Joost Luiten … The 32-year-old Dutchman easily is the most recognizable name on this page. However, like many continentals before and since, his game hasn’t translated as strongly against the PGA TOUR’s best as he’s without a top 10 in 35 career TOUR starts. Perhaps his return trip to Club de Golf Chapultepec (T25, 2017) cracks the goose egg in that column. He’s fresh off his latest of six European Tour victories having captured the NBO Oman Open by two strokes two weeks ago. That was foreshadowed by a surging T11 in Malaysia in his previous start. Shubhankar Sharma … Beware the fearless. Just 21 years young, the native of India has been a professional since the age of 16. He’s won twice already on the European Tour this season and sits atop the Race to Dubai standings. He got there in part with a second-round 61 at the Joburg Open in December and with a closing 62 at the Maybank Championship four weeks ago, sites of his titles. Rapidly 75th in the Official World Golf Ranking, he’s making his first appearance on the PGA TOUR. Dean Burmester … There has to be some bittersweetness to his appearance this week. See, if he didn’t qualify, his other option would be to defend his title at the Tshwane Open in his native South Africa. The win was among the litany of top 10s on last season’s Sunshine Tour from which his placement at No. 2 in the Order of Merit granted his exemption in Mexico. It also counted as a co-sanctioned, breakthrough victory on the European Tour. The 28-year-old can really move it off the tee and he’s more than capable with the putter. He’s also arriving on the muscle of a T4 at the Dimension Data Pro-Am where he recorded progressively lower scores in every round. Jorge Campillo … The former standout at Indiana University – he was a freshman the year after Jeff Overton graduated – has only one PGA TOUR start under his belt. It was also in Mexico, and it was way back in 2010 when he missed the cut at Mayakoba. Now 31 years of age, the Spaniard charges in at fifth in the Race to Dubai standings with a runner-up finish in Malaysia followed by a T4 in Oman. That gives him four top 15s already in 2018. Balanced throughout his bag, the veteran of 197 European Tour starts is still winless on his home circuit. Chris Paisley … Timing is everything as he makes his PGA TOUR debut. If the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship would have been contested in early January, not only wouldn’t he have qualified, but his odds to crack this field would have been staggering. Of the top 138 in the Official World Golf Ranking, no one started 2018 worse than the 31-year-old at 289th. He soars into Mexico City at 83rd with a contrail of successes. After launching the year with a maiden victory at the BMW SA Open, he added confidence-cementing fifth-place finishes in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. All of that yielded this week’s exemption via the Race to Dubai standings in which he’s slotted sixth. The terrific putter played collegiately at the University of Tennessee.
Click here to read the full article…
