Corales Puntacana Championship: The Punter's Preview

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Corales Puntacana Championship tournament history

This will be the 11^th edition of the Corales Puntacana Championship but it's only the ninth time it will feature on the PGA Tour and this is the first time that it's been co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour.

The first two editions, won by Dominic Bozzelli and Nate Lashley, were held on the Korn Ferry Tour. 

The Corales Puntacana Championship is an opposite field event, and it was the first event on the PGA Tour to be staged in the Dominican Republic.

The Corales Puntacana used to be staged in the same week as the now defunct WGC Match Play tournament at the end of March and last year it was held a week after the US Masters, alongside the RBC Heritage, so this is the first edition in 15 months. 

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Venue

The Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, Corales Golf Club, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

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Course Details

Par 72, 7,670 yards
Stroke Average in 2025 - 71.18

The 2010 Tom Fazio designed Corales Course is set among natural cliffs, coralina quarries and ocean coves, adjacent to the Caribbean Sea.

Six holes play alongside the Caribbean, culminating in the three-hole "Devil's Elbow" finishing stretch that showcases a dramatic forced carry over the Bay of Corales at the par four 18th.

In kind conditions, the par four 18^th averaged 3.98 in 2024 but that was the first time in six springtime editions that any of the three finishing holes had averaged below par so and they all averaged over par again in April last year so it's a tough finish.

The Corales Course is a very long Paspalum course with wide, flat, generous fairways and very little rough so despite its length, it's an easy course for touring professionals.

The greens are usually set up to be slow (usually no more than 11 on Stimpmeter) because of the course's proximity to the coast with its only real defence being the wind.

Three players shot ten-under-par 62s in the inaugural edition, the winner, Brice Garnett, opened-up with a nine-under-par 63 in 2018 and the 2019 victor, Graeme McDowell, fired back-to-back 64s in rounds two and three.

The 2024 winner, Billy Horschel, came from behind to win with a nine-under-par 63 in round four and Joel Dahmen, who was matched at as low as so low scores are out there if the wind doesn't blow too hard.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

No coverage in the UK 

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First 10 winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2016 - Dominic Bozzelli -24
2017 - Nate Lashley -20
2018 - Brice Garnett -18 80.079/1
2019 - Graeme McDowell -18 80.079/1
2020 - Hudson Swafford -18 300.0299/1
2021 - Joel Dahmen -12 50.049/1
2022 - Chad Ramey -17 85.084/1
2023 - Matt Wallace -19 48.047/1
2024 - Billy Horschel -23 25.024/1
2025 - Garrick Higgo -14 55.054/1

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A statistical look at the Corales Puntacana?

We don't have any Strokes Gained data for this event so looking at the more traditional stats is all we can do, but we don't have any stats at all for the first two editions when it was a Korn Ferry Tour event or any Driving Distance numbers for the 2024 edition.

The six winners before Horschel in 2024 ranked 51^st, 12^th, 17^th, 53^rd, 51^st and 15^th for Driving Distance and the last eight winners have ranked 14^th, 14^th, 40^th, 31^st, 20^th, 31^st, ninth and 51^st for Driving Accuracy so, neither driving metric looks especially relevant although the big hitters did come to the fore last year with five of the top six ranking eighth or better for DD.

Garrick Higgo hit more fairways than anyone else last year but the three winners before him ranked 21^st, 12^th and 26^th for Greens In Regulation and the three winners between 2018 and 2020 only ranked 24^th, 16^th and 25^th so that hasn't been a hugely important stat either, although the first 12 home in 2021 all ranked inside the top 12 for GIR.

Higgo only ranked 33^rd for Putting Average and Wallace only ranked 12th in 2023 but the top four in the PA rankings finished inside the top eight last year and Wallace's ranking was the worst any of the top seven ranked three years ago so PA has been far and away the most important stat to date.

The first and second two years ago, Horschel and Wesley Bryan, ranked second and first for Putting Average, the two winners before Wallace, Chad Ramey and Joel Dahmen, both ranked second for PA, the 2020 winner, Hudson Swafford, only ranked fifth for PA, despite not making a single three-putt all week long, and the two winners before him both ranked first so Higgo was arguably a bit fortunate to get away with an ordinary week with the flatstick.

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Correlating courses

A number of PGA Tour events are staged at courses similar to this. The Sony Open, the RBC Heritage (this week's other event) and the RSM Classic are all held on coastal, wind-affected tracks but the tournaments that correlate the best are the World Wide Technology Championship and the Puerto Rico Open.

Both El Camaleon at Mayakoba, the home of the WWT Championship until 2022, and the new venue, the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal Golf Course, as well as the Coco Beach Golf Course, the host course in Puerto Rico, like this venue, are all wind-affected Paspalum grass tracks whereas the other three tournament venues, Waialae Country Club (Sony Open), Harbour Town Golf Links (RBC Heritage) and Sea Island Resort (RSM Classic) are all Bermuda.

The 2019 winner, Graeme McDowell, in addition to his US Open win in 2010, at another coastal course, Pebble Beach, has only won two other PGA Tour events - the RBC Heritage and the WWT Championship at Mayakoba and the 2018 winner of this event, Brice Garnett, has only won one other event on the PGA Tour - the 2024 Puerto Rico Open.

Tyler Duncan was matched at a low of 1.774/5 in 2023 before he finished third and his only PGA Tour success to date was at the 2019 RSM Classic and the 2024 winner, Horschel, lost in a playoff at the RSM Classic in 2016.

The 2020 winner, Hudson Swafford gives the Sony link a big boost given he's finished inside the top-ten at Waialae three times.

Higgo has finished fourth and sixth at El Cardonal, the new WWT venue and he's also finished 12^th in Puerto Rico.

If you fancy digging even deeper, Garnett's two Web.com Tour wins came at the Utah Championship and the now defunct Portland Open and looking at the top-10s at those two events, plenty of the same names keep appearing, so they look like worth checking out too.

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Experienced outsiders fare well

Higgo was only 25 when he won here, the inaugural winner, Dominic Bozzelli, was also in his mid-20s and the 2022 winner, Ramey, was 29 when he won here but the five winners in-between Bozzelli and Ramey were all in their 30s, and the two winners before Higgo were 31 and 37.

Horschel was fairly well fancied two years ago but Higgo was a 55.054/1 chance last year and the six winners before Horschel were all outsiders to varying degrees.

Having been matched at a high of 110.0109/1, Ramey went off at 85.084/1 four years ago, G-Mac and Garnett were 80.079/1 chances before the off, and Swafford was matched at a high of 370.0369/1 before going off at around 300.0299/1.

Wallace, who was a 48.047/1 chance in 2023, was the shortest priced winner since the event was elevated to the PGA Tour before 25.024/1 chance Horschel won so it's been a tough tournament for favourite backers.

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Winner's position and Betfair Exchange price pre-round four

2016 - Dominic Bozzelli - tied for the lead
2017 - Nate Lashley - trailed by two
2018 - Brice Garnett - led by two 1.9310/11
2019 - Graeme McDowell - led by one 3.1511/5
2020 - Hudson Swafford - solo second, trailing by two 6.411/2
2021 - Joel Dahmen - tied for the lead 4.77/2
2022 - Chad Ramey - solo second, trailing by two 5.85/1
2023 - Matt Wallace - tied third, trailing by one 9.417/2
2024 - Billy Horschel - solo fifth, trailing by three 8.615/2
2025 - Garrick Higgo - tied second, trailing by two 10.09/1 

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In-running trends

It's a bit of a mixed bag of results but it's certainly possible to win after a slow start.

Higgo sat second after rounds one, two and three, Wallace was never outside the top-three places or more than a stroke behind after any round three years ago, and having sat tied for 15^th and four adrift, Ramey sat third at halfway and second with a round to go in 2022.

Dahmen, who led by four with 18 to play last year, was never outside the top-four or more than a stroke off the lead in 2021, Swafford led after rounds one and two before being headed after round three but he sat solo second through 54 holes, trailing by just two in 2020, and Garnett shot the lowest round of the week on Thursday and was never headed after that in 2018, but a slow start was overcome in three of the first four editions and Horschel sat 12^th and seven off the lead at halfway two years ago.

Bozzelli sat tied for 45^th after the opening round, Nate Lashley was tied 53^rd, and G-Mac was matched at a high of 230.0229/1 after his first round 73 had seen him trailing by seven in a tie for 81^st! A slow start is clearly not the end of the world, and I wouldn't get too alarmed if your picks aren't right up with the pace straight away.

Bozzelli was still four back at halfway but he'd moved up to fifth, and Lashley was eighth and still five adrift through 36 holes in 2017, but G-Mac moved all the way up to seventh and only three off the lead after the first of two back-to-back 64s in round two.

As demonstrated with the stats above, this is not an easy event to pick the winner in-running, even when there's only one round to play.

We've seen four of the 10 winners leading with a round to go but the last four clear 54-hole leaders have all been beaten.

The last two winners have trailed by three and four strokes with 18 to play but the first eight winners have been in front or within two with a round to so we're yet to see anyone take the title from well off the pace.

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