Out of the Rough: LIV Golf Mexico City (2026)

As the dust has settled on the 90th playing of the Masters Tournament, the LIV Golf Tour returns to action for the sixth event of the season.

This season marks the second playing of the LIV Golf Mexico City held at the Club de Golf Chapultepec. 

The Club de Golf Chapultepec is one of the highest-altitude golf courses in North America.

The Field

The 10 golfers who represented the LIV Golf Tour at Augusta National last week will be back to tee it up in Mexico.

That list includes Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Tom McKibbin, Carlos Ortiz, John Rahm, Charl Schwartzel, Cameron Smith and Bubba Watson.

Joaquin Niemann comes in as the defending champion of this event, having won by three strokes over the likes of Lucas Herbert and DeChambeau.

Legion XIII (Rahm, Hatton, McKibbing and Caleb Surratt) are the defending team champions, recording a -28, two strokes better than the runner-up Ripper GC. 

Although on the PGA Tour, Johnson won the WGC-Mexico Championship twice (2017 & 2019) here. 

Although not playing, Phil Mickelson also won the WGC-Mexico Championship here in 2018.

The Course

As previously mentioned, the Club de Golf Chapultepec is one of the highest-altitude golf courses in all of North America.

It is also one of Mexico City’s oldest golf courses, built during the Mexican Revolution and opened in 1921.

It has hosted the Mexican Open a total of 18 times, most recently in 2014. The course also hosted the WGC-Mexico Championship on the PGA Tour from 2017-2020.

Club de Golf Chapultepec plays as a par-72 at roughly 7,267 yards. Despite what the scorecard’s distance suggests, sitting at altitude, the ball will travel approximately 10-percent further.

Off-the-tee, golfers will be greeted by wide-fairways that allow for slightly-errant shots to be just fine. However, like most venues, the big misses off-the-tee will be heavily penalized by OB on most holes. 

The course definitely favors long-hitters as many of the par-fours can be attacked off-the-tee by cutting corners, going over trees.

The greens are surrounded by bunkers making most of the holes true risk-reward setups.

The course is known for its tough three-hole stretch of holes 15-17. All three holes play uphill and provide a tricky end to any round.

The par-three 17th is the course’s signature hole and included in that aforementioned tough three-hole stretch. Going along with the altitude of the course, this par-three is the highest elevated hole in the North American professional circuit. The 17th green is also guarded by a lake to the left

In all, the history of the course outways the challenge it presents. There are ways for golfers to get in trouble here but expect a low-scoring affair.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, we can expect afternoon thunderstorms across all four days. Thursday currently calls for a 45-percent chance of thunderstorms, Friday a 40-percent chance, Saturday a 40-percent chance and Sunday a 45-percent chance. Winds will begin the week at ten miles-per-hour before increasing to 11 miles-per-hour for each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures will be steady at 78-degrees across all four days as well. In all, the afternoon thunderstorms could throw a wrench into things.

Key Stats

• Total Driving (80% Average Driving Distance / 20% Hit Fairway Percentage)

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Putting Average

• Scrambling

• Birdie-or-Better Percentage

Betting Card

Thomas Detry (+1600)

Per my stats based model, outside of DeChambeau and Rahm, Detry is my favorite to win this week. He is currently fifth on Tour in birdie-or-better percentage, seventh in GIR%, eighth in scrambling, 16th in putting average and 22nd in total driving. He placed third in his latest outing in South Africa. Prior to that he placed 15th in Singapore, second in Hong Kong, 31st in Adelaide and seventh in Riyadh. He’ll be making his tournament debut here this week. A win is coming for Detry, we can only hope this is the week it happens. 

Lucas Hebert (+2500)

Herbert was the runner-up at this event a season ago to Niemann. He comes into this week on good form, placing 31st in South Africa, 17th in Singapore, eighth in Hong Kong, sixth in Adelaide and ninth in Riyadh. On Tour, he is currently sixth in birdie-or-better percentage, seventh in total driving, 11th in putting average, 24th in GIR% and 37th in scrambling. 

Scott Vincent (+8000)

The Zimbabwean is my long shot this week. He has quietly been putting together a great season on LIV so far. He placed 11th in South Africa, 17th in Singapore, 31st in Hong Kong, 24th in Adelaide and 13th in Riyadh. On Tour he is currently ninth in scrambling, 16th in putting average, 26th in GIR%, 32nd in birdie-or-better percentage and 36th in total driving.