The Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship once again wins the award for longest tournament name on the PGA Tour.

But, to the relief of those who think that golf has forever changed after Bryson DeChambeau’s US Open win, Corales Golf Club is not a layout which simply rewards the longest driver.

It’s easy to have that fear when noting the yardage of 7,670. But the strong counter evidence is provided by last year’s winner Graeme McDowell. G-Mac ranked 183rd for Driving Distance last season (third-placed Chris Stroud was 167th).

An outlier? Nope. The 2018 winner, Brice Garnett, was 148th on the DD charts and there’s more. In the first two years when this event didn’t have PGA Tour status, the two winners were Nate Lashley and Dominic Bozzelli. Their respective Driving Distance rankings last year? 167th and 81st.

While it’s folly to rule out those who do blast it, the message here is to recognise that’s it an event where the shorties can flourish too.

One thing to note is the new date as it’s moved around: 2016 (June), 2017 (May), 2018 (March) and 2019 (March).

Going into weather forecast mode, the Dominican Republic has a constant year-round temperature of 25 degrees, so we’re avoiding the traditional wettest months of October to April. We’ve had some rain in the build-up but the course dries fast and the weather looks decent this week. Again, nothing there to put you off a shorter hitter.

A better guide than the weather is looking at corresponding course form and those who adopted this policy last year were rewarded.

In the list of words that pop up only infrequently in the golfing lexicon, Paspalum is a prime example.

The seaside grass strain is used in just a handful of PGA Tour events: this one, the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico and the Puerto Rico Open.

McDowell had missed his one previous cut at this event (2018). But those who checked his CV would have noted a win at El Camaleon, home of the Mayakoba.