Ben Coley's golf betting tips: Worldwide Technology Championship at Mayakoba preview and best bets

Golf betting tips: Worldwide Technology Championship

1.5pts e.w. Thomas Detry at 50/1 (bet365, William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Joel Dahmen at 80/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Hayden Buckley at 80/1 (Sky Bet, William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Cameron Champ at 90/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Brandon Wu at 125/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Justin Suh at 140/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

At the end of a PGA Tour season which has witnessed a revolution, there's time for one more Greg Norman story. The Shark, whose apparel can be swept up for discount prices at your favourite golf outlet, is the course designer of El Camaleon, home of the Worldwide Technology Championship. According to some reports which emerged at the weekend, he'll soon be kicking out the current tenants and bringing in his LIV bandwagon.

That's probably a good thing for all concerned. This is a fun tournament which has in recent seasons helped Viktor Hovland make his name, but it now lacks the Mexican stars so many fans come out to see. Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz have both jumped ship, and there's something awkward about the event as it now stands.

Before the change, Hovland gets the chance to land a rare hat-trick, having won this title in 2020 and 2021. The king of offshore wins having yet to win in the USA, his claims are obvious and he's had three chances to add to his tally (all outside the US) since July. That he's disappointed on each occasion is a worry and he's not hit the ball as well as he can, though, which makes odds of 10/1 appear skinny.

Scottie Scheffler will be determined to get back to the top of the world rankings and is a better bet at slightly shorter, but he'll need these slower greens to prompt a big jolt of putting improvement. The same goes for Collin Morikawa, motivated surely by a lack of silverware in almost a year now. My issue with him is not price and not necessarily putter, but the fact he's really not threatened to win at any stage in 2022.

With Tony Finau returning from a prolonged break, Billy Horschel and Aaron Wise suddenly make sense at what appear to be prohibitive odds. Wise will do for many, that much is certain, and days after Jordan Smith doubled his tally on the DP World Tour perhaps this superb talent will do the same. He'll need to keep on putting well and there's just something unconvincing about him, even if his form is hard to quibble with.

I'd love to tell you this awfully dull start to a betting preview is an artistic way of revealing my lack of inspiration regarding the top of the market, but that's not true. What is true is that I find it very hard to generate enthusiasm for putting up a short price in a tournament on its last legs, played at a resort course which will again be extremely receptive and likely demand one of these generally unconvincing putters turns a corner.

In a tournament which has been won by some of the best putters around but more recently has gone to quality drivers of a ball, I'll turn to THOMAS DETRY, whose strengths lie in what he does off the tee and, lately, what he does on the green.

• CLICK HERE to back Detry with Sky Bet

Detry has made a fabulous start to life as a PGA Tour member, all but securing his status for 2023-24 already. His finishing positions read 12th, ninth, 69th and second, latterly finishing runner-up to Seamus Power on Sunday, and it's no wonder Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari included him alongside Power and Smith in their celebratory tweets.

He's not for everyone, because he's not yet won, but I remain a firm believer in the Belgian who, at 29, has his best days ahead. Let's not forget he did capture the World Cup with Thomas Pieters, too, and I thought he was desperately unfortunate in last summer's Scottish Open, where he was beaten in a play-off.

Some will see second place in Bermuda as typical of the player but I'm not one of them and was really taken with Detry's response.

"I've had a caddie change in last May which really changed my attitude and my mindset on the golf course and I've been playing really well since the Scottish Open really," he said. "I've been playing some really solid golf. I think a win is just around the corner. Probably not this week, but who knows the next couple of weeks."

That's pretty bullish for someone who will know full well what reputation he has in some quarters and he's right to be pleased with himself. Since hiring JP Fitzgerald to work for him as part of a bag-share arrangement, Detry has played at a consistently high level, finished mid-pack in the Open, secured his PGA Tour card, and kicked on.

Here in Mexico, where he was 22nd last year a week after he'd been 22nd in Bermuda, he has a lot in his favour. For starters the course isn't new to him and we saw the benefits of that last week, and more than half of his PGA Tour starts so far have come on paspalum greens similar to these, which has to help somewhat.

He's driving the ball fabulously with the exception of the penal Valderrama and his short-game, which if you take statistics alone is precisely why he's finished second and not first in four events over the last two years, has become a strength.

At 50/1 in a field which thins out quickly beyond the big five in the betting, and with Fitzgerald notably by his side last week, he rates a bet to deliver on his own words and add his name to the growing list of players banging loudly on Donald's door.

Around the same area in the market, Jason Day and KH Lee both make some appeal. Day has seldom played here but returns having finished eighth and 11th in his last two starts, hitting the ball superbly for the most part and finally getting the putter to warm up. The signs are really promising and while he's now 40/1 having been selected for the Shriners at 100s, we know his ceiling remains higher still.

As for Lee, he started well here once and returns at the very top of his game. Third place at the CJ Cup saw him hang tough behind Rory McIlroy and made it two high-class top-fives either side of the Presidents Cup, where he more than justified selection as one of the better players on Trevor Immelman's side.

Both are tempting but preference on this occasion is for Detry, whose warm-up in a low-scoring, coastal event in Bermuda should set him up nicely for this.

Dahmen ready to double-up

Next on the list is JOEL DAHMEN, whose putting issues are similar to those of Scheffler and Morikawa.

• CLICK HERE to back Dahmen with Sky Bet

Still, Dahmen arrived at the Corales Puntacana Championship last year with stacks of course form but a badly misbehaving putter. Then everything came together at a course he loves, and perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that slower greens certainly seemed to help a player from the Pacific Northwest.

Dahmen's record here at El Camaleon, the type of short course on which he can be competitive, is very similar. He's played 20 rounds, all of them par or better, and in fact putted superbly when sixth in 2019. Again, that came at a time when he'd generally struggled on the greens just as he did the following week, so while we don't have strokes-gained data for these events with paspalum grass, there are hints he's found comfort on it.

Certainly, he's doing everything else well right now. Dahmen was first in strokes-gained tee-to-green when 13th in the Sanderson Farms Championship, hit the ball similarly well when mid-pack in the Shriners, and was hanging around the places all week in Japan last time where again ranking highly in the ball-striking stakes.

A quality driver who hits stacks of fairways, Dahmen's profile for this is a good one and he looks a good bet at 66/1 and upwards.

Drivers favoured in Mexico

This event has thrown up all kinds of winners, initially favouring those with experience who could remain competitive on a fiddly layout, but more recently appearing vulnerable to all-out attack. Soft fairways certainly take the edge off what can look like small targets, and while there's trouble here for the wayward, it's generally a good distance from the fairway.

Still, I find it hard to escape the fact that strong drivers are dominating here these days, never more so than last year, and that's the trigger for putting up HAYDEN BUCKLEY.

• CLICK HERE to back Buckley with Sky Bet

In a low-key way, Buckley drives the ball a little like Hovland: in fact, he was better last year, ranking 13 places ahead of the Norwegian and just outside the top 10. The similarity is in that both are accurate as well as being above average in distance, without being what you'd call a bomber in this day and age.

Buckley's driving has been so good that he hasn't lost strokes on the field since the first week in April, one of three such examples from a solid rookie season which saw him bag two top-10s early on, but in some ways impress more with a run of consistent performances from the US Open onwards.

A minor change to his putting set-up before taking 14th at Brookline certainly helped as he's gained strokes more often than he's lost them with the putter since then and with three top-20s to his name in his last three starts, he arrives here as one of the form players in the field.

To my eye he looks an ideal type for El Camaleon which negates concerns around the fact that this will be his course debut, and 13th place courtesy of three very good rounds in the Dominican Republic gives us some correlating form on similar putting surfaces.

While Buckley looks rock-solid, CAMERON CHAMP comes with greater risk but enormous upside at 80/1.

• CLICK HERE to back Champ with Sky Bet

Champ was eighth last time out in Japan, a welcome return to form, and we know all about his talent and how dangerous he can be when something clicks.

Earlier in the year he followed a back-to-form 10th in the Masters with sixth in Mexico, his other two standout displays also came in back-to-back starts, and last summer he followed 11th in the John Deere Classic with his third win, at the 3M Open.

Wins one and two also followed better displays and going back to that Mexico effort when he contended behind Jon Rahm, as well as coming at a resort course in this part of the world, the greens were similar, and the course designer the same.

Champ also has fond memories of El Camaleon as he made his professional PGA Tour debut here in 2017. Back then, he arrived early and got in plenty of practice before a Tuesday press conference in which he revealed how fond he was of the layout.

"I just kind of feel comfortable," he said. "Even though it's narrow, it's just the way it suits my eye, for some reason I just feel comfortable. Obviously if you walk down the fairway and look back at the tee, the holes are pretty narrow, but like I said, it just kind of fits my eye and suits me well."

Champ missed the cut five years ago but returned 12 months later to shoot a second-round 62 and fly into contention, before back-to-back rounds of 69 at the weekend saw him slip to 10th. In 2019, he shot four more solid rounds to climb from 62nd after day one to 33rd after day four, and those two efforts have to go down as encouraging.

Ranking fifth and fourth respectively for total driving, second and fifth in ball-striking, Champ appears to have produced them without getting his putter firing and that club might determine how well he goes this week. It's therefore of some encouragement that he felt it was what kept him moving forward in the ZOZO Championship and if he's in the same form, he could make a mockery of his price.

Suh and Wu worth a bob or two

It's no surprise to see bits and pieces of support for Danny Lee given his course record while Australia's Harrison Endycott also comes with plenty to recommend him, having made a bright start to his rookie season and played this course in the Eisenhower Trophy in 2016 – an event Hovland also took part in.

Both are respected along with James Hahn, whose long-game continues to impress, but I'll finish with two huge talents who appear ready to show it.

First is JUSTIN SUH, winner of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship and very much one of the standout graduates.

• CLICK HERE to back Suh with Sky Bet

This formerly top-class amateur didn't make the start he'd have hoped for with a PGA Tour card in his pocket, but something clicked at the CJ Cup where he defied a slow start to shoot 67-69-69 and climb to a respectable share of 29th.

Suh led the field in fairways and greens at Congaree, his short-game keeping him away from the top 10. What he does around the green would certainly have to be a concern but if Hovland can overcome it here, where a high greens-in-regulation count is important, then maybe so too can a player who was his equal in college.

I like the fact Suh contended in both starts in the Dominican Republic, an event played on these paspalum greens, and this came before he so much as had a Korn Ferry Tour card. He's since risen through the ranks and now that he has something to work with, a strong end to the year would come as no surprise.

Here in Mexico, where his awesome long-game should see him create plenty of chances, Suh rates a fascinating debutant at three-figure odds.

For BRANDON WU this isn't his debut as he finished 55th here in 2019, during the early stages of his professional career. Opening with a round of 68, he shot three under-par rounds until a poor Sunday saw him tumble down the leaderboard on just his second PGA Tour start.

• CLICK HERE to back Wu with Sky Bet

Wu's best performances since graduating ahead of last season came when third in Puerto Rico and second to Rahm in the Mexico Open, both of which appeal as good form guides given that Hovland's breakthrough came in the former event and that Wise was among several El Camaleon specialists who showed up well at Vidanta Vallarta.

I rated Wu the bet of the week in Bermuda where he got off to a slow start, but there was plenty to like about a second-round 64 and while quiet thereafter, he continued to move up the leaderboard over the weekend.

That was the latest in a string of encouraging performances to begin the new season and with sixth place in the Scottish Open adding weight to his coastal form, I can't resist giving him another chance.

Posted at 2010 GMT on 31/10/22

T20 World Cup tips

Don't miss daily previews and best bets throughout the T20 World Cup, courtesy of cricket expert Richard Mann. All selections will be available via this link, with previews of each day's play appearing as markets become available.

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.