Steve Palmer's World Wide Technology Championship first-round preview, best bets

Golf tips, best specials bets, threeballs and player analysis for the World Wide Technology Championship at El Camaleon on the PGA Tour.

When to watch

Sky Sports Main Event and Golf, 7pm Thursday

Best bets

Russell Knox top Scot
3pts 4-5 Coral, Ladbrokes

Harrison Endycott to make cut
3pts 8-11 bet365, BoyleSports

Viktor Hovland to win 12.50pm threeball
2pts 6-4 general

Preview

Thunderstorms seem set to play a role on the first day of the World Wide Technology Championship, so the opening round could be a stop-start affair at El Camaleon in Mexico.

Tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler is scheduled to tee off early at 12.50pm UK and Ireland time, alongside defending champion Viktor Hovland and Keith Mitchell, while Collin Morikawa is due off 11 minutes earlier.

The glamour groups may not get started on time, but whenever they head off, Hovland will feel confident of taking charge of his threeball. The Norwegian is 43 under par for his last eight rounds at El Camaleon, having won this event in each of the last two years.

Scheffler has been struggling for putting confidence and switching to a new flat stick before the CJ Cup did not have the desired effect, with the Masters champion ending up 45th of 78 runners in the no-cut event.

Mitchell, who has Mayakoba form figures of 68-65-MC-70-56, should be outclassed in this group, so 6-4 Hovland looks a price full of juice.

The accuracy of Russell Knox always makes him a dangerman at a course as tight and fiddly as El Camaleon, and 4-5 seems a generous price about him in the top Scot market. He was second in the 2015 Mayakoba event and third the following year.

Martin Laird, the other Scot competing this week, has never made an impact at El Camaleon and has missed two of his last three cuts there.

Harrison Endycott, who has made a bright start to his PGA Tour career, has experience of El Camaleon from the 2016 Eisenhower Trophy. He was part of a winning Australian team in that prestigious amateur event and 8-11 seems a healthy price about him making the cut this week.

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