BANK OF UTAH CHAMPIONSHIP
Purse: $6M
Winner's Share: $1.08M
FedEx Cup Points: 500 to the winner
Location: Los Cabos, Mexico
Course: El Cardonal at Diamante
Yardage: 7,452
Par: 72
2024 champion: Austin Eckroat
Tournament Preview
As the 2025 PGA Tour calendar winds down with the final three events of the season, the main focus is on who will finish in the top 100 in the FedExCup Standings. Those players will have full playing privileges in 2026. There are other goals and thresholds for other players, but none greater than the one actually delivering a PGA Tour card.
Over the course of an 11-month season, the difference between finishing 100th and 101st in points can be minuscule, like, one shot. Imagine your whole livelihood altered by a missed three-foot putt. Talk about pressure.
And make no mistake, the difference between finishing 100th and 101st is enormous.
For the golfer finishing 100th, he is in the third priority ranking out of the more than 20 the Tour has mapped out. For Mr. 101, it's the 12th ranking category. Wait, what? Yes, DP World Tour graduates are better positioned than players outside the top 100, as are Korn Ferry grads, even some top guys just out of college. It's all laid out right here in this PGA Tour chart.
Short of finishing in the top 100, there's an advantage to being in the top 110, the top 125 or even the top 150. The latter two ranking categories are far lower than even the 101-110 grouping. This is all new for 2026, by the way, as the Tour has reduced the number of playing cards it is distributing. We're also tracking 51st to 60th in points, as those 10 guys would get berths in the first two Signature Events next season at Pebble Beach and Riviera.
With that as the backdrop, the 120-man field in WWT Championship is dominated by players fighting for their 2026 jobs, though there are some bigger names.
In fact, seven of the top 60 players in the world rankings are entered, beginning with a couple of U.S. Ryder Cup players, U.S. Open winner J.J. Spaun and Ben Griffin. There are also Max Greyserman, Wyndham Clark, Nick Taylor, recent Bank of Utah winner Michael Brennan and Korn Ferry star Johnny Keefer. Others of note include Luke Clanton, Matt Kuchar, European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald and 2024 WWT winner Austin Eckroat.
El Cardonal at Diamente is a 2014 Tiger Woods design. It's the first course he and his TGR design firm ever built and their first to be played on the PGA Tour. It is part of the golf hotbed of Cabo San Lucas, perched off the Pacific on the tip of the Baja California Peninsula.
El Cardonal has been among the easier courses since joining the Tour ranks two years ago, ranking 37th of 51 in action in 2024.
The course is at sea level, so there will be no altitude boost. Even though the course is 7,500ish yards, there are a number of downhill, downwind holes, thereby deemphasizing driving distance. The fairways average 60-70 yards wide, thereby deemphasizing driving accuracy.
From tee to sea… @DiamanteCabo is ready to host the world's best. pic.twitter.com/qtmKXauI3R
— World Wide Technology Championship (@WWTChampionship) October 20, 2025
There are two drivable par-4s of around 350 yards and maybe a third at a downhill 401. The golfers will have huge targets to aim for. Besides the ginormously wide fairways, the paspalum greens average 8,300 square feet, a number rarely seen on the PGA Tour.
There is no rough -- that's right, zero. So where does trouble lie? It's a desert-style track with arroyos, fairway undulations and sandy, rocky conditions greeting golfers who miss the fairway (if that's even possible). An arroyo, you may wonder, is a deep gully where water has traveled. There is actual water on only one hole. There are only 48 bunkers. So close to the mighty Pacific, the wind could be a factor.
The course took a beating about two months ago from Tropical Storm Lorena. According to the Golf Course Superintendents sheet, the storm dropped seven inches of rain on Sept. 2-3, "inflicting significant damage to the golf course. The sheer volume of water coming from the adjacent communities washed out the natural arroyos, turning them from drainage features into deep channels requiring major work to move the sand back into place and restore the original character of the arroyos. The heavy runoff caused severe erosion on No. 5 green collar, destroying the edge that transitions the fairway to the putting surface."
As for this week's weather, in a word, beautiful. Highs in the mid-80s all week with almost zero chance of rain. On the ocean, there's always the chance for strong winds.
Key Stats to Winning at El Cardonal at Diamante
The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Greens in Regulation/SG: Tee-to-Green
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Birdie Average/Birdie or Better Percentage
• Par-5 Scoring, 550-600 yards
Past Champions
2024 - Austin Eckroat (El Cardonal)
2023 - Erik van Rooyen (El Cardonal)
2012 - Russell Henley (Mayakoba)
2021 - Viktor Hovland (Mayakoba)
2020 - Viktor Hovland (Mayakoba)
2019 - Brendon Todd (Mayakoba)
2018 - Matt Kuchar (Mayakoba)
2017 - Patton Kizzire (Mayakoba)
2016 - Pat Perez (Mayakoba)
2015 - Graeme McDowell (Mayakoba)
Champion's Profile
The first two years, the golfers absolutely tore up El Cardonal. In 2023, van Rooyen won at a whopping 27-under before Eckroat emerged at 24-under last year. Carson Young shot an 11-under 61 in the second round a year ago in tying for second a shot back. He made 12 birdies against one bogey (on No. 4) on Friday.
Barring tremendous wind, this is resort-style course that again will be quite gettable. Driving matters little -- both distance and accuracy. That's because it's hard to miss a fairway. And you had to hit more than 80 percent of greens in regulation to even have a sniff at the lead.
van Rooyen and his two runners-up in Matt Kuchar and Camilo Villegas all hit 86 percent of GIR. van Rooyen ranked third in putting average, Kuchar was first and Villegas was seventh.
Eckroat, plus Young and Justin Lower, both of whom shared runner-up, were top-10 in GIR at more than 80 percent. Eckroat ranked fourth in putting and made 30 total birdies.
Enormous greens tend to favor the better putters and expose the weaker ones.
The over/under on the winning score at golfodds.com came in a mere 262.5 -- 25.5 under par. The over/under on the first-round leader score was set at 62.5.
DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS
Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap
$10,000 and up
Ben Griffin - $10,500 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +1000)
The top two guys on the DraftKings board are clearly the class of the field. Maybe that warrants a "duh," but there is a significant gap from Griffin and Spaun to the third guy on the list -- um, Rico Hoey. Griffin has actually played this tournament at El Cardonal both previous times, each resulting in a top-25.
J.J. Spaun - $10,400 (+1200)
Spaun has finished outside the top 25 only twice since May. He's perhaps the best approach player in the field, ranked fifth on Tour for the season. Like Griffin, he's played here the past two years. Also like Griffin, Spaun has nothing to play for outside of cash -- not priority position or anything -- which can sometimes free them up to just play.
$9,000-$9,900
Max Greyserman - $9,800 (+2000)
Greyserman, the No. 3 guy in this field in terms of world ranking at No. 31, has finished runner-up five times in just 54 Tour starts, including last time out in Japan last month. Clearly, his maiden win is coming. He came close here a year ago with a solo fourth.
Garrick Higgo - $9,300 (+2200)
Higgo has been maybe the hottest player during the fall season with three top-10s in three starts, including a runner-up at the Sanderson Farms and a T4 last time out at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan. As such, he has played himself comfortably inside the top 100 and right now is in the top 60 -- meaning he would get into the first two 2026 Signature Events.
$8,000-$8,900
Matt Kuchar - $8,200 (+5500)
Kuchar is in an interesting situation. He's currently 121st in the standings. While getting inside the top 100 is his goal, he does have other options. At age 47 and No. 15 all-time in PGA Tour earnings, he has two career money exemptions he can use the next two years, which would carry him within about six months of qualifying for the Champions Tour at age 50. But surely getting inside the top 100 is the better option -- not only would it mean he'd be in a higher priority category, but he'd obviously have some good finishes down the stretch. Kuchar can still deliver on occasion; he's finished top-20 in his two fall starts. He also was runner-up here two years ago.
Matt Wallace - $8,100 (+4000)
Wallace is not one of the seven guys ranked among the top 60 in the OWGR in this field, but he's close at No. 67. He has been very hit-and-miss this season, so there is some risk. But he showed he can go low in tying for third at the 3M Open at 20-under, and he tied for 10th last month at the Baycurrent in Japan.
$7,000-$7,900
Johnny Keefer - $7,900 (+4500)
Keefer tore up the Korn Ferry Tour this season with two wins, two runners-up and nine top-10s. He finished first on the circuit to gain a promotion to the PGA Tour next season. He's played only three times on the big tour this season, two of them in majors, and made the cut at the U.S. Open.
Sam Ryder - $7,400 (+8000)
Ryder is at 108th in points. He doesn't miss many cuts, just seven all season. But he also doesn't have many high finishes -- eight top-25s with zero top-10s. Ryder is ninth on Tour in Putting, and he'll have to make a lot of birdies this week. He had a top-10 here two years ago.
Patrick Fishburn - $7,300 (+7500)
Fishburn had made eight straight cuts until flaming out last month at his hometown Bank of Utah Championship. Maybe there was too much pressure playing in front of family and friends. But he's a pretty good player, ranked top-75 in every strokes-gained metric except Around-the-Green. Fishburn is also eighth on Tour in greens in regulation. All of which makes it odd that he is outside the top 100 in points at No. 105. He tied for 12th here a year ago.
Sami Valimaki - $7,000 (+10000)
Valimaki is struggling to keep his card in his first season on Tour. He's 108th in points. But he's also top-20 on Tour in SG: Approach and top-10 in Putting. The problem lies with his driver. He's neither long nor accurate. But that won't hurt him this week as much as in other weeks.
$6,000-$6,900
Ben Kohles - $6,900 (+11000)
Kohles has not had a good season, despite ranking second on Tour in greens in regulation, top-10 in SG: Approach and top-25 in Tee-to-Green. That's because he's been a brutally bad putter, ranked 166th. But more than half the 120-man field will make this cut and he's had some decent results of late -- a T20 at the Bank of Utah and a T26 at the Procore.
Adam Svensson - $6,500 (+20000)
Svensson is outside the top 160 in the standings. Not good! But we saw something in him last time out, picked him and he made the Utah cut. He also made the cut here two years running. Svennson's two biggest trouble spots are driver and putter. He's a woefully short hitter. Still, he's got very good numbers on Approach and Tee-to-Green. We just mentioned it with Kohles but it bears repeating: More than half the field will make this cut.
Waltzed through Len's plays for the World Wide Technology Championship? See how they look in RotoWire's PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer.
