Featured Groups: WGC-Mexico Championship

The first World Golf Championship of 2018 gets underway Thursday, and PGA TOUR LIVE will be there to provide extended coverage from Golf Club de Chapultepec. PGA TOUR LIVE’s broadcast from the WGC-Mexico Championship will include the threesome of the world’s top-ranked players – Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas – as well as names like Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose. RELATED LINKS: Tee times | Power Rankings | Field | Course You can watch them all hit the long ball from the course with the highest elevation in PGA TOUR history. Chapultepec sits more than 7,600 feet above sea level, giving players like Johnson, the defending champion, even more length off the tee. PGA TOUR LIVE will begin at 12:15 p.m. Eastern on Thursday and Friday. LIVE will shift to Featured Hole coverage of the par-3 15th and 17th holes at 2 p.m. The broadcast will conclude at 7 p.m. PGA TOUR LIVE also can be viewed on Twitter from 12:15 p.m. until approximately 1:30 p.m. (Note: All times Eastern; FedExCup ranking in parentheses) THURSDAY Justin Thomas (1), Jon Rahm (4), Dustin Johnson (3) This group features the top three players in the Official World Golf Ranking. They all sit in the top four of the FedExCup standings, as well, and were high on the leaderboard here last year. Thomas leads the way after his win last week at The Honda Classic. It was his second victory of the season. He’s trying to become the first player to win back-to-back FedExCups. He held the 54-hole lead at last year’s Mexico Championship before fading to fifth place. Johnson, the WGC-Mexico’s defending champion, is third in the FedExCup standings after a victory at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and runners-up at the WGC-HSBC Champions and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Rahm was runner-up at the Sentry and won the CareerBuilder Challenge in consecutive starts earlier this year. He finished third at last year’s Mexico Championship. Tee time: 12:51 p.m. off the 10th tee. Sergio Garcia (195), Alex Noren (19), Tommy Fleetwood (81) Fleetwood is one of the hottest players on the planet and should be a popular pick for fantasy players. He was runner-up to Johnson at last year’s Mexico Championship and is coming off a fourth-place finish at The Honda Classic. He’s finished in the top 6 in five of his past six worldwide starts, including a win in Abu Dhabi. Garcia, the reigning Masters champion, won earlier this year at the Singapore Open. Noren has posted four consecutive top-25s on the PGA TOUR, including a playoff loss to Jason Day at the Farmers Insurance Open and a third-place finish at The Honda Classic. These three players all could be teammates in Paris at this year’s Ryder Cup, as well. Tee time: 1:03 p.m. off the 10th tee. FRIDAY Justin Rose (14), Jordan Spieth (73), Rickie Fowler (25) Rose has finished in the top 10 in 11 of his past 12 worldwide starts, dating back to last year’s FedExCup Playoffs. He has three wins over that span, including the most recent World Golf Championship, the HSBC Champions. Rose is coming off an eighth-place finish in his most recent start, at the Farmers Insurance Open. Spieth struggled with the putter earlier this season but seemed headed in the right direction with a T9 at the Genesis Open. His 63 at last year’s Mexico Championship was the low round of the week. Fowler won the Hero World Challenge and finished fourth at Kapalua but has two missed cuts and a lost 54-hole lead in his past three starts. He sandwiched a T11 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open between MCs at the Farmers Insurance Open and Honda Classic. Tee time: 12:39 p.m. off the 10th tee. Marc Leishman (23), Paul Casey (55), Tyrrell Hatton (149) Leishman is coming off a two-win season that featured victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and BMW Championship. This season, he lost a playoff to Thomas at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. The consistent Casey has finished in the top 25 in four of five starts this season. Hatton finished 10th at last year’s Mexico Championship. Tee time: 12:51 p.m. off the 10th tee.

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