No Mulligans – Corales Puntacana
FSI’s PGA DFS preview
Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
Course Preview:
After a brutally difficult U.S. Open, the PGA TOUR is headed to the Dominican Republic for this year’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Low scores will be much easier this week, as we have seen the winner each of the past two years shoot 18 under par. The biggest difference this year is that Corales Puntacana is no longer an alternate event, instead golfers will be competing for full FedExCup points. The Corales Golf Course is a long 7,600 yard, par 72, with paspalum grass greens.
This week’s field of golfers is not strong as the game’s best are taking a rest after the grueling U.S. Open. One golfer that has the golfing community talking is Korn Ferry Tour pro, Will Zalatoris. Zalatoris has been playing extremely well on the Korn Ferry Tour this past year and finished T6 at this past week’s U.S. Open. Although there is a lot of hype surrounding his ability and future on tour, he currently does not have his PGA Tour card and has not qualified for most of this season’s events. Other top golfers in this week’s field include the 2019 winner Graeme McDowell, 2019 runner-up Mackenzie Hughes, and Corey Conners.
The Corales Golf Course is a long course with easy to hit fairways, short rough and lots of water hazards. We will be targeting golfers who are long off the tee, as the extra distance should give them an advantage this week. With scores expected to go low, we will be adding birdie or better percentage to our models. The four par 5s are the easiest holes on the course, so shots gained on par 5s will be important to factor in this week. Stats: Ball Striking, T2G, Good Drives Gained, GIR, SG Par 5s, Birdie or Better percentage.
Field Size: 144
Cut/No-Cut Top 65 + ties
2019 Top 5:
-18 Graeme McDowell
-17 Chris Stroud
-17 Mackenzie Hughes
-16 Jonathan Byrd
-15 Kelly Kraft
-15 Chip McDaniel
Previous winners:
2019 -18 Graeme McDowell
2018 -18 Brice Garnett
2017 -20 Nate Lashley (Web.com Tour)
2016 -24 Dominic Bozzelli (Web.com Tour)
Initial players we are focusing on:
- Will Zalatoris: We were not shy about selecting Zalatoris last week at the U.S. Open and we will not miss out this week either. Over the last 36 rounds, he ranks 5th in ball striking, 7th in approach, 6th T2G, and 2nd in GIR. His last 5 events, including the U.S. Open, he finished T18, T5, T19, T2 and T6 (U.S. Open).
- Corey Conners: Our stat model absolutely loves Conners this week. Over the last 36 rounds, Conners ranks 1st in ball striking, 1st in Good Drives Gained, 1st T2G, 3rd on approach, and 5th on par 5 scoring. Conners did miss the cut at this event in 2019 but finished T13 in 2018. Although he missed the cut at the U.S. Open, he had solid performances at the BMW Championship (33rd) and the Northern Trust (25th). We expect Conners to be a popular option in DFS this week.
- Emiliano Grillo: Grillo has been impressive over the past 2 months making his last 4 cuts and finishing 3rd at the 3M Open. He always seems to be dialed in off the tee and on approach, but the putting is not good as he can lose strokes in bunches. Over his last 36 rounds, Grillo ranks 5th on approach, 2nd ball striking, 6th T2G, and 133rd
- Jhonattan Vegas: Vegas finished 26th at this event in 2019 and he is one of the elite ball strikers in this week’s field. Over the last 36 rounds, Vegas ranks 8th in ball striking, 12th T2G, 13th good drives gained, and 9th in birdie or better percentage. Since the pandemic stoppage he has made 4/7 cuts with two top 25 finishes. Vegas’ strength is his off the tee and we think that can carry him up the leaderboard this week.
Others to consider:
Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Long, Henrik Norlander, Charley Hoffman, Luke List, Sam Burns, Kristoffer Ventura.
The author of this article may play in Daily Fantasy Contests using these picks and picks not mentioned in this article. It is also possible that the author may change their opinion on some of the picks listed based on new information not available during writing. These are recommendations meant to assist, but are not guarantees. If you have any questions, please contact us.
