This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Corales Golf Course - Par 72 - 7,666 yards
Field - 144 entrants
Purse - $4M
The Preview
Just days after Winged Foot's thick rough and slick greens allowed only one under-par finisher at the U.S. Open, the PGA Tour now heads to Corales Golf Course in the Dominican Republic where extremely wide fairways welcome a B-list field of 144 entrants who should have no trouble securing birdie opportunities. Despite the underwhelming crew in attendance being headlined by names such as Mackenzie Hughes and Henrik Stenson, 500 FedExCup points and a trip to the 2021 Masters will be awarded to the winner. In addition to Corales' generous landing areas off the tee, its greens are also spacious, placing an emphasis on Strokes Gained: Putting and proximity on approach shots.
Recent Champions
2019 - Graeme McDowell
2018 - Brice Garnett
Key Stats to Victory
Proximity
SG: Putting
Birdie or better percentage
Par-5 Scoring
Yahoo Value Picks - based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Corey Conners - $43
A somewhat uneasy feeling presents itself when recommending Conners at a venue that generally requires competence on the greens, but he's proven capable of scoring well at Corales G.C. despite his consistently lousy putting. He was alone in second place here after 54 holes in 2018, ultimately ranking T4 in GIR percentage and T6 in driving accuracy that week. More recently, Conners is first in SG: Tee-to-Green, first in SG: Off-the-Tee and third in SG: Approach among this field over his last 36 rounds. The Canadian missed the cut at the U.S. Open, but shockingly gained strokes with the putter for the first time since the Memorial Tournament.
Will Zalatoris - $39
He doesn't even have full status on the PGA Tour yet, but Zalatoris heads to Corales as the betting favorite and he'll surely be a popular play on Yahoo this week at such an affordable salary in relation to his upside. The Wake Forest product just gained nearly 11 strokes from tee to green en route to a top-10 performance at the U.S. Open, and he paces the Korn Ferry Tour in GIR percentage throughout the 2020 season.
Glue Guys
Emiliano Grillo - $36
Much like the aforementioned Conners, Grillo is fairly horrendous with the flat stick but carries enough ball-striking promise to warrant consideration against such a weak field. He's made four consecutive cuts since a third-place result at the 3M Open, gaining a total of 12.6 strokes on his approach shots during this stretch. In 48 measured rounds during the 2019-20 campaign, Grillo was seventh in GIR percentage, 13th in SG: Approach, 25th in driving accuracy and fourth in proximity.
Sam Burns - $33
Burns feels a bit too discounted at $33 coming off a top-10 finish at the Safeway Open where he ranked top-5 in SG: Off-the-Tee and gained 7.5 strokes from tee to green. Although he ended the 2019-20 season eighth in driving distance, Burns also showed comfortability on the greens as he ranked 30th in SG: Putting and 25th in three-putt avoidance. Additionally, he tied for 12th at Corales in 2019 when he played the par-5s in 11-under-par and racked up a pair of eagles in the process.
Bargain Bin
Adam Schenk - $29
Schenk placed T35 or higher in back-to-back trips to the Corales Championship since 2018, but he's now gained strokes from tee to green in six consecutive starts from the Rocket Mortgage Classic to the Safeway Open while avoiding a single missed cut during this span. He ranks 10th among the field in SG: Off-the-Tee over his last 32 rounds and he was 11th in total driving last season.
Chris Baker - $20
Baker's short game can be a mess at times, but he's second in SG: Approach, fifth in SG: Tee-to-Green, 23rd in SG: Off-the-Tee and seventh in SG: Total over his last 22 rounds despite failing to advance to the weekend in his last start at the Safeway Open. Prior to the MC at Silverado to open the 2020-21 season, Baker had finished 45th or better in five straight events, culminating with a top-20 at the Wyndham Championship in August.
