The VedantaWorld Mexico Open hadn’t even begun, and the field was already shifting. Just before the first round at Vidanta Vallarta, PGA Tour Communications shared that Taylor Moore had withdrawn. This happened right before his first round. Luke List and S.Y. Noh also pulled out of the alternate list.
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The withdrawals were announced in a field update posted by PGA Tour Communications on Thursday. Taylor Moore’s exit is the only change to the starting field. List and Noh were never in the 120-player field; they were only on the alternate list. No reason has been given for any of the three withdrawals.
Nick Hardy gets the call and is set to replace Moore in the 8 a.m. MT group off the first tee, alongside Ben Martin and Kevin Roy.
Still, the timing has rattled fans. One user argued that late swaps should be allowed in situations like this, saying the withdrawal could ruin his fantasy lineup. The comment was clearly sarcastic. Another joked that Hardy finding out he was playing with an 8 a.m. tee time was “a different kind of first-tee nerves.”
That said, Moore’s withdrawal is notable given how he arrived in the field. He tied for third at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last week. He finished 14 under par with rounds of 65, 68, and 66. The event was shortened to 54 holes due to weather. It was his best result in a stretch that included several missed cuts over the summer.
Moreover, Vidanta Vallarta has treated him reasonably well. He tied for 34th at nine under par in 2025, earning his first top-40 finish at the event in five years. Heading into this week, he sat 102nd in the FedEx Cup standings with 379 points.
As for Hardy, this is a late opportunity in a season that has been up and down. The 30-year-old Illinois alum recorded a T-20 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where his team finished 23 under par, and a T-21 at the Scottish Championship after shooting 10-under par. However, he had no top-10 finishes through July and had also missed several cuts. A start in a tournament offering 500 FedEx Cup points and a $6 million purse is a welcome opportunity.
What to Expect at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open
Apart from the withdrawals, the tournament also comes with a course update. Hardy and the rest of the field will face a different Vidanta Vallarta this year. The Greg Norman-designed course, which opened in 2016, was reworked last fall, with changes to holes 4, 8, 17, and 18. Norman said the goal was to add strategic variety and drama, particularly on the closing stretch.
The par-71 layout measures 7,337 yards this year, about 100 yards shorter than in 2025. The revamped finish features a 235-yard par-3 17th, designed as a stadium hole, followed by a 455-yard par-4 18th. Players must find a landing area between two lakes off the tee on the closing hole.
This is also the first time the event is being played in the fall, following its first two editions in April and the last two in February.
As for the field, Wyndham Clark headlines the 120-player lineup and is the only player from the world’s top 25 in attendance. Defending champion Campbell returns in an attempt to become the first back-to-back winner, with Tony Finau, Max Homa, Akshay Bhatia, Ben Griffin, Lucas Glover, Tom Kim, and 19-year-old Blades Brown among the other notable names.
Roughly 75 players also competed at the Bermuda Championship last week, making for a compressed schedule. The winner will earn 500 FedEx Cup points and $1.08 million. Next week, the Tour stays in Mexico for the World Wide Technology Championship in Los Cabos, November 5-8.
For now, the focus is on Hardy, who has just hours to turn a surprise phone call into a competitive round.