Daily Fantasy Golf Course Primer: Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
In this expanded season, certain events have to pull double duty. Three events were played in the fall but will still retain their same slots on the calendar in 2021 -- The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship baby!
With the top players in the world geared up for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, the alternatives get a shot at glory this week in the Dominican Republic. Corales Golf Club is a 7,666-yard par 72 that can vary greatly depending on the wind. Elevation changes between holes make club selection a crucial skill between golfer and caddy, and the practice sessions this week loom even larger.
We'll have a weak field, but many of the golfers here also played this event in September, and as a former Korn Ferry stop some others may have more experience than meets the eye. Scoring should be on the easy side, and with wide fairways and large greens, this course really lays it out there for an aggressive champion who gets a few breaks.
Sunny skies and steady winds in the mid-high teens are currently forecasted all weekend. Single round daily fantasy contest roster construction will largely favor the early outs, and we may be able to get good live odds on afternoon golfers after the first round, knowing the Thursday morning wave will get clobbered come Friday.
Let's dig into the course and see what stats we can use to build our daily fantasy lineups this week.
Course and Tournament Info
Course: Corales Puntacana Resort & Club
Par: 72
Distance: 7,666 yards
Fairways/Rough: Paspalum
Greens: Paspalum
The winning score in each of the three seasons the course has been played on the PGA Tour has been exactly 18-under par. The wind element can't be discounted, and if you get the right draw here there are some real opportunities to go low.
Coco Beach Golf & CC (Puerto Rico Open) stands out as another paspalum track, as does El Camaleon GC (Mayakoba Golf Classic). Other alternate field events can also be informative, so we'll look to Port Royal GC (Bermuda Championship), and Keen Trace Golf Club (Barbasol Championship) to see who thrives when the field strength takes a dip.
Key Stats
These stats will be key to success in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.
| Key Stats for the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship |
|---|
| Strokes Gained: Off the Tee |
| Strokes Gained: Approach |
| Opportunities Gained |
| Birdies or Better Gained |
| Strokes Gained: Par 5s |
With no ShotLink data to guide us, we will keep it simple this week. Ballstriking can survive a few bad breaks caused by the wind, so we'll look at both driving and iron play. The September leaderboard included a few big hitters, so even with elevation mitigating some advantage, being long still seems to serve you well here.
Scoring and scoring opportunities are good indicators in general, and par 5 scoring is where the winners will make their bones. Each of the top-four finishers in the fall were among the top six in the field on the par 5s.
Stats are always a piece of what we look for, along with recent form, course history, and course fit. But in events like this with very little star power, it can be dangerous to rely much on the stats. For example, the man who is 10th in this field in, say, strokes gained: approach, may not actually be in the neighborhood near the top of the overall Tour rankings. We always try to compare golfers to their competition, but it's important to keep in mind that this week we may be dealing with golfers who are better than this field but do not frequently beat the field in a full event.
Course History Studs
Hudson Swafford won in the fall and was 12th here in 2019. Graeme McDowell and Brice Garnett won in 2019 and 2018, respectively, though neither has made much of a stir in either of the prior attempts.
Kelly Kraft had top-fives in the first two installments and ended up T14 last year after a strong start. Also tied for 14th was Matt Jones, giving him top-30s in each edition of this event.
Tyler McCumber was the runner-up last year to Swafford and also T19 in his prior visit in 2018, his first start as a pro.
Mike Rodden is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Mike Rodden also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mike_rodden. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
