Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship betting preview and tips

Recommended bets

3pts e.w. Jhonattan Vegas at 16/1 (1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

1pt e.w. Corey Conners at 50/1 (1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

1pt e.w. Harris English at 60/1 (1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

1pt e.w. Jonas Blixt at 60/1 (1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

Opposite events on the PGA Tour are among the hardest to crack, a view evidenced by Martin Trainer's victory in Puerto Rico last month, but that's reflected by a market where around 20 players are compressed between 16/1 and 50/1.

The undeniably classy Jhonattan Vegas heads the betting along with the undeniably promising Sungjae Im, and both absolutely have to be respected on the strength of some Florida form which is way beyond the reach of so many in this field.

Im needs a top-two finish to qualify for the Masters as his rapid ascent continues, and it's quite possible he goes and gets it. However, for all his love for teeing up whenever and wherever he can, this will be his 11th start in 12 weeks and the well seemed to run dry in California after a busy start to 2019.

Now, he did win on his 15th consecutive start on the Web.com Tour last year, but with an Augusta place also on the mind there are more negatives than I can find positives and it's Vegas who looks by some distance the most likely winner.

Third place behind Rory McIlroy and Jim Furyk at the PLAYERS last time out is clearly high-class golf, and it wasn't out of nowhere. Vegas was 10th in Phoenix, 16th in the Honda and 23rd at Bay Hill, and any translation of this form puts him bang in the mix on his debut in the Dominican.

Three PGA Tour wins, all in good company, confirm that we're not relying on a class-dropper who struggles to cross the line and having been driving the ball as well as ever and putting consistently, this looks an excellent opportunity for the popular 34-year-old to add to his tally.

Others towards the head of this market are much of a muchness, with the exception of Joaquin Niemann and Charl Schwartzel. The latter remains hard to predict and it's Niemann, who has struck the ball well in making four cuts in succession, who is hardest to leave out of the staking plan given his abundant talent.

However, in truth that's more a reflection of the fact I've put him up at big prices lately rather than any belief that 28/1 grossly underestimates him here and I prefer the claims of Corey Conners at 50/1.

A former US Amateur finalist, Conners has shown flashes of brilliance on the PGA Tour and with a pair of top-three finishes this season, he's cashing in on his exceptional ball-striking with greater frequency.

Forced to try his luck in Monday qualifiers for much of the year, it's no surprise he's still struggled to find consistency but there was plenty to like about his mid-pack effort at Sawgrass last time, where he struck the ball superbly in elite company with little reward.

So far this season he's 26th in strokes-gained approach, second only to DJ Trahan among those in this field, and that follows on from a solid 54th of almost 200 players ranked in his rookie campaign.

That tells you all you need to know about Conners and he'll need to hole a few more putts to win this, but having been bang in contention last year before a disappointing final round, he is expected to at least create the opportunities.

Conners has also played well on the Latin America Tour here in the Dominican Republic, a comment which applied to 2018 runner-up Keith Mitchell, and the hope is he gets off to another good start and the putts drop at last.

The flat stick isn't so much of an issue for Harris English and he too goes in the staking plan, at a course which is wide enough to allay fears over his driving.

English continues to struggle badly off the tee, the primary reason for his failure to progress from a very bright start to his career, but if he can keep it in play the rest of his game remains sharp enough to win an event in this grade.

Last year he finished fifth, ranking sixth in total driving and ball-striking, which again suggests that this exposed, expansive layout is the right sort of course for him as long as finding fairways remains an issue.

We saw with a card-saving 11th place at the Wyndham to end the 2018 regular season that the class which made him a potential star is in there somewhere, he's long been at his best by the coast, and while recent form is a concern hopes are very much pinned on these being ideal circumstances.

Victory for Brice Garnett last year came courtesy of a short-game clinic, enough to beat Mitchell and Kelly Kraft, and all three had been making cuts coming into the event.

With no Puerto Rico on the schedule in 2018, this represented the first real drop in grade of the year and it was those who had been building confidence in much stronger company who came to the fore.

I wonder, then, if Jonas Blixt might make sense as a successor to Garnett, both being capable of wizardry around the greens.

Blixt, a three-time PGA Tour winner who has a couple of major top-fives to his name, too, is more than good enough at his best and four cuts made coming into this event suggest that his game is gradually turning around.

It's certainly been encouraging to see him strike the ball well across the Honda and the Valspar, gaining strokes off the tee and on approach in both, as it's ball-striking which has always been his Achilles heel.

Once on the green he remains deadly on his day and if he can marry the two, which he's threatened to do quite regularly of late, then the Swede is set for a big week on his debut in this event.

PGA Tour rookies fared particularly well behind Garnett and the likes of Curtis Luck, Kramer Hickok and KH Lee certainly came onto the radar.

Lee withdrew last week, but for which he'd have been a strong fancy at the price. The Korean led through 36 and 54 holes here in 2016 and returns having played some excellent golf prior to the Valspar, which he aborted with a reported hip complaint.

Clearly, he wouldn't be the first to pull out because he was simply playing badly and I can't rule out the prospect that he bounces back, but nor can I put him up at the price without genuine knowledge of his health situation.

Both Luck and Hickok arrived on the PGA Tour with big reputations and Luck in particular should go on to demonstrate why, but he looks short enough while I just wonder whether a narrow, parkland test would suit Hickok better than this coastal one.

Finally, a word on two real fliers for those wishing to take a chance at three-figure prices.

First, Brendon Todd, a former PGA Tour winner who once reached the top 50 in the world, looks like he might be slowly but surely coming out of a slump which looked like it might force him into a career change.

Todd fired a blistering 61 to qualify for the RSM Classic late last year while 25th place in Puerto Rico, in many respects the same event as this on a different golf course, was another notable step in the right direction.

Like Blixt and Garnett, he's a player known for what he can do on and around the greens and 250/1 is worth considering, as is the 150/1 offered in a place about Sang-moon Bae.

The Korean, like Todd a former Byron Nelson winner, looks to be in miserable form according to his PGA Tour results, but a couple of big performances in Monday qualifying over the last three weeks hint that he could enjoy this drop in grade.

On both occasions he shot six-under, latterly to make the Valspar field having previously lost a play-off to get into the Honda, and it's telling that Bae won on the Web.com Tour last year. He's simply a lot better than that grade, and he could view this similarly.

Posted at 1215 GMT in 26/03/19.