WGC-Mexico Championship: Steve Palmer's first-round preview & free golf tips

Golf tips, best bets, player analysis and free tips for the WGC-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec.

Where to watch

Live on Sky Sports Golf from 5pm Thursday

Best bets

Tommy Fleetwood to beat Webb Simpson
3pts 21-20 Betway (draw no bet)

Kurt Kitayama to beat Robert MacIntyre
3pts 10-11 Hills (draw no bet)

Rory McIlroy & Justin Thomas dual forecast
1pt 35-1 Sky Bet

First-round preview

Tommy Fleetwood will be looking forward to attacking Club de Golf Chapultepec, where he finished runner-up to Dustin Johnson in the inaugural WGC-Mexico Championship, and the English raider can be fancied to outscore Webb Simpson over 72 holes.

Betway do not agree, making Simpson odds-on favourite in a draw-no-bet match against Fleetwood, but the 21-20 outsider is well suited to the challenge of Chapultepec and in good enough form to take advantage.

Fleetwood burst into life on the European Tour at the end of last year, winning the Nedbank Challenge before finishing runner-up in the DP World Tour Championship, beaten only by Jon Rahm. And 2020 has started with second place in the Abu Dhabi Championship followed by 11th spot in the Dubai Desert Classic.

Fleetwood has finished 14th and 19th in his two Chapultepec visits since running Johnson so close in 2017, and a fourth consecutive top-20 could be on the cards for the increasingly confident Southport lad, who has been oozing control from tee to green.

Simpson took last week off after winning the Phoenix Open and is one of the most consistent operators on the PGA Tour, but his lack of driving distance and low ball-flight are far from ideal for Chapultepec, where he has finished 37th and 39th in his two previous starts.

Another draw-no-bet match-bet option which appeals is with Hills, who have paired two European Tour regulars in Kurt Kitayama and Robert MacIntyre, both of whom are making their Mexico Championship debut.

Kitayama was born in California and raised on poa annua greens, the putting surface he faces this week, and he went to college at the University of Nevada. An average altitude of 5,500 feet in Nevada – the fifth-highest state in the country – means Kitayama is used to playing golf at altitude and Chapultepec is 7,800 feet above sea level.

The American finished 18th in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am last time out while MacIntyre, who is still getting over a hand injury which delayed the start of his 2020 campaign, missed the cut in the Saudi International.

Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas have both made merry on this course in the past and with so many star names skipping the event, this dynamic duo have a much better chance than usual of filling the first two places on the leaderboard on Sunday. The dual-forecast is available at 35-1.

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