{"id":903019,"date":"2026-11-02T08:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/903019\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T08:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:16:10","slug":"2026-mexico-open-andrew-novak-stays-in-control-claims-second-career-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/903019\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Mexico Open: Andrew Novak stays in control, claims second career win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The runaway train that was Andrew Novak could not be stopped<\/a> on Sunday at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open, despite a mostly sluggish start to his final round.<\/p>\n

While he posted eight pars on his front nine and a bogey at the par-4 10th hole, Novak was still able to leave Vidanta Vallarta with the first individual championship of his career<\/a>. He also nabbed the tournament scoring record at 25 under thanks to three straight birdies on the back nine<\/a> when his putter reignited. <\/p>\n

Novak won the two-man team Zurich Classic of New Orleans last year with Ben Griffin, who cheered him on at the 18th hole and took video of Novak\u2019s victory celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played really well on the front but I didn\u2019t get much out of it, the putter was a little off,\u201d Novak told Golf Channel\u2019s Damon Hack moments after sealing the five-shot win. \u201cI didn\u2019t separate much but I still had a lead \u2014 and 10 was a mistake, three terrible shots in a row. Recovered and made three birdies in a row and that settled everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I love the Zurich and everything about that tournament but it\u2019s nice to have one by myself,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve been working toward this for a while. Not a great season for how I wanted it to go but this is a nice way to finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the milestone victory, the 31-year-old Novak moved from 89th in the FedExCup fall standings<\/a> to 53rd. If he maintains a spot in the top 60 by fall\u2019s end, he will have eligibility into the first two signature events next season.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s birdie spree helped give Novak all the confidence he needed to close out the win on his back nine. With the circle at the par-5 12th, he regained a four-shot lead over Doug Ghim \u2014 one of his two final-round playing competitors. <\/p>\n

He extended the lead to five and then six strokes, respectively, with a pair of birdies at Nos. 13 and 14. The latter birdie putt came from 44 feet out.<\/p>\n

Novak carried a six-shot lead into the day after carding a 61 on Friday and a 62 a day later to reach 23 under through 54 holes.<\/p>\n

In addition to Ghim, he held off closing charges from Steven Fisk (63) and Kris Ventura (63).<\/p>\n

Fisk and Ventura, who were both bogey-free on Sunday, tied for second at 20 under after Ghim double bogeyed the final hole to drop to 18 under for the tournament. <\/p>\n

It was the largest margin of victory in the tournament\u2019s history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Novak, Fisk seems poised to leverage his start in Mexico into the top 60 of the fall standings. He\u2019s now 54th, with Ghim at No. 55.<\/p>\n

Ventura moved from No. 108 to No. 76, which will secure his Tour card for 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly I stopped chasing the rankings; I kind of got tired of always looking at the leaderboard and the projected points,\u201d Ventura told reporters after the final round. \u201cIf that helped me I would have done it a lot more, but I made peace with maybe not keeping my card this year. I just said I\u2019m going to do my process and if I fall short, I fall short, but at least I\u2019m going to do my very best so that I can fall asleep content at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also near the top of the leaderboard in Mexico was Mackenzie Hughes, who finished T-4 with Griffin after a bogey on the par-4 16th dropped him out of a tie for second.<\/p>\n

Hughes is now No. 101 in fall points after entering the week No. 118. The top 100 will earn Tour cards for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a text every week and you\u2019re aware, it\u2019s hard to hide from it,\u201d Hughes admitted to reporters. \u201cSo I feel like I just want to know roughly where I\u2019m at and what I need to do. I know I\u2019ve got three in front of me. I still need to play some high-level golf down the stretch, but this certainly gives me some breathing room on the like 101 to 110 would be still an OK spot to end up. I feel like that gives me some breathing room, puts me in a decent spot for [the top 100].\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mexico<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how much Mexico Open winner Andrew Novak is collecting from the $6 million purse at Vidanta Vallarta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The runaway train that was Andrew Novak could not be stopped on Sunday at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-903019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}