Power Rankings: Corales Puntacana Championship

It’s the season of Spring Breaks and jaunts to the Caribbean, but it’s very much a work week for the 120 in the field at the Corales Puntacana Championship on the eastern shore of the Dominican Republic.

The second opposite event of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season will be contested at Corales Puntacana Resort and Club. It’s the sixth edition since it was introduced in 2018, but it’s very much not taken for granted after wild weather ravaged the area late last summer. For some detail on that, how Corales will test this week and more, continue reading beneath the ranking of projected contenders and others to consider.

OTHERS TO CONSIDER

• Chad Ramey … When he prevailed here last year, he ended a couple of trends in the young history of the tournament. He was the first winner under the age of 30, although barely at 29 years, seven months and change. He also was the first PGA TOUR rookie to pick off this title. He hasn’t answered with another top-20 finish but he recently challenged early at TPC Sawgrass before drifting into a share of 27th place.

• Cody Gribble … The 32-year-old lefty is a story in the making as he climbs his way out of the nether regions of membership status. Consider that the one-time PGA TOUR winner never sniffed rising high enough to consider cracking this field as an alternate just one year ago. He hadn’t cashed in any TOUR event since the 2018-19 season, but here he is fresh off consecutive T7s at Grand Reserve and Copperhead to sit 117th in the FedExCup. The first-timer at Corales is on a mission.

• Andrew Novak … When he finished T44 at the Puerto Rico Open earlier this month, it marked his first result outside the top 25 as a PGA TOUR member on paspalum. He’s since rebounded with a T27 at Copperhead to generate a little momentum at Corales where he placed T11 last year.

• Ryan Gerard … Ya think? The former Tarheel at UNC is a mere two-way T57 at Corales to achieve Special Temporary Membership, yet this is his first of his four starts this season via a sponsor exemption, so time is on his side. Finished T11 not far from here at the Puerto Rico Open just three weeks ago. That answered a solo fourth at The Honda Classic, so he’s already proven to perform well in the wind.

• Fabrizio Zanotti … Paraguay’s only golfer registering an Official World Golf Ranking (230th) was slated to compete here last year, but he opted out pre-tournament. He’s 2-for-2 at Corales with a T22 in 2021, so he’s no stranger, it’s just that he's not even a sometimer on the PGA TOUR with 18 career starts spread across nine seasons in 15 years. Rested since connecting a T23 in Singapore and a T9 in Thailand in mid-February, the 39-year-old’s profile is that of a sharpshooter tee to green, precisely what Corales rewards.

Patrick Rodgers, Taylor Pendrith, Emiliano Grillo and Harry Higgs will be among the notables reviewed in Golfbet Insider.

Had the Corales Puntacana Championship been scheduled for late September as it was in 2020 in an adjustment to the three-month shutdown due to the pandemic that year, it’s likely that the course wouldn’t have been ready. Mid-month of 2022, Hurricane Fiona made landfall nearby as the first storm of its size to do so in the country in almost 20 years. The course required extensive repair and time to recover, which it has for its annual staging of the PGA TOUR stop.

What else would you expect from a vibrant culture bursting with charismatic personalities? What’s more, if there’s a visual representation of the energy and fun generated by the native bachata music, you wouldn’t rule out Corales as exactly that.

The stock par 72 can stretch 7,670 yards but it’s still a resort course. It’s meant to be scorable even when prepped for some of the most talented golfers on the planet. Aside from the 2021 edition when Joel Dahmen prevailed at just 11-under 277 and the field averaged 72.484, averages have landed 0.500-1.000 strokes under par, but this week’s conditions could push scoring back into the black as the forecast resembles the reality from two years ago.

Sunshine will dominate, so the primary defense, as it always is in a setting like this, is the wind. Prevailing breezes will be sustained at 10-20 mph all week. Daytime temperatures will climb into the low 80s, so there are no surprises on tap.

Supporting the inverse relationship with gusty winds will be slower greens than usual. They are expected to reach 11 feet on the Stimpmeter. That’s a foot shorter historically. And for the second straight year, the thickest rough is down another quarter-of-an-inch, so it’s trimmed to just 1½ inches. Supreme paspalum blankets the property.

The Devil’s Elbow sounds like a tropical drink and, who knows, maybe it is somewhere, but the relevant reference is that it’s the nickname for the final three holes at Corales. The par-4-3-4 stretch concludes the stroll by the seashore. It scored a somewhat tame 0.256 strokes over par last year, but it was almost triple that in 2021. Regardless, it will require a steady hand, proper course management and a confident ball flight to claim the 300 FedExCup points, $684,000 and membership extension through 2025. The winner also will secure spots in the PGA Championship and the 2024 editions of the Sentry Tournament of Champions and THE PLAYERS Championship among the invitationals.

NOTE: ShotLink is not utilized for this tournament.

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ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled.

MONDAY: Power Rankings (Match Play)

TUESDAY*: Sleepers (Match Play), Power Rankings (Corales), Golfbet Insider

FRIDAY: Medical Extensions

SUNDAY: Payouts and Points, Qualifiers, Reshuffle

* - Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.