Corales Puntacana Championship Preview

While many of the best golfers in the world are in Austin, Texas for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, a field of 120 players have made the trip to the beautiful Dominican Republic for the fifth edition of the Corales Puntacana Championship. A Korn Ferry Tour event from 2016-2017, this event earned full PGA Tour status starting in 2018, playing as an “opposite field event” to the Dell Match Play. 

Even with only four of the top-100 ranked players in attendance, a $3.7 million purse is at stake, along with a career-changing full two-year exemption and 300 FedEx Cup points to the winner. We just saw an example of this a couple of weeks ago when Ryan Brehm won the Puerto Rico Open in his last start on a Minor Medical Exemption and basically saved his career on the Tour.

Joel Dahmen is the headliner as he returns to defend his first Tour victory last season. Past major winners Graeme McDowell, Danny Willett, and Jimmy Walker are included in the field along with Tour veterans like Jhonattan Vegas, Patrick Rodgers, Nick Taylor, Emiliano Grillo, and Hudson Swafford. There is also an influx of youthful up-and-comers including Sahith Theegala, Alex Smalley, Matthias Schwab, Thomas Detry, and the Hojgaard brothers, Rasmus and Nicolai.

Past Winners/Odds

Past Player Quotes

*Quotes courtesy of ASAP Sports Transcriptions

Hudson Swafford: I like the golf course. It really, really sets up good for me. Got to be a great mid-to-long iron player here with the par-3s and a lot of long par-4s, so I thought the golf course set up great for me.

Mackenzie Hughes: I like that it’s fairly open off the tee and just allows you to swing driver and not worry too much about being super pinpoint accurate off the tee, but then into the greens you need to hit good shots and putt really well.

Graeme McDowell: I love the golf course. The front nine is kind of shortish and tricky and the back nine is actually very long. Eighteen (Devil’s Elbow) is a beautiful hole. I feel pretty good on these greens. I’ve got a house in the Bahamas and play a lot on this Paspalum type stuff, so I kind of feel like I practice more on this type of stuff. In a funny way, that kind of stands me in good stead here as well.

Brice Garnett: I think last year I just kind of approached the golf course wrong. Everybody’s kind of in play off the tee box. I kind of got out of my element, out of my game. To me, this is a second-shot golf course. Everybody’s in play off the tee and it comes down to a putting competition. There’s a lot of tee balls with the wind off the right and that’s what I prefer. My game is put it in the fairway and try to take advantage from there. I’ll just kind of stick more to my game plan and not let the width of the fairways or the length kind of deter me from my game.

Jonathan Byrd: It’s one of those courses that I think if you’re disciplined on your second shots, that you can have a fairly solid day because there’s plenty of room off the tee. You’ve just got to stay aggressive on this golf course. If you get a little passive, you’ll make a lot of pars, but you’ve got to be intent on making some birdies because guys are going to shoot low scores.”

Jhonattan Vegas: When you go to grasses like this, like Paspalum that it’s slower and you have the wind, it’s hard to commit mentally to make sure that you hit it hard enough to get it to the hole. So it takes some adjustment. That’s kind of why you tend to see a lot of guys this week on the putting greens kind of getting adjusted to that speed.

Scott Harrington: Off the tee, it’s not super demanding, the fairways are pretty generous. I feel as kind of a longer player I can kind of let it rip a little bit. Greens you can be really aggressive on. I mean, they’re sloped, but like where all the pins are, if you get it kind of inside 15 feet, really the putts don’t have a lot of movement so you can be really aggressive with your putter.

Charley Hoffman: It’s a fairly big golf course. It’s sort of a bomber’s golf course. There’s not a ton of rough, but there are some deep bunkers you need to avoid. But if you can hit it far off the tee, I think you can gain a little bit of an advantage, but then there’s some holes that you need to be precise with your irons because there’s some severe drop-offs.

Stephan Jaeger: You’ve just got to kind of keep it in front of you. It’s a second-shot golf course. Fairways are pretty wide, you’ve got some room to hit it in.

Key Course Stats Compared to Tour Average  

*Green = easier

*Red = more difficult

Course Overview

Sitting on the eastern edge of the island, the Corales Golf Club was designed by Tom Fazio in 2010 and is a resort-style course featuring six oceanside holes. Designed next to the ocean coves and natural cliffs of the Caribbean coast, it provides a dramatic and scenic backdrop.

A par-72 course measuring out at 7,670 yards, Corales is a lengthy track (second-longest annual course on Tour). Over the first three events when winds were relatively average, scoring averaged 0.77 strokes under par. But during last year’s event, when winds were gusting over 25 MPH, scoring was 0.48 strokes over par. Along with length being somewhat of a factor, coastal winds are the course’s biggest defense. Being a resort course, overall it is very generous. Just keep an eye on the winds to determine whether those easy scoring might be diminished.

Much of the course’s length comes on the back of two of the par-5s being over 620 yards and all four par-3s being over 200 yards. There are five shorter par-4s mixed in at less than 430 yards.

Similar to El Camaleo,n which plays host to the Mayakoba Classic, Corales has both a coastal and inland section. The front nine that starts along the coast is the most exposed to ocean winds. The back nine goes further inland, offering some protection from gusts thanks to the mangrove forests and trees. Players will finish with a three-hole stretch called “The Devil’s Elbow,” which features a dramatic forced carry over water on the 18th hole.

The grass at Corales on the fairways, rough and greens is 100% Paspalum. It is a very sticky, spongy grass that tends to grab the ball and is popular in warmer coastal climates. The rough this year is even lower than normal at only 1.75 inches and presents very little challenge to hit from. With winds being a potential issue, and the Paspalum a slow surface to begin with, greens are definitely on the slower side around 10.5-11 on the stimpmeter.

Top 10 Most Important Stats

*In order of importance.

  • SG: APP
  • SG: Putting
  • SG: Coastal Courses/Wind
  • Birdie or Better %
  • Par 5 Scoring
  • Scoring Opps inside 15 feet
  • Driving Distance
  • Par 3 Scoring 200+ yards
  • Good Drive %
  • Sand Save %

Strokes Gained Analysis

Even with no strokes gained data at this event, we can still analyze which parts of a player’s game needs to be sharp to have success at this course. Off the tee (OTT), while past winners have not been bombers, driving distance definitely helps on this long beast of a course, especially on the specific holes that will play into the wind. Most of the fairway bunkers are also taken out of play for the bigger hitters. That being said, the past four winners had an average rank of only 33rd in Driving Distance for the week. Fairways are fairly undulating in a downhill direction, which is another reason shorter hitters can keep pace. With the 1.75” rough being a non-factor, and not many hazards off the tee, players are free to bomb away with worrying about being penalized. The same four winners only averaged 26th best for Driving Accuracy.

With no real edges off the tee, Corales is most definitely a second-shot course where stellar iron play can help propel you to the top of the leaderboard. The biggest challenges in the approach game here are the winds, which can wreak havoc on proximity to the hole and GIR percentages, but also the troublesome bunkers surrounding the greens, which yield one of the lowest sand-save percentages at only 41.8%.

Winds are again the biggest “X-factor” in determining how important around the green play and scrambling will be this week. The Paspalum grass and rough can often present some issues for players as balls tend to get caught up when chipping or playing bump and run shots. Greens are very average in size at around 6,000 square feet. They also have only a slight amount of sloping to them around many of the pin positions which allows accurate approach players to have a distinct putting advantage. The first four editions here at Corales have somewhat turned into putting contests. The data does align with this as the winners have averaged second overall in putting for the week.

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Weather Forecast (March 24-27)

Player Selection

With players like Brice Garnett and Graeme McDowell among the past winners for this tournament, driving distance is not necessary for success here. Nevertheless, with the length of this course, it can only help. It is definitely one of the components in my model this week.

I am also strongly targeting players with past experience on these coastal courses where wind can wreak havoc on scoring. There is a certain number of players who have established a niche for themselves on these types of wind-blown tracks near the ocean.

Each of the past four winners have been of the veteran type—players in their 30s who have had some experience on Tour. They each have also been in the mid-to-longshot range as far as betting odds. I don’t believe either of these are necessary for success because of a limited sample size, but it is definitely another angle to consider.

Current form coming into this event has meant absolutely nothing here. The previous four winners had a combined nine missed cuts in their four events leading up to this event. In fact, the highest finish by any of them from that same time range was 31st.

Finally, approach play and putting for all the reasons mentioned above are huge this week. Being able to battle the coastal winds and hit approach shots as close as possible is key. And then catching fire on these Paspalum surfaces will also be vital as each of the past four winners have been dominant on the greens.

Corales Puntacana Championship Final Model

Outright Betting Selections

*Lines accurate at the time of publication.

Finishing Position Picks

Top 10

Jhonattan Vegas +230 (1u) DraftKings

Top 20

Joel Dahmen +100 (2u) DraftKings

Top 30 (all on FanDuel)

  • Kramer Hickok +100 (1u)
  • Brice Garnett +110 (1u)
  • Patrick Rodgers +110 (1u)
  • Danny Willett +115 (1u)
  • Emiliano Grillo +115 (1u)
  • Thomas Detry +115 (1u)
  • Aaron Rai +120 (1u)
  • Greyson Sigg +125 (1u)
  • Nick Taylor +125 (1u)
  • Austin Smotherman +130 (1u)
  • Hudson Swafford +130 (1u)

DraftKings DFS Picks

Core Plays

  • Emiliano Grillo, $8.1K
  • Hudson Swafford, $7.6K
  • Greyson Sigg, $8.3K

Upper-Tier Plays

  • Jhonattan Vegas, $10.6K
  • Joel Dahmen, $10.2K
  • Matthias Schwab, $9.8K

Mid-Range Plays

  • Patrick Rodgers, $8.7K
  • Thomas Detry, $9.2K
  • Danny Willett, $8.2K
  • Aaron Rai, $8.0K
  • Nick Taylor, $7.9K
  • Austin Smotherman, $7.8K
  • Hao Tong Li, $7.7K

Value Plays

  • Tyler Duncan, $7.5K
  • Adam Schenk, $7.3K
  • Roger Sloan, $6.8K
  • Hank Lebioda, $7.3K
  • Vaughn Taylor, $7.2K
  • Vincent Whaley, $6.8K
  • Cameron Percy, $7.2K
  • Hayden Buckley, $7.1K

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Featured Image Credit: Enrique Berardi/PGA TOUR/Getty Images