The PGA TOUR heads to Mexico this week for the fourth ever rendition of the Mexico Open. Vidanta Vallarta will be the host and measures as a 7,436-yard par 71 with Paspalum greens.
The field this week is one of the weakest we will see all season, with Akshay Bhatia, Kurt Kitayama and Rasmus Hojgaard currently sitting as the betting favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Below I have outlined my two favorite bets for the week.
Akshay Bhatia to win (+1400)
This feels like a cop-out because technically Bhatia is the favorite this week. However, it’s not too often that we see the betting favorite sitting at 14/1, and I believe both the course setup and lack of strength of the field really favor the 22-year-old. Bhatia has already won twice on the PGA TOUR, with his most notable victory coming last year at the Valero Texas Open, a pretty long driver-heavy golf course in its own right.
Vidanta Vallarta shares a lot of similarities to TPC San Antonio, as both measure over 7,400 yards with wide fairways. That type of setup is when Bhatia is at his best. So far in his young career, Bhatia’s best finishes have come at bomber tracks where scoring is abundant. He’s been especially lethal at resort style courses like we’ll see this week, having finished fourth at the Hero World Challenge, runner-up at the Puerto Rico Open and of course T4 at this very event in his lone start back in 2023.
Since starting the season a bit slow, Bhatia has really found his ball-striking, gaining 4.31 strokes on approach and 1.02 off-the-tee last week at Torrey Pines. He ended up finishing T9, which was his first top-10 of the new year. Bhatia remains one of the best putters in this field as well, ranking fifth over his past 48 rounds in SG: Putting.
All the contextual factors are lining up for the world No. 30 to contend this week, and we know he has the ability to close it out down the stretch.
Rico Hoey to win (+7500)
There are only a handful of spots during the season where we should look to target Hoey, and those are during the fall swing, and during these alternate-type resort course events where the fields are weak and fairways are wide. The Phillipino native absolutely lit it up during the tail end of last season, posting top-10 finishes at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, ISCO Championship, Barracuda Championship and Shriners Children’s Open.
For good measure, he also finished T14 at the Valero, where mentioned above was where Bhatia won, and which shares quite a few similarities to Vidanta Vallarta.
Hoey has gone a bit cold since 2025 started, but it’s hard to expect him to contend at events like the Farmers or WMPO, as he simply thrives in much easier conditions. He boasts the skill set to win at Vidanta Vallarta, as he ranked 25th on the PGA TOUR in driving distance last season, while also sitting 10th in birdie or better percentage from 175-200 yards, which is the approach bucket golfers will hit most of their second shots from this week.
Hoey had much shorter odds in similar fields just a couple of months ago, so the fact we can get him at 75/1 this week makes him one of the best longshot options of the week.
