A player with zero PGA Tour victories withdrew from the World Wide Technologies Championship on Wednesday, and it led oddsmakers to dramatically shift the tournament’s odds.
That’s the intrigue of the otherwise mundane FedEx Fall, a slate of eight tournaments where little-known players are grinding out critical points to earn the best playing status they can for 2025.
Cameron Young has yet to win on tour, but had been the top-ranked player in the field at No. 33. His withdrawal on Wednesday leaves a zero time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour — much less the PGA Tour — as the clear betting favorite.
Our golf experts preview the event that begins at the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal course in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on Thursday, and share their favorite prop picks along with best bets to win this week.
WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CHAMPIONSHIP
Location: Los Cabos, Mexico, Nov. 7-10
Course: El Cardonal at Diamante Cabo San Lucas
Purse: $7.2M (Winner: $1.296M)
Defending Champion: Erik van Rooyen
FedEx Cup Champion: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Sunday: 2-5 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
X: @WWTChampionship
PROP PICKS
–Austin Eckroat To Make Cut (-340 at DraftKings): Granted, the potential payout isn’t highly attractive. On the positive side, Eckroat has made 80 percent of his cuts this season — typically against far deeper fields than this one. He has played in only one fall event, a T46 in Las Vegas, but Eckroat has made five of his past six cuts dating back to The Open Championship.
–Neal Shipley Top 30 Finish (+120 at BetRivers): Now here’s a payout that is attractive. Shipley will make his 10th start on tour this season, having missed the cut just once. In addition to a T6 at the ISCO Championship, Shipley finished 20th on the Fortinet Cup standings on PGA Tour Americas. This is an ascending player who is ranked 218th in the world after being 1,161st after making the cut at the Masters just seven months ago.
–Matti Schmid Top Continental European (-105 at DraftKings): The German is among the pre-tournament favorites — see below — and is in excellent late-season form. He’s going up against Henrik Norlander (+240), Adrien Dumont De Chassart (+700), Paul Barjon (+1000) and Martin Trainer (+1400) in this prop.
Norlander is coming off a missed cut in Las Vegas following at T8 in Utah, Dumont De Chassart has missed eight of his past 12 cuts, Barjon has reached the weekend just twice in his past 11 events and Trainer has 15 MCs in his past 18 starts worldwide.
2024 Prop Picks Record: 51-56
BEST BETS
–Max Greyserman (+1600 at DraftKings) has three runner-ups in his past five starts as he seeks his first PGA Tour title. The 40th-ranked player in the world had a pair of runner-ups on the KFT in 2023, but has yet to post a victory on either tour.
–Doug Ghim (+2200) posted his best career finish on tour two starts ago with a solo second in Las Vegas for his third consecutive T6 or better.
–Matti Schmid (+2200) has quietly post a pair of top-5 finishes, including a T3 in Las Vegas where he was right in the thick of things but was undone by a 70 on Saturday.
–Adam Svensson (+4500) has not been in top form with a T25 his best result in his past four fall starts. He does have a tour title to his credit at the 2022 The RSM Classic and finished T7 at the Wyndham this season.
–Nico Echavarria (+5500) is coming off his second win on tour, although it was just his second top-10 finish in 27 starts this season.
NOTES
–This is the sixth of eight tournaments on the FedEx Cup Fall schedule, which finalizes the top 125 players who will retain exempt status for 2025. Nos. 126-150 after the fall will retain conditional status. Players who finished Nos. 51-70 in the FedEx Cup have secured their tour cards, but are competing for spots in the first two signature events after the season-opening The Sentry on Jan. 2-5.
–Young had been backed by the most total bets (8.2 percent) and money (17.7 percent) at BetMGM and was the biggest liability in the field before his withdrawal.
–First contested in 2007, this was the first official PGA Tour event played in Mexico in the modern era. It moved to El Cardonal last year, when van Rooyen eagled the final hole to win by two strokes. He’s trying to join Viktor Hovland (2020-21) as the only two-time winners of the event.
–Billy Andrade is playing his first PGA Tour event since 2014. He’s in the field on a sponsors exemption after failing to qualify for the Charles Schwab Championship.
