|
The Corales Puntacana Championship graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour in 2018 after its first two editions and has now been played four times on the main tour. It sits alongside the Puerto Rico Open and Bermuda Championship as opposite field events in the Caribbean – and the Mayakoba Classic can probably be viewed along similar lines in that they all share similar characteristics. Those are: breezy conditions, coastal locations, sticky grass in the fairways and rough and grainy greens. It’s not an easy puzzle to solve, but a certain breed of player thrives on these courses. The layout was designed by Tom Fazio and built in 2010. It’s wide from the tee and the rough is not considered difficult to emerge from, but the wind is very tricky, particularly on the six holes by the ocean. A par-72 it can stretch to a huge 7,666-yards if the officials allow. The back nine is over 4,000 yards and has two par-5s at well over 600 yards. Aussie Matt Jones, a smart player in windy conditions, says: “The fairways are pretty wide here so you should have a lot of iron shots out of fairways.” While Irishman Paul Dunne, another decent performer by the sea and in a breeze has added: “It’s one of the widest courses I think we’ll ever play, so a couple loose drives that would normally cost me I can get away with here. But it’s tricky around the greens, which plays into my strengths.” Jhonattan Vegas made a key distinction about the grass: “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.” The note about Paspalum is quite revealing. The first PGA Tour winner here, Brice Garnett, has five top 25 finishes at El Camaleon, his successor Graeme McDowell has three himself including a win, last year’s winner Hudson Swafford has none but he is 5-for-6 at making the cut there and last year’s champion Joel Dahmen is 5-for-5 with a best of sixth. Why so important? Well, El Camaleon, like Corales, is blustery, by the sea – and it has those Paspalum greens.
Angles to consider 1/ El Camaleon form It seems silly to overlook it. Even the first winner here on the Korn Ferry Tour – Dominic Bozzelli – has form there. Nothing in his finishing position, but he led after round one and was third at halfway in 2018. 2/ Putting We don’t get Strokes Gained stats for opposite field events, but the Putting Average stats of the winners have been superb: Garnett and McDowell ranked first, Swafford fifth, Dahmen second. 3/ Par 3s Of the six winners here all of them ranked top 20 on the short holes, but two were first, one second and another third.
Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected. Haotong Li The Chinese player has limited experience on the courses we’ve mentioned (a MC in Puerto Rico in 2016), but he’s resurgent, putts well on Paspalum and loves coastal courses. He’s been third at Verdura in Sicily, third at Royal Birkdale in the Open, first at blustery Emirates in the Dubai Desert Classic. He was also second in the Saudi International at Royal Greens, putting brilliantly, and third at Ras al Khaimah. The latter two on Paspalum. In good form on the short holes. Tyler Duncan Made four cuts in five starts on the course and was third in 2017 (and fourth at halfway last year). In progressive form (MC-35-35) and had a third round 65 last week which had him at T11th heading into the final lap. Highest ranked player in the field on the Par-3s this season. Andrew Novak At the recent Puerto Rico Open he was third heading into the final round (finishing T22nd) and he was also T22nd at El Camaleon earlier this season when putting brilliantly on the Paspalam. His T26th at Sea Island looks good too. Played the Par-3s well in Bermuda, Mexico, Puerto Rico and last week.
Tips: 0-3; -6.00pts 1pt e.w. Haotong Li at 66/1 (Unibet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6) mc 1pt e.w. Tyler Duncan at 50/1 (Skybet, W Hill, Coral, Boylesport, Unibet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6) 28th 1pt e.w. Andrew Novak at 90/1 (Unibet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6) 11th
|
