The PGA Tour leaves America for the first time in the new season this week when it heads to the Dominican Republic for the latest staging of the Corales Puntacana Championship. This is usually an additional event when the WGC Matchplay is on but with the Tour unable to go to Asia this year, it gets the full treatment for this week.
Graeme McDowell won here earlier in the year and he’ll be out to make a successful defence of his title. He has a stronger field to beat this week but not one which we would see in most regular PGA Tour events so he has a chance to keep his title.
Recent Winners
2019 – Graeme McDowell
2018 – Brice Garnett
The Course
The tournament might have elevated status but it remains on the same course which means that we are back at the Corales Golf Club in Punta Cana. To say this course is a monster would be an understatement. It is a par 72 which stretches to 7,666 yards but with rain around this week it is likely to play even longer than that. Wind is always a guaranteed on this coastal setup and although it isn’t expected to be too bad it is still worth factoring into the equation.
Given the indifferent nature of the weather around here the fairways are pretty wide and the greens on the larger side so there is every reason to believe this is going to come down to a putting contest. The best putter in the field has won both runnings of this event as a PGA Tour tournament and I don’t think that is a coincidence. We are basically looking for players who set up a gamut of birdie chances and who takes more than their fair share.
The Field
The tournament might have grown in status but a week after a gruelling major championship most of the big guns in the world are giving it a swerve as you would expect. It leaves the Korn Ferry Tour star and man who had a hole-in-one and threatened another in Will Zalatoris along with the Canadian player Corey Conners looking for their first wins at this level this week. Sam Burns is another in that boat.
Henrik Stenson is the highest ranked player in the field here. In fact, he is the only player in the top 50 in the world rankings who is teeing it up this week. Mackenzie Hughes is another notable in the field while both PGA Tour winners of this event are here in Graeme McDowell and Brice Garnett. Other players who could catch the eye this week include Emiliano Grillo, Charles Howell III, Pat Perez and the World Cup winner Thomas Detry.
Market Leaders
Will Zalatoris made a name for himself last week when he hit a hole-in-one at the US Open and he is the 12/1 market leader to win this tournament too. That feels very short even allowing for him finishing sixth at Winged Foot last week. His iron play in that tournament was in a different league but whether that comes with him here or not remains to be seen. Zalatoris has taken the Korn Ferry Tour by storm this year but this week this tournament actually is a step up on that. I can’t be backing him at 12s.
Mackenzie Hughes is one of few players towards the top end of the market who have won a tournament before and he is the 16/1 second favourite to win here too. That feels a little short for a guy who has not won in four years but he’s been in excellent form in some tough tournaments recently and a repeat of any of those performances will surely be enough to get the job done here you would think. He’s a little on the short side for me however.
Corey Conners and Sam Burns come next in the betting at 18/1 each. Conners is renowned for a wonderful strike with the irons but it is his putter which we need in good working order this week and it hasn’t been for a while in fairness so that is very much a negative. Sam Burns was going well at the Safeway Open but faded to finish T7 and that is a concern for me. You’d think he would win soon but we’ve been thinking that for a while and it still hasn’t materialised. Until it does I’ve no interest in being on him at less than 20/1. It is 25/1 bar.
Main Bets
Adam Long is my first main bet this week. It helps that he comes in here off the back of a good US Open but it is even more of a positive that he ranked highly in putts per GIR for the week because if he can putt well on those greens at Winged Foot he should certainly get the ball to the hole on these ones. If there is a weakness to his game it comes off the tee but that is massively reduced here because there is no great test off the tee. He showed last year when he was second in Mexico and at the 3M Open that he can go low in these events and that will be needed this week. At 25/1 he is the first main bet.
Patrick Rodgers has so much talent that it has been frustrating watching his career so far. When you smack it as far as he does off the tee but marry it up with a great touch on the greens he should be winning tournaments regularly. It hasn’t happened for him yet which is a concern but this course plays to all of his strengths so it might be that this is the week the stars align for him. I’m pretty confident when Rodgers tastes the winning feeling he’ll get it more regularly so the key is to try and be on him when that first victory arrives. He was just outside the top 20 in the Barracuda last term but is piecing some nice form together which hopefully results in a win here.
Outsiders
Beau Hossler ticked all the boxes I’m looking for this week. He is good in the wind should that become a factor and he is one of the better putters on the PGA Tour, which after all is the overriding thing we are looking for here. He is one of those players who won’t contend all the time but does so on courses that suit him. This looks to be one of them so he should be in with every chance. We saw in Houston a couple of seasons ago that he has the skills for tests like this and he feels a big price to be heavily involved this week.
As I’m expecting this to be a putting contest it makes sense to side with one of the better putters on the PGA Tour in Peter Malnati. It isn’t ideal that he missed the cut at the Safeway but that is more of a long game test than this place is which I think will be significant. Although Malnati missed the cut at Silverado he missed it on the -3 bubble so it wasn’t like he made a mess of things. He should give himself plenty of chances around this track and with his prowess with the putter should be able to put himself deep in the mix to contend this week.
Tips
PLACED – Back A.Long to win Corales Puntacana Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back P.Rodgers to win Corales Puntacana Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 46.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back B.Hossler to win Corales Puntacana Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back P.Malnati to win Corales Puntacana Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
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