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2026 World Wide Technology Championship Picks: Why El Cardonal Is a Putting Contest

By Rick Gehman · Published November 3, 2026 · 7 min read

Quick answer

El Cardonal has fairways so wide that nearly nine in 10 drives find them, so players separate on the greens. My custom model for the week ranks Blades Brown first, followed by Seamus Power, Michael Kim, Ben James and Alvaro Ortiz. At the top of the DraftKings board, I lean Ben Griffin, then Jackson Koivun, then Ryan Gerard, and it's close.

Key takeaways

The field hit 88.7% of fairways at El Cardonal last year, the highest rate of any PGA Tour event in 2025.
A missed fairway costs about 0.74 strokes here, the most of 31 events played every year since 2023.
Putting stats line up with results here more than almost anywhere. Putts per round ranks among the 10 most predictive courses on the PGA Tour.
The board is wide open: about 15 players sit between the favorites and 29-to-1 (odds as of Monday).

Watch the video: WWT Championship | Fantasy Golf Preview & Picks, Sleepers, Data - DFS Golf & DraftKings

El Cardonal course preview

El Cardonal at Diamante is a Tiger Woods design that's less than 15 years old. This is its fourth year hosting the World Wide Technology Championship, which moved here from Mayakoba in 2023. The winning scores have been 27-under, 24-under and 29-under.

The fairways are enormous and there's essentially one cut of grass. That's why almost nobody misses. When someone does, the ball usually ends up in sand or native desert, and each miss has cost about three-quarters of a stroke.

With everyone in the fairway and distance not separating players much, the greens decide it. Those greens are large paspalum surfaces that run relatively slow. Putts per round, three-putt avoidance and one-putt percentage all rank among the 10 courses on the PGA Tour where they line up most closely with success. When you need 27-under to win, you have to make putts.

One caveat: there's no ShotLink history at El Cardonal, so the detailed shot-by-shot data available at most stops doesn't exist here yet.

$10,000 and up

Ben Griffin (DraftKings $10,000)

The defending champion finished T4 in Mexico last week, but it was a short-game week: he gained +5.77 strokes putting and +3.90 around the green while losing strokes off the tee. The big question coming off a two-month break was his putter, which cost him 8.07 strokes at the BMW Championship. It answered. On a course that leans even harder on putting, I'm back in on Griffin.

Jackson Koivun (DraftKings $10,400)

Koivun's only bad start this year was a T65 at the Bank of Utah Championship, the week after the Presidents Cup. Before that, he won the 3M Open and finished T5 in Asheville. He's 21, and he's already a strong putter for his age. This is his first start at El Cardonal, which doesn't worry me.

Ryan Gerard (DraftKings $10,200)

Gerard is coming off a T4 at the Baycurrent Classic and a third at the Tour Championship. He's probably the weakest putter of the three at the top. If you made me rank them to win, odds considered, I'd go Griffin, Koivun, then Gerard, but it's incredibly tight.

$9,000 range

Blades Brown (DraftKings $9,500)

Brown is my custom model's No. 1 player this week, and he'll likely be my pick to win.

He's 19, and his skill profile is above average in every category.

Mexico Open: he led the field off the tee (+5.29) and finished T19.
Approach: he's gained strokes in every start since the John Deere Classic in July.
Putting: he gained +10.41 strokes on the greens when he finished second at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
Consistency: he has four straight top-20s and five in his last six starts.

Ben James (DraftKings $9,900)

James missed the cut in Bermuda, then lost 2.75 strokes to the field in the first round in Mexico and sat 95th. Over the final three rounds he gained +9.19 strokes, tied for third-best in the field behind Andrew Novak and Kris Ventura. He'll be the player I'm most interested in when projected ownership comes out on Wednesday.

Harry Hall (DraftKings $9,400)

Putting is the best part of Hall's game, and accuracy, his weak spot, matters less here. He's also gained strokes on approach in seven straight events across the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, starting with a T5 at the Wyndham. If he keeps that up and putts like himself, he has a clear path to the top of the leaderboard.

Keith Mitchell (DraftKings $9,600)

Mitchell finished T2 at the Baycurrent Classic, but putting isn't a strength for him, and this course asks for it.

$8,000 range

This is the deepest $8,000 range of the fall. I could build a full lineup out of it.

Chris Kirk (DraftKings $8,900)

Kirk has made seven straight cuts since the Scottish Open, mostly while losing strokes putting. He finished T10 in Asheville and T8 at the Rocket Classic as a negative putter. In Bermuda, he gained +4.52 putting over 54 holes and finished T6. If the putter stays warm, his iron play does the rest.

Michael Kim (DraftKings $8,800)

Kim is historically one of the better putters in this price range, and he has three top-10s in his last nine starts, including a T7 at the Open de France. He finished T23 and T30 in his two trips here.

Johnny Keefer (DraftKings $8,700)

Keefer missed the cut in Mexico after losing 5.49 strokes putting, the second-worst putting week of his career, behind the Canadian Open (−7.87). He gained strokes from tee to green, though. Swings like that are part of his range of outcomes, so I'll forgive it quickly.

Steven Fisk (DraftKings $8,200)

Fisk finished T2 in Mexico and gained at least a stroke on the field in all four rounds. Over his last eight starts he has a win (the ISCO Championship), a runner-up, a T7 in Utah and a T22. He's above average in every category except approach, and his putting is a strength.

Seamus Power (DraftKings $8,100)

Power lost the Monday playoff to Austin Smotherman in Bermuda. He finished T27 here last year.

Mackenzie Hughes (DraftKings $8,400)

Hughes finished T4 in Mexico while losing 2.29 strokes on approach, and he's lost strokes on approach in 11 of his last 12 starts. He makes up for it around the greens and with the putter, which is exactly what El Cardonal rewards. He finished T7 here in 2023.

Max Greyserman (DraftKings $8,000)

When Greyserman is going well, it's driver and putter. The putter is there: he gained +3.71 putting on the way to a T11 in Mexico. He finished fourth here in 2024.

$7,000 range

Neal Shipley (DraftKings $7,800)

Shipley has made seven straight cuts, and his four fall finishes are T3 (Asheville), T10 (Utah), T34 (Bermuda) and T16 (Mexico). He's always been long off the tee, and the rest of his game is catching up. On fairways this wide, his accuracy problems mostly go away.

Sami Valimaki (DraftKings $7,700)

Valimaki's profile is about as El Cardonal as it gets: accurate enough, positive on approach and strong with the putter. He finished T2 here last year. He's barely played since June, with a 10th at the KLM Open and a T13 at the Spanish Open in October. Confirm he's in the field before you lock him in.

Trace Crowe (DraftKings $7,700)

Crowe is one of the best birdie-makers in the world and also makes plenty of bogeys. In Mexico, he closed with a bogey-free 63, gained +5.38 strokes in that round and finished T11. Over his last three starts he has had a week gaining +10.64 on approach and a week gaining +7.69 putting. Volatility like that plays well in DraftKings scoring.

Alvaro Ortiz (DraftKings $7,200)

Ortiz finished T34 in Mexico, and this week is his second straight PGA Tour start in his home country. He won the Simmons Bank Open on the Korn Ferry Tour in September, gaining +14.90 strokes putting, and hasn't missed a cut since July. He's a strong birdie-maker who fits a course that demands rolling in putts.

Rasmus Højgaard (DraftKings $7,300)

Højgaard has one of the best pedigrees in the field at a low price, but his fall has been rough. He withdrew in Asheville, missed the cut in Utah after losing 10.18 strokes from tee to green, and missed the cut in Mexico. Before that, he finished T2 at the Danish Golf Championship. If he's three or four under after Thursday, he's a live in-tournament bet.

$6,000 range

Austin Hitt (DraftKings $6,800)

Hitt won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in October, gaining +7.87 strokes putting. His last five starts include that win, a runner-up at the AdventHealth Championship and a T4 at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship. He's 28 and will be on the PGA Tour full time next year.

Ben Silverman (DraftKings $6,700)

Silverman is volatile but trending up. He finished T3 in Bermuda and T19 in Mexico, gaining +9.54 strokes on approach across those seven rounds while losing strokes putting. That gap puts him in the breakout zone. He finished T21 here last year.

Justin Lower (DraftKings $6,800)

Lower is this week's version of Brian Campbell at Vidanta: he plays well here for no obvious reason. He's finished T23, T2 and T31 at El Cardonal and made the cut in all three, gaining +1.87 strokes per round, sixth-best in the field among players with at least eight rounds here. He's made the cut in five of his last six starts.

Vince Whaley (DraftKings $6,400)

Whaley makes a lot of putts and a lot of birdies, and he's played here three times: T59, T55 and T17. He finished T23 in Mexico, with all of his strokes gained coming from the short game. He's cheap and could be a first-round leader.

My WWT Championship custom model

The model leans heavily on putting and scoring: weighted strokes gained over the last 100 rounds, putting over the last 24, three-putt avoidance, putting on paspalum, bonus putting, birdies or better, and course history. Ben Griffin doesn't rate out well in it.

It's saved as "2026 WWT Model" under Rick's Models in the Custom Model tool, so you can load it and adjust it. The top 10:

Frequently asked questions

Where is the 2026 World Wide Technology Championship played?

At El Cardonal at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, a Tiger Woods design. It's the course's fourth year hosting the event, which runs November 5-8, 2026.

What skill matters most at El Cardonal?

Putting. The fairways are wide enough that the field hits about 89% of them, so players separate on the greens. Putting stats line up with results here more than at almost any other PGA Tour course.

Who won the WWT Championship last year?

Ben Griffin won in 2025 at 29-under. Austin Eckroat won in 2024 (24-under), and Erik van Rooyen won in 2023 (27-under).

Who is Rick Gehman's pick to win the 2026 WWT Championship?

Blades Brown, who ranks first in Rick's custom model for the week.

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