more spin, allowing for higher ball flights and more distance control.
And while Woodland said playing in thin air is good for your ego – “I feel like Cameron Champ, I feel like I’m 23 years old again,” he said, referencing Champ, the longest driver in the game – you have to check your ego at the first tee.
Yes, it feels good to hit a 9-iron 195, but is that the proper club to use? Is driver the right club even if you can drive the green? Do you muscle up or muscle down?
“You have to make yourself think, ‘What is the best chance for me to make birdie here?’” DeChambeau said. “It doesn’t always mean driver to the green, which I really want to (hit).”
Yes, he digs the long ball and had a good laugh about wanting to drive a green with a driver. But then he talked about the 319-yard first hole.
“If there’s no wind, I’m hitting hybrid on the first hole to the green,” he said. “It’s going 305.”
A hybrid going 305? Well, it does here in the thin air of Mexico.
