The 2018 Mayakoba Golf Classic begins Thursday at El Camaleón Golf Club in Mexico's Riviera Maya and boasts the largest prize pool ($7.2 million) of any golf tournament in Latin America. The 2018 Mayakoba Golf Classic field features three of the top 15 players in the current Official World Golf Rankings, including Rickie Fowler, who enters as the Vegas favorite at 8-1 Mayakoba Golf Classic odds. Jordan Spieth currently sits at 12-1 odds, while Tony Finau is going off at 14-1. Before you make any bets or enter a daily fantasy golf tournament on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, you'll want to hear what the SportsLine Projection Model has to say.
SportsLine's prediction model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has nailed four of the last eight golf majors entering the weekend and called Tiger Woods' deep run in the PGA Championship despite being a 25-1 long shot. The proprietary computer model has been dead-on recently as well. It was all over Bryson DeChambeau (12-1) winning last week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, projecting him to finish on top of the leaderboard from the start. It also correctly predicted Brooks Koepka's (9-1) victory at the CJ Cup earlier this season. Anyone who has followed the model is up huge.
Now that the 2018 Mayakoba Golf Classic field is locked, SportsLine simulated the event 10,000 times, and the results were surprising.
One huge shocker the model is calling for this week: Emiliano Grillo, a 28-1 long shot, makes a serious run at the title. He's a target for anyone looking for a huge payday.
Grillo enters the Mayakoba Golf Classic 2018 full of confidence. He's finished 14th or better in two of his last three starts on the PGA Tour, including a second-place finish earlier this season at the CIMB Classic. And he's finished inside the top 10 in his last two starts at this event. The SportsLine Projection Model believes Grillo will carry over those positive experiences into the Mayakoba Classic 2018 and find himself in the hunt for the title.
Another surprise: Zach Johnson, a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour, stumbles big-time this week and finishes well outside the top 10.
Johnson is making his first start of the new PGA Tour season this week at El Camaleón. He finished last season ranked inside the top 20 in scoring average (69.911), but has failed to crack the top 10 in his last 12 starts on the PGA Tour. And he finished outside the top 20 in his debut at this event last year. He's a golfer you want to completely steer clear of this week.
Also, the model says five additional golfers with odds of 25-1 or longer will make a strong run at title. Anyone who backs these underdogs could hit it big.
So who wins the 2018 Mayakoba Golf Classic? And which long shots stun the golfing world? Check out the odds below and visit SportsLine now to see the full Mayakoba Golf Classic projected leaderboard from the model that nailed DeChambeau's win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
Rickie Fowler 8-1
Jordan Spieth 12-1
Tony Finau 14-1
Gary Woodland 20-1
Aaron Wise 25-1
Billy Horschel 28-1
Emiliano Grillo 28-1
Cameron Champ 28-1
Beau Hossler 33-1
Luke List 33-1
Si Woo Kim 33-1
Zach Johnson 40-1
Joaquin Niemann 40-1
Sam Ryder 40-1
Scott Piercy 40-1
Abraham Ancer 45-1
Adam Hadwin 45-1
Bill Haas 45-1
Charles Howell 45-1
C T Pan 45-1
Pat Perez 45-1
Matt Kuchar 50-1
Chez Reavie 50-1
