GolfMagic Fantasy: Jon Rahm a red-hot favourite to defend Mexico Open
Jon Rahm is the shortest-priced favourite for a PGA Tour event this season. Will you be playing him as your captain this week?
Stick a GolfMagic Fantasy captain's armband over that Green Jacket and go all in on Jon Rahm to successfully defend the Mexico Open on the PGA Tour this week, writes GolfMagic Editor Andy Roberts.
Rahm, who won his second career major title at The Masters earlier this month, took last week off to recharge his batteries and we think that extra bit of rest will have him fit and raring to go this week on the Greg Norman-designed Signature Course at Vidanta Vallarta.
This week's GolfMagic Fantasy winner will land an Odyssey Golf putter of their choice (excluding the Toulon Garage range), and remember, our ongoing season-long race will see our winner receive a full Callaway Golf custom fitting at a Callaway Fitting Centre.
To play, all you need to do is register to GolfMagic Fantasy, which is absolutely free, and then pick a team of five golfers with one captain pick for each event.
There are 20 events in total on GolfMagic Fantasy, with our last event taking place at the Tour Championship in August.
GUIDE: HERE'S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GOLFMAGIC FANTASY
Why play Rahm as GolfMagic Fantasy captain?
Rahm won the Mexico Open on 17-under par last year and he finished one stroke ahead of Tony Finau, Kurt Kitayama and Brandon Wu.
This year, we're expecting Rahm to trounce his opposition much more comfortably than 12 months ago.
So too are the bookies who have Rahm installed as the shortest-priced favourite of any PGA Tour event this season at 5/2.
Will Jon Rahm make it 5 wins in 2023 with a successful title defence at the Mexico Open?
— GolfMagic (@GolfMagic) April 24, 2023
Rahm is putting up Tiger Woods-like numbers on the PGA Tour season as he goes in search of a fifth victory in 2023.
Another reason to put your faith in Rahm this week is because the next-best player in the field is World No.16 Finau, who finished runner-up here last year.
This isn't an Elevated Event on the PGA Tour, so there's no Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy around for him to worry about this week. Rahm has few dangers in his way, and for us, he's the easiest captain you can pick for your team this season.
Afternoon winds played a major role in the tournament last season, with the AM-PM draw faring 1.52 strokes better on Thursday and Friday. However, taking a look at this week's forecast, and the weather looks sunny without a great deal of wind so we're not sure the draw will matter this year.
Let's take a look at our full five-man roster for the Mexico Open this week.
We're going for one Pot 1 selection, one from Pot 2 and three from Pot 4.
Andy's GolfMagic Fantasy Picks:
Pot 1: Jon Rahm (c)
As we've already highlighted above, Rahm is the shortest-priced favourite to win a PGA Tour event this season, and rightly so as The Masters champion looks to win for an incredible fifth time in 2023 before the month of May. With a real lack of star quality on show this week, with all due respect to the field, if Rahm turns up even with his B-game then he wins. It's as a simple as that. We're not sure there will be an easier pick for your captain's armband all season. Rahm is rested after taking last week's team event off, so we think he'll be ready to roll in his title defence. We're not just expecting Rahm to win this week, we're expecting him to win by at least four or five shots. It just depends which gear he decides to play in.
Pot 2: Tony Finau
While we don't fancy Finau to topple Rahm for the title, if there is anyone who is most likely to give the World No.1 a run for his money this week then it's the big American. We still don't really trust Finay's fairly dodgy putting stroke from short range, but he has slowly learned how to get over the winning line in recent years. Finau ran Rahm close here last year when finishing just one shot behind, so he clearly fancies himself on this track. He finished 26th at The Masters and then added a 31st at the RBC Heritage in his last start, so he's in solid but not spectacular form right now. Finau still looks a very safe Pot 2 pick though.
Pot 4: Gary Woodland, Wyndham Clark, Nicolai Hojgaard
Our first Pot 4 pick is former US Open champion Woodland, who showed glimpses of a return to form with a tie for 14th at The Masters. Another tasty Pot 4 pick is Clark, who is going somewhat under the radar this season with four top-10 finishes in his last eight starts. The last of which came with a solo third alongside Beau Hossler at the Zurich Classic. He is still searching for his maiden win but we think it could come before the end of the season. For our final Pot 4 pick, we'll take Denmark's rising superstar Nicolai Hojgaard, who will be desperate for a big week as he looks to play his way into Ryder Cup reckoning this season. Hojgaard came close to his maiden PGA Tour title at the Corales Puntacana Championship in March when finishing second behind Matt Wallace.
Which five players are going in your GolfMagic Fantasy team this week? How is your GolfMagic Fantasy team doing after two weeks? Share your thoughts and comments over on the GolfMagic social media channels.
