Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship preview

One week after the U.S. Open saw just one player, Bryson DeChambeau, finish under par at Winged Foot, the PGA Tour will offer a more moderate test at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship.

Hosted on the picturesque Corales Golf Club in the Dominican Republic, the fifth annual event will feature a field of 144 golfers chasing after 500 FedEx Cup points and an invitation to the 2021 Masters.

Previously, the tournament awarded 300 FedExCup points and no Masters invite, but the PGA raised the stakes after the event was postponed to September, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Will Zalatoris, who tied for sixth at Winged Foot at five over par last weekend, is the +1200 favorite at Corales. Zalatoris competed on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 and collected 10 Top 10 finishes, including a second-place showing at the Evans Scholars Invitational in mid-September.

Slightly behind him on the oddsboard is Mackenzie Hughes (+1400), who missed the cut at last week’s major. Before the U.S. Open, Hughes finished the 2019 season strong, as he placed 13th, 10th, and 14th and The Northern Trust, BMW Championship, and Tour Championship.

Even more encouraging for Hughes, he landed second at Corales in March 2019. If he can bring a hot putter to the Dominican Republic, he’ll have a shot at securing a win.

At the time of defending champion Graeme McDowell's (+5000) win in 2019, the golfer ranked 15th on Tour in strokes gained putting.

The short game will be key at Corales' par-72, 7,670-yard paspalum course, which features wide, flat fairways, rough around two inches, and slow greens.

In 2016, the inaugural year of the event, Dominic Bozzelli set the course record when he shot 24 under. In 2017, Nate Lashley beat Augusto Núñez by one stroke at 20 under, while Brice Garnett (2018 champion) and McDowell both shot 18 under to win.

Pat Perez (+3000) and Kristoffer Ventura (+3300) are two other players in peak form ahead of Corales. Both finished in the Top 10 at the Safeway Open on Sept. 13. They also both rank in the Top 30 on Tour in strokes gained putting and the Top 50 in scoring average and greens in regulation.

Perez, in particular, is a master on paspalum. His past two victories on Tour occurred on courses with the surface — the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in 2016 and CIMB Classic at TPC Kuala Lumpur in 2017.

The Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship will tee off Thursday, Sept. 24, and conclude Sunday, Sept. 27. The winner will receive $720,000 of the $4 million purse.

You can catch all the action on the Golf Channel Thursday and Friday, and on NBC Saturday and Sunday.

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Find the latest odds on the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship at BetAmerica!