The PGA Tour continues on this week as it visits the Championship Course at Grand Reserve Golf Club for the 2024 Puerto Rico Open. Designed by golf icon Tom Kite, the Championship Course at Grand Reserve Golf Club will play as a stout, Par 72, 7,506 yard layout this week, challenging even the longest hitters from the tee.
Grand Reserve Golf Club is perched right on the water, with beautiful seaside views that can quickly become more menacing if the winds pick up. Players will also have to contend with the nefarious paspalum grass in both the fairways and the rough this week. Finally, players will also need to be able to hit the ball far in order to have a shot at the win, with Grand Reserve playing as one of the longest events on tour each year that is not a major. Playable by both amateurs and professionals alike, Grand Reserve has been a scoring fest in recent years, with 5 of the past 6 editions seeing the winner finish at -19 or lower for the week. The players who will rise to the top the fastest this week will have great control of their ball striking, not to mention the ability to efficiently deal with ever changing weather conditions along the water.
The Puerto Rico Open was held off and on for years, with the first edition taking place in 1956. The event has been a fixture on the PGA Tour since 2008 and has often been held opposite a marquee event, lending this event to be a fixture for up and comers of the sport, as well as wily veterans. Past winners include Bob Toski, George Kundson, Charlie Sifford, Art Wall Jr., Greg Kraft, Michael Bradley, George McNeill, Scott Brown, Chesson Hadley, Alex Cejka, Tony Finau, Viktor Hovland, Martin Trainer and Branden Grace, just to name a few.
Michael Bradley is the only player to win this event multiple times, in both 2009 and 2011. The scoring record for this event is 267 (-21), which was shot by both Chesson Hadley in 2014 and Nico Echavarria last year.
Last year’s edition was won by Nico Echavarria, who shot a final round 68 to beat Akshay Bhatia by two strokes to pick up his first PGA Tour victory. Nate Lashley and Carson Young finished T-3, five strokes back, while Michael Kim rounded out the top 5, finishing six strokes back.
Player to Fade:
2024 has not been kind to Kevin Kisner on the playing side. 3 starts, 3 missed cuts, and just 1 round shot in the 60’s. Kisner does have some past success in this event, making the cut here in each of his 3 previous starts. However, he last played here in 2014 and a lot can change over the course of a decade. Kisner is losing strokes in each of the 6 major Strokes Gained categories and at this stage of his career, finds himself trying to split his time between on course shots and calling shots from the booth. Based on what we’ve seen lately, Kisner should stay in the booth, where his insights are greatly valued. In a less than stellar field, we predict that Kevin Kisner will miss the cut this week.
The pride of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rafael Campos has the weight of his home country resting on his shoulders this week as he plays in what is for most players, just another tour event, but for him, is his National Open. Campos has played well so far this season, making the cut in both of his PGA Tour starts, with a best finish of T-20 coming at the Farmers Insurance Open. Campos’ ball striking is impeccable right now, ranking inside the top 10 in both Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Off-the-Tee, but gives it back as he gets toward the green, ranking 100th or worse in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and Putting. Campos has fared well in his National Open throughout the years, with 3 top 10’s and 9 made cuts in 14 starts, with a best finish of T-3 coming back in 2021. With his recent form, there is no reason why Campos will not be in contention this weekend. A top 20 feels like a safe pick for this week, but don’t be surprised if you see a terrific outing from Campos.
Currently ranked a nice 69th in the FedEx Cup standings, Chan Kim has quietly put together a solid 2024 campaign, with 1 top 10 and 2 top 25’s in 5 starts. Kim may not be the flashiest player in the world when it comes to the stats sheet, but he is currently gaining strokes in 5 of the 6 major Strokes Gained categories, with his best stat stemming from his putter, ranking 35th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season. Kim has some past success in this event, finishing T-16 in his lone start in Puerto Rico in 2022. We predict that Kim will continues to find his groove at Grand Reserve and improve on his past results here by bringing home his second top 10 finish of the season and his first in this event.
I’ll be 100% honest. Handicapping opposite field events is extremely difficult and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Oftentimes, you’re just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing if it sticks because you’re looking at a lot of players who normally wouldn’t be on your radar. That being said, Ben Silverman has entered the chat. The 116th ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking, Silverman has been lurking in the weeds all season long, with 3 top 25’s and 1 missed cut in 5 starts. Once I started digging deeper, I became more impressed with Silverman’s stats, gaining strokes in all 6 of the major Strokes Gained categories, ranking inside the top 40 in 4 of them, including ranking 27th in both Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and Putting. Silverman missed the cut here in his lone start back in 2019, but he did finish T-13 in the Mexico Open at Vidanta a few weeks ago, held at a course that plays very similarly to Grand Reserve. At the end of the day, I could’ve justified 30 players getting hot this week, but we predict that it will all fall into place for Ben Silverman and that he will pick up his first PGA Tour victory in Puerto Rico!
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