Eye-popping distances expected at World Golf Championships-Mexico
MEXICO CITY — Bypassing the practice range, Bubba Watson headed straight to the golf course at Club de Golf Chapultepec on Monday to begin preparation for the World Golf Championships Mexico Championship.
With his second swing of the day, the wind slightly coming into him from the left, Watson flew the ball 252 yards.
With a 6-iron.
That’s not only Bubba long, that’s insane long. Many more eye-popping numbers will be put up this week in the first WGC of the year as the tree-lined 7,330yard, par-71 layout rests 7,800 feet above sea level.
“There will be a 15 per cent difference when he gets going,” Watson’s caddie, Ted Scott, said of the difference in distance his boss’s ball will carry in the high altitude compared to playing at sea level.
That’s the equation players need to figure out this week. Thus, Trackman, a launch monitor that examines each shot’s characteristics including ball speed, spin rate and distance, is working overtime as players dial in their games.
“I think this is going to be the best week for (Trackman’s) branding, for sure, versus any other week,” said Justin Thomas, who won his seventh title in his last 30 PGA Tour starts last week in the Honda Classic. “It’s very, very dependent on the shot you’re hitting and the club you’re hitting, but when you hit those drivers up in the air, they go pretty far.”
Other clubs go far, too. Defending champion Dustin Johnson’s driving distance went up last year when he hit 2-irons. But how far will a wedge go? How far will the ball go 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?
“There will be tons of mathematics used this week,” Brendan Steele said. “It scrambled my brain a little bit last year.”
But the big-hitting Gary Woodland thinks length is a huge advantage. He’s had success in high altitude; in the Barracuda Championship played at the Montreux Golf and Country Club midway between Reno and Tahoe in Nevada, which rests about a mile above sea level, Woodland won in 2013 and finished second in 2016 in his only starts.
“Here, the big hitters are hitting irons over 300 yards on a golf course where hitting the fairway is a premium,” Woodland said. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s a huge advantage for the guys with a lot of length. I love playing at high elevation.
“And it’s nice to have a caddie who is good with numbers so I don’t have to do too much with it.”