Power Rankings: Corales Puntacana Championship

Although Rory McIlroy’s feet likely still won’t have touched the ground by the time the Corales Puntacana Championship commences on Thursday morning, time moves on for the rest of us. As he continues to bask in having achieved the career Grand Slam, the 132 in the field at the second Additional Event of the season have to get back to work.

Corales Golf Course in Punta Cana on the eastern shore of the Dominican Republic has been the only host for all eight editions of the tournament. This is the second consecutive year that it’s been contested concurrently with the RBC Heritage.

What’s at stake, a review of the course and more are detailed below a ranking of those projected to contend and others to consider.

Others to consider

• Rafael Campos ... It was a big deal when he received a sponsor exemption to play the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard the same week as the Puerto Rico Open at home, and an even bigger deal when he debuted in the Masters last week – he missed the cut at both – but he’s back at his home away from home in the Dominican Republic where he’s never missed an edition. A T2 in 2021 highlights four paydays, all of the other three of which since 2022 with a T14 last year.
• Joel Dahmen ... The 37-year-old is paying off his late work to retain his card in 2024 with a fine 2025. It includes a pair of top 10s, one of which on paspalum at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. When he captured his lone PGA TOUR title at Corales in 2021, it was a culmination of strong play on the course, but he’s yet to respond with another noisemaker in three tries. Ranks ninth in proximity.
• Seamus Power ... It’s been two-and-a-half years already since he won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship but the Irishman had arrived that week without his best and didn’t disappoint as a favorite. He arrives for his fifth appearance at Corales with similar inconsistency but he’s still among the most accurate on approach and he’s seventh in Par-3 Scoring Average. His best finish here was a T5 at the inaugural edition in 2018.
• Chris Gotterup ... He’d be the defending champion of the next Additional Event – the Myrtle Beach Classic in three weeks – but he’s also a good fit at Corales where his long ball can fly. It paid off recently on similar bomber’s paradises that host the Puerto Rico Open (T16) and the Texas Children’s Houston Open (T18).

All roads lead to somewhere, so perhaps the winner of the Corales Puntacana will find himself in the same position that McIlroy now occupies among the legends of the game. If not, the array of consolation prizes for this and all Additional Events ain’t too shabby.

An official PGA TOUR victory, membership status as a winner through 2027 and exemptions into next month’s PGA Championship and The Sentry in 2026 are awarded to the champ. The 300 FedExCup points are also credited and he’ll sit atop the Aon Swing 5 for entry into the Truist Championship, which is the next Signature Event of the season. Oh, and his bank will be processing a deposit of $720,000.

Those were the perks for Karl Vilips, winner of the first Additional Event of the season. For having slotted second in the Aon Swing 5 for entry into the RBC Heritage, you’ll find the Puerto Rico Open champion at Harbour Town Golf Links this week.

That’s also where 2024 Corales Puntacana champion Billy Horschel will be competing. In what was the tournament’s first staging in April last year, he scored a tournament-record 23-under 265. The win punctuated a series of strong finishes that propelled him all the way to the TOUR Championship, yet another road to paydirt.

While Horschel is a household name with a storied career of his own, he still had to execute at Corales where he was making his debut. Understanding the assignment on a resort course that hosts a shootout, he ranked second in both putts per greens in regulation and converting greens in regulation into par breakers to win by two.

Corales is blanketed with Supreme paspalum grass with the lushest of rough two inches tall. Because of its use the other 51 weeks of the year and because of its exposure to the sea, fairways are generous. Although the stock par 72 can stretch to 7,670 yards, greens are average in size, but they shouldn’t exceed 11 ½ feet using a Stimpmeter because of the omnipresent winds that prevail out of the east.

Like the winning aggregate, last year’s scoring average of 70.463 also was a tournament-record low, as was the 36-hole cut of 4-under 140. Moderate breezes were commonplace with gusts over 20 mph throughout the competition. Although there was only one layer of rough, which was shorter than it will be prepped now, greens were allowed to run a little faster. Still, the changes to the setup alone for this year shouldn’t impact scoring much, but it could get gnarly at times, nonetheless.

This week’s forecast includes all but a guarantee of rain at some point and across multiple days. Embedded boomers could halt play over any or all of the first three rounds. Winds will freshen in earnest on Friday and sustain at their strongest over the weekend.

You’ll hear chatter about the last three holes at Corales nicknamed the "Devil’s Elbow." No. 17 is a par 3 sandwiched by par 4s at Nos. 16 and 18. Each had averaged over par in every edition of the tournament until the finishing hole checked in at 3.98 last year. Horschel played the set in bogey-free 2-under with a pair of birdies at 16.

NOTE: ShotLink is not utilized for this tournament.

ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton previews and recaps every tournament. Refer to the timing of his contributions below. He’s also active as @RobBoltonGolf on X where you can connect with him.

• MONDAY: Power Rankings (Heritage)
• TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Corales); Fantasy Insider
• SUNDAY: Payouts and Points (Heritage); Payouts and Points (Corales); Qualifiers

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