The beautiful island of the Dominican Republic welcomes the rest of the golfing world that wasn’t able to qualify for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. That brings plenty of talent here to compete, including some fresh new names from the Korn Ferry Tour. While it’s rare for there to be a dual-tournament week on the PGA Tour, it’s even rarer to get good PGA DFS contests for both. Let’s learn a bit about the tournament course and players expected to tee it up this week at the Corales Puntacana Championship, as well as take an early look at some PGA DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel.
In case this is your first time here, this is what you can expect to find in this article:
- The Tournament and Format
- Course Commentary
- Course Facts and Figures
- PGA DFS Course Summary and Statistical Comparison
- PGA DFS Preview, including sweat sheet and now featuring optimal lineups from last year’s event
- Player Preview
PGA DFS Picks: Corales Puntacana Championship
The Tournament and Format
There are 132 golfers on the island, with a number of intriguing names. Most of the more notable names will be from the European Tour, as some of their best golfers who didn’t qualify for the Match Play got an invite here this week. Before this became a PGA Tour event in 2018, it was a Korn Ferry event, so there is plenty of data to work off of.
The Course: Corales Puntacana Resort & Golf Club
This is a picturesque seaside course where the wind will be its primary defense. Part of the Corales Puntacana Resort, its layout is rather flat and focuses on the aesthetics of the Caribbean Sea that surrounds it. Six holes are directly situated the sea, as the course features bays, ocean coves, inland lakes and Coraline quarries. Like many of these seaside tracks, Tom Fazio is the designer of this par 72 that measures just shy of 7,700 yards, and many who have played it say it is one of the best golf experiences out there. The 18th hole is the signature hole that has a forced carry-over the cliff-lined Bay of Corales — a genuinely unique finishing hole.
Course Facts and Figures
Par and Yardage
- Par 72: 7,7670 yards
Course Difficulty 2020
- 26/49 — .531 or 71.50
Hole Dispersion
- Four Par 3’s: 239, 204, 265, 214
- 10 Par 4’s: 433, 410, 465, 387, 399, 496, 446, 421, 461, 501
- Four Par 5’s: 565, 515, 623, 626
Grass Types and Hazards
- Grass Type: Paspalum through the course
- Average Green Size: n/a
- Water Hazards: n/a
- Bunkers: n/a
- Rough Length: n/a
Designer
- Tom Fazio
Latest PGA DFS Content
- RBC Heritage Preview: Course Breakdown, PGA DFS Model Plays & Much More
- 2024 RBC Heritage DFS Core Plays: Finding Course Fits for Harbour Town, Including Xander Schauffele
- RBC Heritage First Round Leader Picks, Bets & More (2024)
- PGA DFS Picks: Top Values for the RBC Heritage (2024)
- DraftKings Golf Cheat Sheet: Best PGA DFS Sims Picks for the RBC Heritage | Scottie Scheffler
- Stokastic DFS on Youtube
Facts and Figures
- Off the Tee: A resort course typically provides an easier setting, especially off the tee, as golfers hit the fairway on average about 70% of the time. Distance isn’t really sacrificed off the tee either, with the average drive coming in at around 290 yards per drive.
- Approach: All those long drives and hit fairways don’t translate to as many greens hit as one would think, as the average greens-in-regulation was around 66.69%, ranking it 24th easiest in 2020.
- Around the Green: About 60% of the time a golfer misses the green they get up and down for par.
- Putting: Greens ranked just about in the middle of the pack in terms of difficulty, coming in at 1.60 for the putting average.
The Corales Puntacana Championship PGA DFS Slate Preview
Previous Year PGA DFS DraftKings Results
Sweat Sheet
The two front-side par 5’s are by far the two easiest on the course. In total they accounted for 31% of the total DraftKings scoring. Adding in the other two par 5s, they total almost 50% of the total scoring. Other easy holes include the first, third, sixth and 16th. The par 3’s play very difficult. All told, all four total less than 10% of the scoring and had fewer than 150 birdies.
I’ll cover two buy-in levels: The large-field GPP and the high-dollar GPP. I’ll also provide a couple of notes on the overall scoring of the event.
DraftKings Notes & Lineups
This is typically one of the lowest-scoring PGA DFS events of the year, with only two par 5’s and tons of water.
$10 Buy-In, $600,000 Guaranteed
- Total ownership of 51%.
- The lineup was not duplicated.
$200 Buy-In $125,000 Guaranteed:
- Total ownership of over 65.
- It was not the optimal lineup.
- The lineup was not duplicated.
The Corales Player Preview
I already mentioned the European contingent that is here to play, including the Belgian duo of Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry. Also making his second straight start on the PGA Tour is Lucas Herbert, who has had a good last year of golf. Danny Willett is also here, making the top four golfers all from the European Tour. Joel Dahmen leads the American side of the coin, along with Charley Hoffman and Charles Howell, who make the trip down for the second straight year. Emiliano Grillo, who typically does very well in these island events, is also here, along with some of the best from the Korn Ferry Tour last year, Brandon Wu and Taylor Pendrith. Another favorite young player with a ton of pedigree getting a start this week is Justin Suh, who came in 14th last year.
Previous Winners
- 2020: Hudson Swafford
- 2019: Graeme McDowell
- 2018: Brice Garnett
- 2017: Nate Lashley
- 2016: Dominic Bozzelli
Follow us on all of our social channels! Check out our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more great Awesemo content.
Looking for more fantasy golf and DraftKings and FanDuel PGA DFS picks content for the Corales Puntacana Championship? We have loads of articles, data, DraftKings and FanDuel PGA DFS Picks cheat sheets and more on the Awesemo PGA home page. Just click HERE.
