2024 Corales Puntacana Championship Tournament Preview, Odds, Outright Bets

It’s impossible for one PGA TOUR event to fill the shoes left behind in the wake of The Masters. But what about two? If price-gouged, 68-man Signature Event fields aren’t your cup of tee from a betting perspective, there’s still a great edge to be had for those who want to extend their exposure from the RBC Heritage to 2024 Corales Puntacana Championship odds.

I enjoyed playing this course last year, which paid immediate dividends in the form of a successful Matt Wallace outright wager at the 2023 Corales Puntacana Championship. Wallace may be too big time to show up in beautiful Punta Cana for his title defense, but I’m a man of the people and consider it my duty to try for a successful repeat.

Typically positioned opposite the WGC Dell Match Play, the Corales Puntacana Championship gets a new home on the schedule this year, though remaining in a constant seasonal period. Ahead, we’ll go through a quick tournament preview, a recap of my past experience playing the course, and get into my outright bets from Corales Puntacana odds.

Corales Puntacana Odds

Scroll to the bottom for a full odds board in order to compare across sportsbooks and bet the best price available in your state. Here are the two favorites at shorter than 20-1.

INTRODUCTION TO CORALES GOLF CLUB

Corales Golf Course is one of the longer Par 72 courses on the PGA TOUR schedule, standing at 7,670 yards. The course gets its length primarily from its Par 3s and Par 5s. All four Par-3s play over 200 yards, with two holes playing over 230 yards. It also features two Par-5s over 620 yards long. Aside from these six holes however, the remaining ten Par-4s and two other Par-5s are average in length and manageable for the full field, regardless of distance. And given the extreme length of these Par-3s and 5s, it is a clever way to mitigate advantage from pure bombers; the full field will be playing to reach each of the 600+ yard Par-5s in three, which explains how players with less distance off the tee have gone on to win here in its short history.

The course sits right on the coast of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and is highly exposed to coastal winds. This is similar to what we see on other comp course events like the RSM Classic, Sony Open, Bermuda Championship, and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, so I’ll be looking closely at those courses as comps despite the significant difference in distance. The Plantation Course at Kapalua is another solid comp course, given the length, wide open fairways, table-top greens, and above-average driving distance, however you’ll be hard pressed to find many players in this opposite field who have qualified for the Sentry Tournament of Champions in recent years.

As a tropical resort course, Corales Golf Course features Paspalum grass throughout. The Mayakoba Classic, Mexico Open at Vidanta, Puerto Rico Open, ZOZO Championship (at Accordia Golf Narashino), and PGA Championship (at Kiawah Island) are recent references of other events played on Paspalum greens. The greens would be unplayable if rolling firm or fast in this climate, as balls would not be able to stand still against these strong winds otherwise. While running a model against Paspalum greens is difficult, SG: P on Slow Greens should serve as a solid proxy.

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What I Learned Playing Corales Golf Club

I had the pleasure of playing 18 holes on this course just over a year ago while on vacation in Punta Cana. I love the opportunity to play where the pros play, and it has, without a doubt, made watching this event a lot more compelling than any opposite-field event should otherwise be. But I have to say off the bat, the greens fees are over the top here, and there are many better options across the Dominican Republic that are more affordable if you’re willing to give up on the novelty of playing a PGA TOUR course.

The wind is inescapable here. You are right on the edge of the island for most of this course’s routing, with sparse trees to block Punta Cana’s naturally windy climate. So unlike most weeks on the PGAT TOUR where wind can be unpredictable, it’s a near guarantee that skilled ball strikers with experience in windy conditions will have an advantage here.

Corales is, by and large, a second shot course. The fairways are generous, the rough is light, and you can hit driver on essentially every Par-4 and Par-5. The par-3s are very long, and three of the four par-5s cannot be reached without a helping wind. You really need to capitalize on the par-4s to score here, and with wind constantly blowing approach shots off the intended line, a crafty short game is a must as well.

In short, the players best equipped to score at Corales should excel in Comp Windy Conditions and be elite in SG: APP and SG: ARG.

CORALES GOLF CLUB COURSE SPECS

• Yards: 7,670
• Par: 72 (4x 3s / 10x 4s / 4x 5s)
• Greens: Paspalum (Slow)
• Average Green Size: 6,000 Sq. Ft. (Above-Average)
• Fairway Width: Very Wide (Exact yardage unconfirmed)
• Rough: 2″ Paspalum (Light)
• Architect: Tom Fazio
• Historic Cut Line: Even
• Comp Courses: Plantation Course at Kapalua, Coco Beach, Port Royal GC, Pebble Beach
• Hole-by-hole Breakdown:

CORALES PUNTACANA CHAMPIONSHIP PAST WINNERS & ODDS

Over its first six years of hosting, the favorites have yet to convert a win at this event. Graeme McDowell’s win in 2019 at 30-1 odds was the shortest of any winner so far. With the course sitting heavily exposed on the coast of Punta Cana, this event is always susceptible to high winds, which can create dramatic wave splits for morning and afternoon tee times. With limited upside from longshots in weaker fields, bettors have been best suited to look in the mid-range of the odds board when betting on the Corales Puntacana Championship.

The table below tracks consensus pre-tournament outright odds for all previous winners of the Corales Puntacana Championship.

Year	Winner	Pre-Tournament Odds
2023	Matt Wallace	+3500
2022	Chad Ramey	+5000
2021	Joel Dahmen	+5500
2020	Hudson Swafford	+10000
2019	Graeme McDowell	+3000
2018	Brice Garnett	+5000

CORALES PUNTACANA CHAMPIONSHIP KEY STATES & MODEL FAVORITES

• SG: APP
• SG: ARG / Scrambling
• Par-3: 200+
• Par-5: 550+
• SG: Putting (L36, Slow Greens)
• SG: TOT (Windy Conditions)
• Course & Comp Course History

Model Favorites

Alex Noren is the consensus favorite this week and also ranks No. 1 in the model I ran when plugging these key stats in. I understand the course fit for a grinder like Noren who’s proven to be at his best on windy courses that reward scrambling. Still, I can’t quite get there on the betting favorite who continues to search for his first career PGA TOUR win.

After Noren, my model’s top 10 is rounded out by SH Kim, Henrik Norlander, Nate Lashley, Mark Hubbard, Billy Horschel, Ben Griffin, Davis Thompson, Greyson Sigg, and Taylor Pendrith.

MY BETTING CARD: HOW I BUILT MY CORALES CHAMPIONSHIP BETS

Contrary to the 7,600+ yardage, I’ve built out my Corales outright card by prioritizing elite iron players with reliable short games and a proven track record on this course and other coastal, windy setups.

From a unit exposure standpoint, I’ve built a full card of outright bets, risking the usual 3.5U to pay our 25U each.

Here is a quick breakdown of the bets I landed on for the 2024 Corales Championship. Best of luck with your bets this week!

CORALES CHAMPIONSHIP BETS: OUTRIGHTS (3.5 UNITS)

Nicolai Hojgaard

My Bet: +1600

Best Odds Still Available:

With all of his other Ryder Cup buddies made the trip from Augusta to Harbour Town, Hojgaard has his eyes set on revenge, with a business trip to Punta Cana. A T16 finish at The Masters was not enough to earn the promising rising Danish star a sponsor’s invite to the rBC Heritage over Webb Simpson or Kevin Kisner, so he’ll instead look for closure in the Dominican Republic.

Hojgaard just missed a 20-foot putt on the 18th hole which would have forced a playoff with Matt Wallace at this event last year, and is head and shoulders above the rest of his opponents in this field from a pure talent standpoint.

Aaron Rai

My Bet: +2500

Best Odds Still Available:

Graeme McDowell began a trend of European players with a proven history in challenging conditions overseas finally translating to PGA TOUR success at this event in 2019. Matt Wallace continued that trend after flashing form in the weeks prior to his win last year, and Aaron Rai fits the very same amongst European contenders in 2024.

Rai is no stranger to contending in windy conditions, picking up his last professional win at the 2020 Scottish Open. One of the most consistent ball-strikers in this field, he ranks top-7 in SG: APP leading in. It’s crucial to consistently find the center of the club face in windy conditions, which is a skill set that should separate Rai from his opponents in this field.

Victor Perez

My Bet: +3500

Best Odds Still Available:

Another player trending with his irons, Perez ranks No. 2 in the field in terms of SG: APP. He, too, has won in difficult, windy conditions overseas, taking down the 2019 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The Frenchman recently moved to St. Andrews, Scotland, as further evidence of his affinity for golfing in the wind.

Henrik Norlander

My Bet: +11000

Best Odds Still Available:

I went through the trouble of building a model for this tournament, so it wouldn’t be right to ignore the only players inside the top-10 of it who is available beyond 100-1 odds. Norlander ranks top-30 across all key categories over the last 36 rounds, highlighted by top-10 ranks in SG: APP and Par-3 Scoring: 200+.

CORALES CHAMPIONSHIP BETS

Best of luck with your Corales Puntacana Championship bets! See you next week for the AT&T Byron Nelson Tournament Preview.

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Full CORALES Puntacana ODDS Table