The Course Report
Corales Golf Club
About Corales
The Fazio design is a resort course, and it is a sight to see. Corales Resort course, with its Paspalum Greens, is a golf destination due to its ocean views, course layout, and the majesty of its surroundings. Yet, as difficult as this course might be for the weekend warrior, the PGA Tour has no issues carving up this little piece of golf beauty.
Let’s start with the defense of this course, and it really just comes in the form of the wind. We could argue that the Paspalum greens do cause some players to struggle, but these putting surfaces are not overly complex as to where the type of grass is going to cause a massive amount of concern for these seasoned pro’s.
For the first time this season, we get an extremely weak field when comparing it to the OWGR. Yet, as major season nears ever so closer, the dog days of summer come barking, and this will be the staple that we see for this tournament and plenty more throughout the hot summer months.
Corales has massive fairways. In addition, the course is one of the longest on Tour. It might just be a bit too long in fact. While one might immediately lean towards players that can just simply bomb it off the tee, the extremem distance of these par-5’s warrants an approach of at least 3 shots. An Eagle on a par-5 is rare here, especially on the back-9 where over the last 5 years we’ve seen an average of only 5 for the entire tournament. Of course being long helps in these windy conditions to a certain degree, but for scoring purposes, approach play seems to be the mroe reliable measurement of success.
The biggest obstacle lies within the “Devil’s Elbow.” The players will embark on teh final three holes that have gorgeous views that overlook the Caribbean. These holes are must see, and if you do ever get the chance to make it to Coasta Rica, these three holes are must play. While as scenic as these holes might be, they’re filled with obstacles and challenges for any golfer.
Architect: Tom Fazio
Greens: Paspalum Greens
Green Size: 6,100 sq. feet (average)
Stimpmeter: 11 to 12 – Slow to Average
Length: 7,670 – Par 72
Water Hazards: 6 Holes, but coastal
Bunkers: 100+
Nuggets and Tidbits
-Wind is this courses biggest defense. No other factors really come into play.
-If the wind is absent from the forecast, you’ll be looking at a scoring environment that is incredibly easy.
-Initially the distance seems like the biggest factor in in player success, yet due to the sheer length of the par-5’s, getting on the green in three is the likely outcome for all players in the tournament.
-Remember that this ultimately is a resort course. You’re not going to see challenges that we’ve seen so far during the Florida swing.
-Recent winners ranked in the top five in overall putting average, were 10th or better in par-5 scoring, and in the top-40 in ball straiking during the week of their victory.
-These fairways are wide open, and it could benefit to look at proximity from the fairway.
-The par-3’s are long and average over 200 yards in length.
Weather Forecast
Approach Shot Distribution
Past Winners
A hot putter, and four straight birdies in the final round led to Ramey’s first win on the PGA Tour.
He simply was electric on Sunday as he posted a round score of 67, and did enough to outlast runner-up Ben Martin.
Dahmen came out of nowhere to win the Corales, and capture his first win on the PGA Tour.
Dahmen at that point has missed 7/8 cuts, and came in to this tournament with awful form. Yet, when the pressure was on Dahmen came to perform.
This was Swafford’s second win on the PGA Tour, and unfortunately witht he WGC being held the same weekend we see a NO invite to Augusta.
Regardless, Swafford tried to give this one away. With a six shot lead came a double bogey followed by another which led to the tournament being all square. While the tension was high, Swafford did enough to outlast the field chasing him.
McDowell did enough with one stroke to capture his fourth victory on the PGA Tour.
On the par-3 17, McDowell hit a monster birdie putt to take the lead and never look back. The victory was his first since 2016.
Not only was this Garnett’s first win on the PGA Tour, but he did it in dominating fashion going wire-to-wire for the championship.
The scores seemed closer than they actually were as players got as close as two strokes to Garnett. The truth is that he kept finding greens and erased mistakes with ease.
It took a 3-man playoff, but Johnson beat Louis Ossthuizen and Marc Leishman by shooting a 15, 1 under in a four hole playoff.
Johnson was a surprise win as just the week before his prep came in Illinois at the John Deere Classic. This was Johnson’s second major win, and his first Claret Jug.
Entering with a six-stroke lead over the field, McIIroy went from dominant to just hanging on. Still, no golfer ever got withing two strokes the entire day, and he held his composure despite struggles off the tee and on the greens.
In winning, McIIroy became the seventh wire-to-wire winner in Open Championship history.
After winning the Scottish Open the week prior, Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes and became the Open Champion.
To this point, Phil had come close to winning, but had often doubted his abilites on links style courses.
Els began Sunday 6 shots back, but still clinched the vicotry after Adam Scott imploded.
Els’ 68 was a comeback of epic proportions when you consider the fact that Scott was still winning by 4 strokes on the 15th tee.