World Wide Technology Championship DFS picks 2026: I’m enjoying the best iron participant in the area

The PGA Tour wraps up its two-week Mexico Swing this week at El Cardonal at Diamante in Los Cabos for the World Wide Technology Championship. Fresh off the VidantaWorld Mexico Open in Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta, the tour heads west across the Gulf of California to the tip of the Baja Peninsula for its fourth straight 12 months at El Cardonal.

RELATED: The best golf programs in Mexico, ranked

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Opened in 2014, El Cardonal sits on 225 acres in the desert foothills above the Pacific and was the first course designed by 82-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods. He drew on the Golden Age layouts he grew up enjoying in Southern California, and it exhibits. Most holes give you more than one method to get to the inexperienced, so the course asks gamers to decide a line and commit to it rather than merely overpower it.

With extensive fairways, bunkering that’s more about positioning than punishment, and some of the largest, most contoured greens the tour sees all 12 months, El Cardonal is a resort course through and through, and the scoring displays it. Erik van Rooyen won at -27 in 2023, Austin Eckroat went -24 in 2024, and last 12 months Ben Griffin closed with a Sunday 63 to get to -29, two clear of Sami Valimaki and Chad Ramey.

The wind is the only actual protection, and since most holes run north and south, it normally blows across the fairways instead of into the gamers’ faces. Between the breeze and the arroyos, a few pictures will go lacking, but the winner should still land somewhere in the mid-to-high 20s under par.

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The seventh gap at the El Cardonal course at Diamante Cabo San Lucas, designed by Tiger Woods.

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The fifth gap at El Cardonal.

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Previous Next Pause Play false Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur , Mexico • Private Diamante Golf Club: El Cardonal

The PGA Tour debuted a new event venue last 12 months, now serving as the host of the World Wide Technology Championship. El Cardonal normally performs backup to the Mexican resort’s other course, the Dunes, ranked forty seventh in the Golf Digest World’s 100 Greatest Courses. Though El Cardonal lacks the sensational seaside setting and prolific sand dunes that border the holes of the Dunes course (designed by Mark and Davis Love III, with affiliate Paul Cowley, in 2010), it has a notable caché of its own as the first course that Tiger Woods and his TGR Design studio constructed. Opened in 2014, El Cardonal sits in the desert uplands above the sister course with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and holes that run primarily north-south, that means the prevailing coastal winds are usually crossing. Completed early in Woods’ architectural profession, El Cardonal strikes chords that the 15-time main champion has continued to use in his subsequent designs at Bluejack National in Texas and Payne’s Valley at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri (Beau Welling was Woods’ lead designer at all three initiatives).

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Ben Griffin returns to El Cardonal recent off a T-4 at Vidanta and wanting to defend a title he won by two pictures. He’s one of just two gamers in the area ranked inside the prime 30 in the world, along with Ryan Gerard at No. 23. From there, the record of top-60 gamers runs only 5 deep once you add Marco Penge, Keith Mitchell and Jackson Koivun.

Here are my favourite performs and fades in each price vary for DraftKings contests for the 2026 World Wide Technology Championship. $9,000+ vary Play: Ben James, $9,900

Orlando Ramirez

James is the hottest participant in this area, and he is priced like a very good one rather than the best one. Three of his previous 4 begins produced a runner-up end in September, a tie for fifth at the Bank of Utah Championship and a tie for sixteenth at the Mexico Open on Sunday, where he closed with rounds of 68 and 65. Over the previous three months he has gained 1.97 strokes per spherical, the most in the area, with his driving and iron play doing the heavy lifting. That issues on a course with 60-yard fairways and no tough, where the long, straight drivers get to attack with short irons all day.

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He has never performed El Cardonal, but the two programs that most resemble it inform the story. He went sixteenth at Vidanta and fifth at Black Desert, gaining more than two strokes per spherical between them. On straightforward scoring programs this season he leads the area in strokes gained over 34 rounds, and is second-best in weak fields. He also ranks third in the area in birdie or higher price, which is the stat that tracks profitable here more intently than any other. Birdie-making, consolation on resort programs and no weak point off the tee make him the best participant on the board to trust at the prime.

Fade: Keith Mitchell, $9,600

I perceive the appeal. Mitchell is one of the longest and best drivers in this area, and his runner-up end at the Baycurrent Classic last month confirmed the ceiling is still there. The downside is the price. DraftKings has him $1,900 above his average wage over his previous 5 begins. His Baycurrent end is his only outcome higher than thirty fourth in those 5.

Mexico has never suited him either. In 10 begins across El Camaleon, Vidanta and El Cardonal he has one prime 20, and at El Cardonal he has lost strokes to the area while ending thirty eighth, lacking the cut and ending 63rd. The greens are the situation, as he ranks close to the backside of this area in three-putt avoidance and nicely below average placing on paspalum and Bermuda, while his play in weak fields and fall occasions sits in the center of the pack. At this price I would rather have Kris Ventura, who just completed second in Mexico for $9,000.

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Read The Line’s Keith Stewart and Pat Mayo talk about the keys to handicapping the 2026 World Wide Technology Championship.

Watch the full 2026 World Wide Technology Championship show here.

$8,000+ vary Play: Ben Kohles, $8,500

David Jensen

Kohles is enjoying the best golf of his life. He has completed twenty ninth or higher in 11 straight begins relationship back to the RBC Canadian Open in June, a run that contains a tie for third at the John Deere Classic and a ninth-place end at the 3M Open, and he has gained strokes on the area in every one of those occasions.

El Cardonal units up as a second-shot golf course, and Kohles is the best iron participant in this area, rating first in strokes gained on strategy over the last 12 months and fifth in proximity from 175 yards and beyond. He has also been one of the higher gamers in the area on straightforward scoring programs, and on layouts where the tee pictures and approaches play best.

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Fade: Pierceson Coody, $8,600

I know the sixth-place end at the Mexico Open is recent in everyone’s thoughts, and on paper Coody has the size and par-5 scoring this course rewards. But one good week does not erase the relaxation of his fall. Before Mexico he completed 57th at the Biltmore Championship, missed the cut at the Bank of Utah Championship and completed fiftieth at the Baycurrent Classic, and over the last six months he has gained less than a tenth of a stroke per spherical. DraftKings has bumped him $1,400 above his average wage over his previous 5 begins, so we are paying for the spike, not the pattern.

His report at El Cardonal is skinny as nicely, with a missed cut and a Thirty first-place end, and his short recreation is a actual concern on these paspalum greens, where he ranks close to the backside of this area around the inexperienced and nicely below average in placing. I would rather save $300 and play Jordan Smith, who has been far steadier and just completed sixteenth in Mexico.

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Sean M. Haffey

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Hoey has quietly turned his season around since the summer season. He completed fifteenth at the Rocket Classic and twenty fifth at the Wyndham Championship, then added a tie for tenth at the Bank of Utah Championship, and over the last three months he has gained close to a stroke per spherical on the area.

Hoey has performed here twice, bettering from forty fifth in 2024 to twenty first last 12 months, and his recreation is constructed for it. He drives it nicely and ranks prime 10 in this area on the par 5s and in proximity from 175 yards and beyond, and over the previous two years he has been one of the higher gamers in fall occasions and weak fields. He has also gained nicely over a stroke per spherical on El Cardonal’s closest comp programs and has the best general projection in this tier.

$6,000+ vary Play: Ben Silverman, $6,700

Orlando Ramirez

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Silverman is enjoying his best golf of the 12 months at the proper time. He completed third at the Bermuda Championship and adopted it with a tie for nineteenth at the Mexico Open last week. Over his previous 36 rounds, he is gaining strokes in every space, including 0.30 per spherical on strategy.

He also performed nicely here last 12 months, ending twenty first while gaining nicely over a stroke per spherical. Over the previous 12 months, he ranks among the best in this area in bogey avoidance and on the long par 4s, and he has been regular on driver-heavy programs such as El Cardonal.

Sign up for the industry’s main information software to make golf stats straightforward to decipher—head to BetspertsGolf.com now and get access to The Rabbit Hole for only $10 for your first month. Use promo code GD10 at signal up for this superb deal!

Ron Klos (@PGASplits101 on X) is a PGA Tour information analyst for Betsperts Golf.

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