LIV golf tips: New boy Thomas Pieters can challenge homegrown talent in Mayakoba

Brendan SkillingBrendan Skilling22 February 2023
Belgium's Thomas Pieters

Belgium's Thomas Pieters

Love it or loathe it, LIV Golf is here to stay, and Tipstrr golf expert Brendan Skilling has scanned the 48-man field for clues as to where the best betting value might lie in the opening event.

After exploding on to the golf scene last year and creating all sorts of headlines both on, but mostly off the course, the LIV Golf League returns for a second season.

Now extended to 14 events, up from the eight in its debut year, and with a handful of new signings also added, it's time to let the golf do the talking and they kick off this week with their season opener, LIV Mayakoba.

Once again, it's a limited 48-man field with an additional team element and despite being LIV's first outing of the season, most in the field have managed to fit in a tournament or two this calendar year to shake off any rust.

It's perhaps unsurprising that El Camaleon in Mexico is this week's venue, a former PGA Tour stop. It was designed Greg Norman, and no matter what your thoughts are on LIV's CEO, this is an imaginative and ever-changing layout which fits its name, The Chameleon.

This scenic course plays through thick jungle and mangrove forests both towards and away from the Caribbean Sea with natural subterranean caves dotted throughout.

Long off the tee and tight in places will suit the better drivers of the ball in the field, but it is ultimately a resort course, so we can expect plenty of birdies this week with a relatively benign set-up for LIV's season opener.

With only 48 in the field the middle of the market can get squeezed slightly but there's a 'Big Four' at the top of the betting, where Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith can be found as the tour's biggest draws alongside the young Chilean Joaquin Niemann.
However, my preference is the last in this quartet, Abraham Ancer. The Mexican is on home soil and has plenty of course experience here, having finished in the top 21 in the last four years on the PGA Tour and arrives back here after an impressive win against most of this field in The Saudi Invitational a couple of weeks ago.

Ancer's compatriot Carlos Ortiz also looks decent value to me at 33/1. Another home favourite who will have the backing of the crowd, his course form is impeccable, reading 2-8-2 in the last three years and it would come as little surprise should he record something similar again.

From the European contingent, I'll also be keeping an eye on Thomas Pieters. 

The Belgian was LIV's biggest pre-season signing and is a good player fit round here with his similarities to Viktor Hovland, who was twice a PGA winner on this course. 

Pieters will also have a point to prove after being, perhaps unsurprisingly, snubbed for last week's Genesis Invitational.