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Initially an event on the Korn Ferry Tour, the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship is not only a long-winded title, but this year celebrates three years as a PGA Tour one. Played on a Tom Fazio design in the Dominican Republic, the par is 72 and the possible yardage can stretch to 7,666. But the weather is normally blustery, occasionally downright gale-like, so the tees are rarely all set back and the layout was also created with holiday golfers in mind. As a consequence the first two events saw 24- and 22-under win – and even in the PGA years Brice Garnett, in 2018, and Graeme McDowell, last year, shot 18-under. Whilst scoring is free in this tournament, to make the birdies players need a few skill sets and being able to deal with the wind is one of them. The track plays near to and alongside the east coast of the island, and at times it genuinely resembles aspects of El Camaleon which hosts the Mexican event on the PGA Tour every year. It’s also true that the greens have paspalum grass, just as at El Camaleon. It’s a strain that plays a little like Bermuda and is quite sticky – it’s also more environmentally friendly because it can be watered straight from the sea. The fairways are wide, but smart ocean-side players still have an advantage, rather than aimless attackers. Drew Weaver said: “The wind is the biggest factor out here because this is a generous golf course. Making sure you know the wind is critical.” And first winner on the course Dominic Bozzelli added: “The greens are pretty slow and straight for the most part. A lot of guys are making putts.”
Angles to consider 1/ Putting We have no stats from the two editions of this event that were on the Korn Ferry Tour and just the traditional ones for the two PGA renewals. But the latter two winners both ranked first for Putting Average. Moreover, the top three finishers in 2019 ranked 1st, 3rd and 6th for PA, a year earlier they ranked 1st, 19th and 6th. 2/ Form in blustery wind When looking at the previous form of the two KFT winners little comes up, but in the PGA era it’s quickly clear that form on the coast matters (and that makes sense of course). McDowell has always played his best golf by the coast. He’s a winner at El Camaleon which has that paspalum on the greens and Garnett has three top tens there also. McDowell is also a winner at Harbour Town, where Garnett has been T11th. Venturing into the top five, Mackenzie Hughes has been second here and is a winner at Sea Island, Chris Stroud is another who thrives at El Camaleon and also has a sneaky second in the Dunhill Links. Jonathan Byrd has won at Plantation in Hawaii and Paul Dunne, like Stroud, has fared well at St Andrews.
Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected. Pat Perez A winner at El Camaleon and also ninth there last year. He also has top tens, and plenty of them, at Waialae, Harbour Town, Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines and Plantation so the coastal winds won’t fuss him. Opened the season with tied ninth in the Safeway Open and ranks 25th for Putting Average in the field. Charley Hoffman A player who adores playing in Texas (he finishes top ten in 25% of his starts there), he also has form by the ocean, including a win at El Camaleon and multiple top tens at Harbour Town. He also ranks fourth for Putting Average in this field and was recently T13th in The Northern Trust. Patton Kizzire A course debut but there are plenty of reasons to think that he’ll enjoy the challenge if he finds something in his game. He made his PGA Tour breakthrough at El Camaleon in 2017, then soon after added another win at Waialae. He’s also finished T15th and T8th at Plantation. The clincher is that he ranks sixth for Putting Average in this field.
Tips: 0-3; -6.00pts 1pt e.w. Pat Perez at 35/1 (William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) 21st 1pt e.w. Charley Hoffman at 40/1 (William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) 14th 1pt e.w. Patton Kizzire at 125/1 (William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) 41st
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