LIV Golf Mexico City preview: Can Joaquin Niemann keep hot streak going?
LIV Golf returns to action this week with LIV Golf Mexico City, the sixth tournament of the 2025 league schedule. Here is everything to know before catching all the action live on FOX Sports. BASIC INFO
When: April 25-27
Where: Club de Golf Chapultepec, Naucalpan, Mexico
Competition: Three rounds/54 holes of stroke play
Field: 54 players – 13 teams of four players each, and two wild cards
Shotgun Start local time (CT):Rd. 1, 1:05 p.m.Rd. 2, 12:05 p.m.
Rd. 3, 12:05 p.m. KEY STORYLINES LIV Golf makes its first visit to Mexico City and its third visit to the country of Mexico, with Mayakoba hosting tournaments in 2023 and 2024
Club de Golf Chapultepec previous hosted World Golf Championships events between 2017-2020, with each winner competing this week (Dustin Johnson in 2017 and 2019), Phil Mickelson in 2018 and Patrick Reed in 2020)
Mexico's Carlos Ortiz (Torque GC) and Abraham Ancer (Fireballs GC) are the local favorites, with each player ranked inside the top 13 in the season-long points race
Reigning Team Champions Ripper GC enters off its first team title of 2025, having won at the difficult Trump National Doral course at LIV Golf Miami , with veteran star Marc Leishman claiming his first individual LIV Golf title
Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann of Chile leads the season-long individual points race, while Sergio Garcia's Fireballs GC top the team standings
Six players inside the top eight in points are Spanish-speaking players – Niemann, Garcia, Spain's Jon Rahm and David Puig, Colombia's Sebastián Muñoz and Ortiz
Mexico City is the first LIV Golf tournament since the golf season's first major, the Masters, in which five LIV Golf players finished inside the top 15 – the most of any major since the inception of LIV Golf
Niemann (in 2024) and Charles Howell III (2023) won individual titles in LIV Golf's two visits to Mayakoba ABOUT THE COURSE
CLUB DE GOLF CHAPULTEPEC
Naucalpan, Mexico
Par 71
Yardage 7,385 Club de Golf Chapultepec was designed initially by former U.S. Open winner Willie Smith, who died before finishing the job. His brother Alex Smith, a two-time U.S. Open champion, completed the design and the course was opened in 1921
Percy Clifford renovated the course in 1972
The club has hosted the Mexican Open 18 times, including the first seven years starting in 1944, and most recently in 2014
The club hosted a World Golf Championships event four times, with current LIV Golf players Dustin Johnson (2017, 2019), Phil Mickelson (2018) and Patrick Reed (2020) capturing those four titles
Another LIV Golf player, Bryson DeChambeau, finished runner-up to Reed by one stroke in 2020
World Golf Hall of Famer Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina won three of his record 229 professional wins at the club during the early 1950s
The tree-lined parkland course is built approximately 7,800 feet (1.36 miles) above sea level, forcing players to adjust their distance calculations
LIV Golf Mexico City will be played at par 71 (instead of the members' par 72), with the 529-yard ninth hole (normally the members' eighth hole) playing to a par 4 instead of a par 5
The routing will be different from the club's usual routing, with the members' 18th hole being used as the first hole, and the par-3 17th being played as the 18th hole for LIV Golf Mexico City
The 18th is the shortest hole on the course at 151 yards, and the par-5 seventh is the longest at 625 yards
LIV Golf makes its first visit to Mexico City, which has a metro population of nearly 23 million. That makes it the largest city to ever host a LIV Golf tournament.
The host course is Club de Golf Chapultepec, which is located 7,800 feet – roughly 1.36 miles – above sea level. That makes it the highest elevated city to host a LIV Golf event.
Lots of people. Lots of altitude. LIV Golf Mexico City promises to be one of the league's most unique and interesting tournaments in its young history.
"I really enjoy Mexico City," said HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson, LIV Golf's elder statesman and a World Golf Hall of Famer. "Some great things there. Great restaurants. Great food. Great people. And the golf course is spectacular."
Mickelson has enjoyed success at the host course, having won a World Golf Championships event there in 2018. In fact, all four WGC events that Club de Golf Chapultepec hosted were won by current LIV Golf players, with 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson winning twice and his teammate Patrick Reed winning the most recent one in 2020.
"It's an amazing city," Reed said, "and a proper golf course."
Players will certainly be challenged by the high elevation that will increase the distances of shots. A 7-iron that may travel 185 yards at sea level could see a 20-30 yard increase. And no telling how far driving distance leader Bryson DeChambeau's tee shots will go.
"The biggest challenge is the altitude and getting the distance control down," Mickelson said. "Once you have that, you can really appreciate how beautiful the golf course is and the area around it."
This piece is courtesy of Mike McAllister in partnership with LIV Golf .
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