As the great and the good of the golfing world parade around Texas in search of the Match Play title, the Dominican Republic hosts their annual ‘opposite’ event, the Corales Puntacana Championship.

Previously a Web.com event, the PGA Tour has held the tournament since 2018, with a list of winners that flit between the big hitter and the short-game wizards.

On a long, wide course there is probably an advantage to the longer driver, but many of the leaderboards lead us to the shorter game and particularly the demon putters in windy conditions – witness the last four winners being ranked no worse than 5th for putting average.

Links between the previous winners are clear. Houston appears in the lists of best finishes of all recent winners, whilst Bay Hill and El Chameleon are obvious correlations.

Hudson Swafford +4500

There was a bit of 66/1 about Swafford earlier in the week, which was ludicrous against a three-time PGA Tour winner, the latest of which was a second victory at the American Express (formerly CareerBuilder) just two months ago.

The 34-year-old is unlikely to be contending strongly in major championships, but has a steady stream of form that suggests he has more wins in the locker, and this is definitely a step down in grade from top-20 finishes at the Northern Trust and BMW in mid-2021, whilst OWGR viewers will see his best 20 efforts containing top-10s in Hawaii, Houston and at the API in Bay Hill.

Figures since his win at La Quinta, for which he ranked second in putting, aren’t encouraging with four missed-cuts surrounding a T60 in Pheonix, but all the recent winners have come into the event in shocking form.

Bryce Garnett (2018) had a best of T31 and three missed-cuts in seven starts; Graeme McDowell started with a T18 at Pebble Beach but then had a run of four lowly finishes, and defending champ, Joel Dahmen, came into the event with six missed weekends and a solitary T60!

So to the selection.

When winning this event in 2020, Swafford was breaking a run of five missed-cuts and a best of T30 in seven starts, making his current form almost positive.

A closing sixth when defending his title last season, this looks an opportunity for the Sea Island resident to gain his third win in 18 months, and fourth overall.

Graeme McDowell +4500

Graeme McDowell Top-10 finish +410

Add another former champion to the plan this week, in the shape of the 2010 U.S Open champion.

There’s little question that the game has gone out of the reach of the relatively short-hitting Ryder Cup player, but there are few better at controlling the ball when the wind blows and, as he has shown in fits and starts recently, he can still compete in the right conditions.

Consistent rather than special in his win here in 2019, he did rank 16th in greens-in-regulation and, as mentioned above, first on the greens. He simply knows how to control the ball in unpredictable conditions.

Results have been in-and-out since winning in Saudi in 2020 (Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Sergio behind) but the Irishman gives the impression he can still do a ‘Branden Grace’ who won an opposite event at Puerto Rico in 2021.

Since his fourth place here last season, there is enough with a T12 at Bermuda and a T13 in the horror of Bay Hill just two weeks ago to think he can bag another ‘1’ on an impressive career record.

Cameron Percy Top-10 finish +950

Cameron Percy Top-20 finish +490 

Go down the board for the last selection, and not a confident one!

The 47-year-old Australian now plays off a lowly category and will need to string decent results together to gain anything other than a handful of starts next year.

Percy wouldn’t appear in many lists when discussing possible bets, but after a closing eighth place finish here in 2020 and a recent second successive seventh in Puerto Rico, it’s clear where his best results will come so take the punt.

Before last year’s top-10, Percy was 5th at halfway in Bermuda and led the Safeway field into the fourth day.

If he is going to get it going again, this is one of a very few places that he might surprise.