PGA Betting Guide for the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship

Picking winners of a golf tournament is hard. Doing it consistently is downright impossible. But finding value is something all bettors must practice in order to give themselves the best chance to make hay when the day finally comes that they ping a champion.

Below, we will cover the best bets for the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship based on current form, course fit, and -- of course -- the value of their odds over at Golf odds.

As is always the case in these alternate events, we'll see some painful numbers on the high end of the board. Golfers we might consider for daily fantasy lineups or a small dart throw on a top 10 finish are suddenly going off at 30/1 or shorter, and we have some hard decisions to make.

Our unifying theory this week will be distance, as this course is 7,666 yards long and wide open. Approach play generally accounts for more strokes over the course of a tournament, but going big off the tee and carrying a pitching wedge to that second shot instead of a seven iron makes a world of difference.

For more info on Corales Puntacana Resort & Club along with this week's key stats and comparable courses, check out the course primer.

At the Top

Thomas Pieters (+1800) - Pieters does not look the part of favorite, but his results overseas have been encouraging and a solid T15 at the Puerto Rico Open as the favorite at least shows us he doesn't mind being the "big name" in a field like this. Pieters can bomb it out with the best of them, and at this wide open track he can fire at will. With a 10th in Saudi Arabia and a 13th at the Qatar Masters bracketing the Puerto Rico finish, there's no question he's in form headed to the Dominican Republic. The concern with Pieters always comes down to attitude, and if he can keep his cool he has a great shot to win here.

Jhonattan Vegas (+2600) - Vegas leads the field in birdies or better gained and strokes gained: off the tee, a combination that should bear fruit this week in Puntacana. Despite a missed cut here in September, he seems to like these alternate events. He was runner up in Puerto Rico last month, 9th there last year, and 26th at the Corales in 2019. He was 30th at the Honda Classic last week and gained in all four facets of the game, a good sign for his form and confidence heading into this week.

Value Spots

Will Gordon (+3300) - Gordon is the longest driver in the field, sixth on Tour overall. He's also 10th in total birdies this season. With four straight made cuts including a T36 at the Honda Classic where he gained 5.2 strokes off the tee, Gordon is humming right now and playing to his strengths. He'll need to improve his play around the green, where he's lost 2.0 strokes or more in 9 of his last 11 events. He's actually a pretty good putter, and if he plugs the leak in his game this is the type of course he can bomb and gouge.

Taylor Pendrith (+4000) - Of the Korn Ferry call-ups, we like Pendrith at his number more than Brandon Wu (+2600), Lee Hodges (+3200), and Greyson Sigg (+4800). Pendrith trails only Will Zalatoris -- now only a nominal KFT member as he plays on the PGA just about ever week -- for the points lead on the junior Tour. He's sixth in driving distance at over 321 yards per drive. He won twice on the Mackenzie Tour in 2019 and had four runner ups on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020.

Long Shots

Grayson Murray (+6500) - We pegged Murray and Vegas at the Puerto Rico Open along the same lines and both managed to hold the lead at one point over the weekend, so we'll follow the same recipe here and see if either can repeat the feat at Puntacana. He missed the cut here in the fall but was T19 in 2019. As long as he can stay off Twitter, Murray has the tools to compete once again this week.

Andy Ogletree (+10000) - The low amateur at the Masters has run into a brick wall since turning pro, with just a T46 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and two missed cuts in California to his name. In all, his T34 at Augusta and the Mayakoba result are his only made cuts at PGA Tour events, but this is a bet on the pedigree as Ogletree was the U.S. Amateur champion in 2019.