Mayakoba Golf Classic

Mayakoba Golf Classic

Mayakoba Golf Classic
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
Winner: Brendon Todd

Golf ’s loss, pizza’s gain: Would-be entry for Brendon Todd’s resume.
Todd has to be the only pro ever who was going to flee golf and head for
where “slice” wasn’t a dirty word — the pizza business. And then, late in
2019, Todd had to be the only pro to escape the clutches of the full-body
yips and win in two successive outings. It’s been said golf is a funny game.
Perhaps “funny” isn’t quite the word.
“It is so surreal — it’s just crazy, you know,” Todd was saying, after winning
the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico in mid-November, two weeks after he’d won
his previous outing, the Bermuda Championship. And the Bermuda was his
first victory after years in the clutches of the full-body yips. He had made
only two cuts in 35 tournaments, in a three-year stretch that had driven
him to begin talks for dropping golf and opening a nice shop somewhere.
Heavy rains on the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan washed the first round into
Friday, softening the par-71 El Camaleon into a shooting gallery. Of the 82
who would make the cut, 53 shot in the 60s in the first round. They were
led by New Zealand’s Danny Lee, who was 10 under through the 13th and
thinking a forbidden thought. “It was in my mind, 59 or 58,” he admitted.
But he shot 62 and led by a stroke over Todd and Adam Long.
Todd, still fired up by his Bermuda win, had his goal. “Let’s try and birdie
every hole,” he said. That amounted to a game plan of sorts, and in that
frame of mind, he shot El Camaleon in 63-68-65-68 for a 20-under 264.
All told, he made a tournament-best 24 birdies, had only four bogeys and
won by a stroke.
And in a shootout down the final stretch. Todd, after taking the lead in
the third round, came to the 14th in the final round leading Vaughn Taylor
by two and Harris English by three. The picture changed abruptly. Todd
bogeyed the 14th and slipped into a tie at 20 under with Taylor, who had
birdied 13, and was one ahead of English, who birdied 13 and 14. At this
point, play was called because of darkness, after the leaders had played 32
holes, trying to make up for the Thursday rainout. When they returned on
Monday, to the 15th, Todd knocked in a 20-footer for birdie to retake the
lead. Then he bogeyed the 16th, but so did Taylor, and English double-
bogeyed it.
All three parred in from there: Todd for a 68 and a 20-under 264 total;
Taylor also with a 68 and a stroke behind at 265, tying for second with
Adam Long (66) and Carlos Ortiz (66), and English slipped to fifth with
70–267. And Todd, with the $1,296,000 first prize, went from contemplating
the pizza business to back-to-back wins and $1,836,000 in winnings.
“It’s just amazing how fast this game can turn,” Todd said. “I’m enjoying
it and I’m just going to keep grinding.”