2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship Preview

2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship Preview

Dates: September 21-27, 2020
Where: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Course: Puntacana Resort & Club (Corales Golf Course)
Par/Yards: 36-36—72/7,666
Designer: Tom Fazio/2010
Field: 144 players
Defending champion: Graeme McDowell
Purse: $4,000,000 ($720,000/winner)
FedExCup: 500 points to the winner
Format: 72-hole stroke play

Things to Know

• Originally scheduled in March as an additional event the week of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship will be played as a standalone event and award    full FedExCup points for the first time
• Tournament will be played again in March, one of three tournaments that appear twice on the 2020-21 PGA TOUR schedule (others: U.S. Open, Masters Tournament)
• Winner benefits include 500 FedExCup points, invitations to Sentry Tournament of Champions, 2021 Masters Tournament, THE PLAYERS Championship, PGA Championship
• Korn Ferry Tour points list leader Will Zalatoris makes 10^th career PGA TOUR start; coming off a T6 at last week’s U.S. Open

Field Notes

• FedExCup champions: Henrik Stenson (2013), Bill Haas (2011)
• Two major champions: Graeme McDowell (2010 U.S. Open), Henrik Stenson (2016 The Open Championship)
• Four players who made the cut at last week’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot; Will Zalatoris (T6), Adam Long (T13), Charles Howell III (30^th), Thomas Detry (T49)
• 64 PGA TOUR winners in the field
• 29 players with multiple PGA TOUR wins led by Bill Haas (6) and Henrik Stenson (6)
• All four winners from the Corales Punta Resort & Club Championship (including stint on Korn Ferry Tour in 2016- 17): Graeme McDowell (2019), Brice Garnett (2018), Nate Lashley (2017), Dominic Bozzelli (2016)

Current FedExCup standings

Position	Player	Points	Wins	Top-10s	Points Behind	Starts	Projected Bonus
1	Bryson DeChambeau	600	1	1		1	$2 million
2	Stewart Cink	500	1	1	100	1	$1.5 million
3	Matthew Wolff	330		1	270	1	$1.2 million
4	Harry Higgs	300		1	300	1	$1.1 million
5	Louis Oosthuizen	210		1	390	1	$1 million
6	Harris English	150		1	450	1	$850,000
T7	Kevin Streelman	134		1	466	2	$700,000
T7	Doc Redman	134		1	466	1	$600,000
T7	Brian Stuard	134		1	466	1	$550,000
T7	Chez Reavie	134		1	466	2	$500,000

Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship and the FedExCup

• The field includes 18 players inside the top 50 in the current FedExCup Standings
• The Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship is the third of 50 events in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR Season, offering 500 FedExCup points to the winner
• Past winners of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship advanced to the FedExCup Playoffs in the year of their victory –2018/ Brice Garnett/No. 61; Graeme McDowell/2019/No. 68

A look back at 2019 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship

Position	Player	Results
1	Graeme McDowell	73-64-64-69—270 (-18)
T2	Mackenzie Hughes	69-70-66-66—271 (-17)
T2	Chris Stroud	70-68-64-69—271 (-17)
4	Jonathan Byrd	69-67-71-66—272 (-16)

• McDowell collected his fourth career PGA TOUR title in his 215th start at the age of 39 years, 8 months, 1 day
• McDowell played the front nine in 13-under en route to 18-under winning total
• Mackenzie Hughes (T2) closed with back-to-back 66s, recording a combined score of 132 or better in the final two rounds for the first time in his PGA TOUR career; played the par 4s in 10-under, best in the field, and carded 25 birdies, tying his career-high entering the week (2018 RBC Canadian Open).

Player Notes

Graeme McDowell

• Defending champion seeks fifth PGA TOUR title (2010 U.S. Open, 2013 RBC Heritage, 2015 Mayakoba Golf Classic, 2019 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship)
• Missed the cut in only other appearance in event (2018)
• Lone top-10 in 16 starts in 2019-20 was T4 at Sony Open in Hawaii; advanced to the FedExCup Playoffs for the seventh time in 11 seasons, finishing No. 117 in the FedExCup standings
• Missed the cut in last week’s U.S. Open (76-80) his fourth consecutive missed cut on TOUR

Henrik Stenson

• Making tournament debut and second start of the 2020-21 season (2020 U.S. Open/MC)
• One of three players to win at least one FedExCup, THE PLAYERS Championship, TOUR Championship, World Golf Championships and a major championship (others: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy)
• Made just five PGA TOUR starts in 2019-20 with one top-25 result (T20/WGC-HSBC Champions); won the unofficial Hero World Challenge in December 2019
• Highest-ranked player in the field at No. 43 in the Official World Golf Ranking

Mackenzie Hughes

• Finished T2 in first tournament appearance in 2019, closing with back-to-back 6-under 66s to finish 17-under 271
• Posted four top-10s in 22 starts last season, including T10 at the BMW Championship, holing a 4-foot putt on the 72^nd hole to advance to the TOUR Championship for the first time; finished No. 14 in the FedExCup
• Following a missed cut in the first Return to Golf event (Charles Schwab Challenge), made the cut in all nine starts and earned three top-10s: Travelers Championship/T3, the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide/T6, BMW Championship/T10
• Seeks to become first Canadian to win on the PGA TOUR since Nick Taylor (2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am)
• Lone TOUR victory came at The RSM Classic in 2016 via playoff
• Missed the cut in last week’s U.S. Open (72-76)

Charley Hoffman

• Four-time PGA TOUR winner makes first appearance at Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
• One of nine players to advance to the FedExCup Playoffs every season since its introduction in 2007
• Posted two top-10s in 20 starts in 2019-20 (T9/Farmers Insurance Open, T7/Workday Charity Open)
• Making second start of the season (2020 Safeway Open/T56)

Emiliano Grillo

• Puntacana Resort ambassador finished T50 in his only previous appearance in the event (2018)
• Finished T29 at season-opening Safeway Open after entering the final round two shots off the lead
• Recorded three top-10s in 23 starts in 2019-20, advancing to the FedExCup Playoffs for the fifth time in as many seasons on TOUR

Joohyung (Tom) Kim

• Won the 2019 Panasonic Open India as a 17-year-old to become the second-youngest professional to win on the Asian Tour
• At 18, won 2020 Gunsan Country Club Open to become the youngest winner on the Korea PGA Tour, which moved him into the top 100 in the OWGR and earned a spot in the field for the 2020 PGA Championship (MC)
• Making third PGA TOUR start; Finished T67 in the season-opening Safeway Open

Will Zalatoris

• Is in the field via a top-10 finish at last week’s U.S. Open (T6) after making a hole-in-one in the first round; led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach
• Korn Ferry Tour Points Leader has 11 consecutive top-20s on the Korn Ferry Tour, the longest streak in Tour history; has hit 81 percent of Greens in Reregulation, on pace to be the most in KFT history; leads Tour in Scoring Average and Ball Striking
• Has 105 non-member FedExCup points; Needs 288 to earn Special Temporary Membership on the PGA TOUR
• Regularly plays golf with former NFL quarterback and two-time Corales Puntacana sponsor exemption Tony Romo

Miscellaneous Notes

• Belgium’s Thomas Detry makes his third PGA TOUR start; made PGA TOUR debut in the 2019 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship (T33); Finished T49 at last week’s U.S. Open; Won the 2018 ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf for Belgium with teammate Thomas Pieters
• Former Vanderbilt University golfer Matthias Schwab makes ninth career start on TOUR and first in Punta Cana; Austrian owns two top-10s on PGA TOUR (T3/2020 Barracuda Championship, T4/2019 WGC-HSBC Champions)
• Despite posting under-par opening-round scores in each of his seven PGA TOUR starts since turning professional, 18-year-old Akshay Bhatia’s lone made cut is T9 at 2020 Safeway Open, which earned him a spot in the field this week; became the second-youngest player to post a top-10 in a stroke-play event on the PGA TOUR since 1983 (Justin Rose/T4/1998 The Open Championship); others to earn spots in the field via top-10s at Safeway Open are Kristoffer Ventura/T7 and J.J. Spaun/T9
• Four players who successfully advanced out of the Monday qualifier, held March 9 in Miami, Florida, are all winners on the Minor Golf League Tour (Luke Graboyes, Michael Kartrude, Gavin Hall, Matt Oshrine)

Tournament Records and history

Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship History

The Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship is the first PGA TOUR event to be held in the Dominican Republic, with Brice Garnett claiming victory in 2018, its inaugural year, and Graeme McDowell the champion in 2019. Prior to 2018, the tournament had a two-year stint on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule where the winners were Dominic Bozzelli in 2016 and   Nate Lashley in 2017. Grupo Puntacana, which  owns and operates  Puntacana Resort & Club, serves as  the host   organization while the Corales course is the tournament venue.

• 50^th anniversary of Grupo Puntacana, owner and operator of Puntacana Resort & Club
• 18-hole score: 63 (Brice Garnett/R1/2018, Chip McDaniel/R4/2019)
• 36-hole  score:  131 (Brice Garnett/2018)
• 54-hole  score:  200 (Brice Garnett/2018)
• 72-hole score: 270 (Brice Garnett/2018, Graeme McDowell/2019)
• Largest margin of victory: 4 (Brice Garnett/2018)
• Wire-to-wire winner: 1 (Brice Garnett/2018)
• Holes-in-one: 3 (Augusto Nunez/R1/No. 17/2018, Shawn Stefani/R2/No. 17/2018, Harris English/R2/No. 17/2018)

The Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship Preview is via PGA TOUR