Just because the weather forecast in paradise — and Cancun certainly fits into that category — isn’t exactly ideal for tourists this week, don’t expect Brendon Todd to lament the lack of sunshine.
For those who might have forgotten, the circumstances were eerily similar last year when Todd earned his third career victory by winning the Mayakoba Golf Classic — firing four rounds in the 60s at El Camaleon Golf Club for a 20-under total of 264 and a one-stroke victory over Vaughn Taylor, Carlos Ortiz and Adam Long.
“Looks like it’s going to be in the same conditions; it’s already wet and we’re expecting more rain on Thursday, Friday, so it should feel pretty similar to how it played last year,” Todd said. “I played the back nine this morning and my game felt pretty good, made some birdies, so looking forward to carrying momentum this week.”
Speaking of similar feelings, Todd would certainly love to replicate the way he felt when he left Cancun last year. After contemplating retirement less than a year earlier, Todd’s victory in the Mayakoba was his second PGA Tour win in 15 days, following an equally impressive performance at the Bermuda Championship. Not bad, considering he’d entered last November with just one win in more than a decade of toiling on Tour.
With that victory, he became the first player to capture consecutive Tour events since Bryson DeChambeau, who was victorious in the first two events of the 2018 FedEx Cup Playoffs at The Northern Trust and Dell Technologies Championship.
“It definitely grew my confidence. I was coming from a few years that weren’t so good and to kind of get better every week in 2019 and finish it off with a couple wins was a milestone here for me,” he said of the stretch. “It opened up a lot of doors for me in 2020, a lot of new events and I feel like I handled a lot of those well. I had a couple top 25s in majors.
“I feel like I’m poised for a pretty good 2021 … in a really good spot after I was last year at this time, so I’m just going with the ebbs and flows of golf and trying to play my best.”
Todd has been good in the new season, but there’s certainly room for improvement. He finished T-23 at the U.S. Open, then made the cut in his next two events — the CJ Cup and Zozo Championship — but struggled in his Bermuda title defense and missed the cut at the Masters. In typical Todd fashion, he’s been straight (he was fourth on Tour in driving accuracy for the 2020 season), but not very long (187th).
And hoping a little holiday break after this week will give him a chance to recharge his battery, but first, he’d prefer a successful defense of his title in Cancun.
“It’s always great to be home. I’ve got three kids that are 6, 4 and 2,” he explained. “I take my 6-year-old out to play, so I won’t put the clubs away or anything, I’ll only have three weeks off before Maui, Sony and the American Express, so I’m just looking forward to the holidays and getting back after it in January,”
