Report: PGA Tour Loses Mexico Venue To LIV Golf For 2023 Season Opener

El Camaleon Golf Club appears to have hosted the PGA Tour's World Wide Technology Championship for the final time

The 18th hole at El Camaleon Golf Club
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mike Hall
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An announcement confirming the 2023 LIV Golf season schedule is expected in the coming days. In the meantime, attention has turned to which courses will host events in the expanded 14-tournament League.

Earlier in the month, it was confirmed that The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia, would host a tournament, while reports suggest Real Club de Valderrama in Spain could host another. However, the season is expected to begin in Mexico in February, and according to a report in Golfweek, the opener will be held at El Camaleon Golf Club, which, until now, had hosted the PGA Tour's World Wide Technology Championship.

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The venue began hosting the tournament, then named the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun, in 2007, just one year after it opened. The news will come as a blow to the PGA Tour, particularly given the venue was the first official PGA Tour event played outside either the US or Canada. There have also been some high-profile winners of the tournament at the course, including Graeme McDowell in 2015 and Viktor Hovland in 2021. More recently, the 2022/23 season tournament was played at the course earlier in the month, where Russell Henley cruised to victory by four shots over Brian Harman.

The news is perhaps not entirely unexpected considering that LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman designed the course, which offers three distinct landscapes - tropical jungle, dense mangroves and long stretches of oceanfront sand. Meanwhile, despite losing the venue to its bitter rival, the World Wide Technology Championship will likely remain on the PGA Tour, albeit at a different venue.

Golfweek also reports that an official announcement is expected as early as Tuesday, while its debut as a LIV Golf course is expected on 24 February.

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Mike Hall
Mike Hall
News Writer

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.

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