Rickie Fowler is the pick this week as the PGA Tour makes the first of its two visits to Mexico this year, at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. The host course is El Camaleon in Playa del Carmen, near the far northeastern tip of the Yucutan. Fowler gets the nod for multiple reasons despite this being his first appearance in the event: He’s was playing great when the 2017 season ended, he’s by far the highest-ranked player in the field, and he is the no. 1 player in the field in how his game matches the characteristics of what has been successful on El Camaleon over the past eight years. Fowler, no. 5 in the Hawley Ratings, has only one bad outing since the U.S. Open in June, having finished near the bottom in the Tour Championship. Other than that he had five top-10 finishes, including second at the BMW, third at the Quicken, and fifth in the U.S. Open and PGA.

Greens in regulation, sand saves, and scrambling are the statistics mostly highly correlated with success at El Camaleon over the past eight years. Fowler ranked first in sand saves, in the top 10 in scrambling, and in the top third in GIR on Tour last season. The no. 2 player in the field in fit for the course is Chez Reavie, followed by Ryan Armour and Vaughn Taylor.

The field includes 10 others from the ratings top 50, including nos. 21-22 Patrick Reed and Pat Perez. Over a dozen others in the field come from the ratings top 100. If you prefer someone from outside the elite area of the rankings, this might be a good time to get on the Chesson Hadley bandwagon. The 30-year-old who is back on the Tour after a one-year gap has threee top-10s in three appearances this season, second at the Sanderson, third at the Safeway, and fourth at the Shriners. He’s sixth on the money list.

The Tour returns to Mexico in March for the annual World Golf Championships event.