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World Wide Technology Championship Preview: Course, Field, History, Tee Times, How to Watch

Only three official PGA Tour events remain in 2025. This week, it's the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico. Here's what you need to know.

Max Schreiber

Austin Eckroat returns to defend his title at the World Wide Technology Championship.
Austin Eckroat returns to defend his title at the World Wide Technology Championship. / Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images

With just three official PGA Tour events left in 2025, it’s time for the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal on the Diamante Cabo San Lucas resort at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. A 120-player field will vie for part of an $6 million purse, with the winner collecting $1,080,000—and many are trying to secure status for the 2026 with time dwindling. 

From its field, course, history, tee times and how to watch, here’s everything you need to know for the 2025 World Wide Technology Championship. 

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The Field: Seven of World Top 60, Led by U.S. Open Champ

The tournament will be highlighted by seven of the top 60 players in the world: J.J. Spaun (No. 6), Ben Griffin (No. 12), Max Greyserman (No. 31), Wyndham Clark (No. 33), Nick Taylor (No. 41), Michael Brennan (No. 42) and Johnny Keefer (No. 53), who is the reigning Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year. 

There will also be four past World Wide Technology Championship winners: Patton Kizzire (2017), Matt Kuchar (2018), Erik van Rooyen (2023) and Austin Eckroat (2024). 

Plus, four native Mexicans looking to win on home soil: Mexico (4): Emilio Gil Leyva, Emilio Gonzalez,, Alejandro Madariaga and Omar Morales. 

For majority of the players competing this week, it’s an opportunity to get inside the top 100 in FedEx Cup points and secure their cards for next season with three fall events left. 

David Lipsky is on the bubble at No. 100 and is in the field this week, along with Max McGreevy (96), Thorbjorn Olesen (97) and Beau Hossler (98), Sami Valimaki (102), Isaiah Salinda (103) and Patrick Fishburn (104), Joel Dahmen (108) and Lanto Griffin (111). 

A Tiger Woods Design Is Hosting

The first 16 iterations of the WWT Championship took place in Riviera Maya at Mayakoba. However, when the course accepted an offer to host a LIV Golf event, the PGA Tour moved the event to the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal in 2023.

And Woods’s layout made an impression on the players.

“Tiger was talking about how he just likes to make people think on the golf course and the back nine out here is just all strategy,” Sahith Theegala said in 2023. “There’s very few drivers, a lot of placement. You need to have good angles or else these little cacti come into play and the way the arroyos and the desert is around the greens. It's a nice blend of kind of tactical, strategic golf.”

El Cardonal is a par-72, 7,452-yard layout. The average fairway widths are 60 yards with zero acres of rough. There are 48 bunkers (the third-fewest on Tour) with one water hazard and average green size is 8,300 square feet (the third-largest on Tour this year).

In 2024, the course was the 36th easiest on Tour (out of 50), with a scoring average of 70.06 (1.94 strokes under par). 

Its hardest hole was the 483-yard par-4 4th, yielding a scoring average of 4.213 (.213 strokes over par), making it the 77th toughest hole on Tour (out of 900). Its easiest hole, meanwhile, was the 582-yard par-5 1st, playing .685 under par as the 13th easiest hole on Tour. 

History: An Emotional Win

In 2023, Erik Van Rooyen claimed an impressive victory with a heavy heart. 

His best friend, Jon Trasamar, was battling Stage 4 melanoma.

Thinking about his former teammate at the University of Minnesota, the South African’s victory hopes were dwindling late in the final round at Mayakoba. Then, he went scorched earth. 

Van Rooyen finished birdie-birdie-eagle in his final three holes for a back-nine 8-under 28 for the win. And he entered the week ranked 125th in the FedExCup Fall standings, the last spot to keep his card for the following season. With the triumph, though, that was no longer a worry. 

But the victory was bigger than golf.

“He’s not gonna make it,” van Rooyen told NBC Sports on the 18th green after the win. “Every shot out there today was for him. And when you’re playing for something bigger than winning some silly trophy, it puts things in perspective.

“At the end of the day, whether I won here or I lost here, it really did not matter. When something motivates you like that, whether you make a putt or miss a putt, who cares?”

Van Rooyen boarded a flight to Minnesota the next morning to say goodbye. Trasamar died on Nov. 11.

How to Watch (all times ET)

  • Thursday-Sunday: 3–6 p.m. (Golf Channel)

First- and Second-Round Tee Times 


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Max Schreiber
MAX SCHREIBER

Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.

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