Tag: 2022 Corales Punta Cana Championship

Chad Ramey wins first PGA Tour event in 16th start at Corales Puntacana Championship

Nine months after his first Korn Ferry Tour win, Chad Ramey now has a win on the PGA Tour.

The tiny Mississippi town of Fulton, population about 4,000, has now produced two professional golf champions.

Chad Ramey joins the LPGA’s Ally Ewing with a trip into the winner’s circle at the highest level of their professions.

In just his 16th start on the PGA Tour, Ramey had a Sunday to remember with six birdies over his last 15 holes, including four in a row on his back nine, to storm the finish line and claim the 2022 Corales Puntacana Championship.

Fulton is situated in the northwest corner of the state and is home to Fulton Country Club, a 5,700-yard course run by Ramey’s dad, Stanley. The course has no practice range, so growing up Ramey and Ewing designed their own makeshift range across fairways. They aimed at trees and shagged their own balls, trying to stay out of the way of paying customers.

“During football and huntin’ season, it kind of clears out,” said Ramey, who, like Ewing, went to Mississippi State. Ramey once shot a 27 on the course, closing with an ace on the last hole.

Sunday, Ramey shot a 67 to finish at 17 under and win by a shot over Alex Smalley and Ben Martin. Jhonattan Vegas and Cameron Percy finished tied for fourth, two back.

Ramey, 29, is the eighth first-time winner this season. He’s the first rookie to win on Tour since Garrick Higgo claimed the 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree.

Ramey tracked down Ben Martin, who led after each of the first three rounds. Martin opened the week with back-to-back 66s but posted back-to-back 70s over the weekend, opening the door for Ramey.

Alex Smalley briefly grabbed the clubhouse lead Sunday. He followed his second-round 65 with a third-round 73 and closed his week with another 65, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with Ramey.

“I always had the self-belief that I could get it done,” Ramey said after his fourth top-20 finish of the season. “I proved that today.”

Ramey started the week ranked 203rd in the Official World Golf Ranking. His first professional win came nine months ago at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Live and Work in Maine Open, with his dad serving as his caddie. His last win before that was nine years ago when he was a junior on the Mississippi State golf team. He earned $666,000 for his win Sunday.

Martin, 34, was angling for his first win on Tour in eight years. He is playing out of the past champion category thanks to his victory at the 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols contributed to this report.

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Our favorite Martin, Ben, leads Corales Puntacana Championship by two shots heading into Sunday’s final round

Ben Martin leads by two heading into the final round of the PGA Tour’s opposite-field event in The Dominican Republic.

Ben Martin hasn’t won a PGA Tour title in nearly eight years. Could the dry spell be nearly over?

Martin shot 2-under 70 at Corales Golf Club in The Dominican Republic and holds a two-stroke lead over rookie Chad Ramey heading into the final round of the Corales Puntacana Championship.

Martin, 34, is playing out of the past champion category these days for his lone victory at the 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. It was good enough to get him in the field at this week’s opposite-field event for those Tour members that didn’t qualify for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Ranked 565th in the world, Martin, who made only one start in 2019 with a back injury and has struggled to regain his previous form ever since, carded five birdies and three bogeys during Saturday’s round. He noted it had been a long time since he’d played in the final group and he felt the nerves early.

“I need to look at my Whoop and see what my heart rate was on the first hole, I bet it was up there a little bit, but I think after that I kind of settled in and played nice(ly),” he said. “Felt fine the rest of the round.”

Ben Martin of the United States lines up a putt on the 17th green during the third round of the Corales Puntacana Championship at the Corales Golf Course on March 26, 2022, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Ramey, 29, has recorded three top-20 finishes in his rookie campaign, including a T-5 at the Puerto Rico Open earlier this month, another opposite-field event. He also got a taste of weekend pressure after opening 63-65 and contending in Las Vegas before a closing 72.

Ramey is well positioned to make a run at being the latest first-time winner on the PGA Tour. After three birdies on the front side of his third round, Ramey made three bogeys on the inward nine, including a dropped shot at 18, but continued his domination of the par 5s with a birdie at 12 and an eagle at the par-5 14th, holing his third from 146 yards.

“It was just a perfect wedge,” he said. “Couldn’t have asked for a better shot, landed two short I believe and hopped on in.”

It added up to 3-under 69 and a spot alongside Martin in the final group on Sunday. Asked to describe the game plan for Sunday, Ramey said he wasn’t going to change a thing.

“Obviously I’m doing something right, so I’m just going to stick to my game plan and just see what happens,” he said.

Venezuela’s Jhonnatan Vegas made the biggest move on Moving Day, posting 7-under 65, and now sits three strokes back, alone in third place. The bogey-free round for Vegas, who last won in 2018, included an eagle at the par-5 seventh.

“I had a really perfect number, just tried to hit a perfect fade into a right-to-left wind and I just cut it absolutely perfect(ly),” Vegas said.

Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela plays his shot from the third tee during the third round of the Corales Puntacana Championship at the Corales Golf Course on March 26, 2022, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Marianna Massey/Getty Images)

For Martin, everything this week has felt pretty close to perfect. Playing here for the third time, he brought his wife and two daughters along – neither of whom were born the last time he won – and his mother came down to lend a hand.

“They were supposed to fly home tomorrow, but they already changed their flight to Monday,” Martin said. “After my first round Ann Pearce, my little girl, she ran out on 18. I was like, well, it’s only round one, you’re supposed to do that in the fourth round, but maybe that was some sort of foreshadowing.”

Added Martin: “This is really the reason I think I enjoy playing professional golf, like being around the lead on the weekend with a chance to win, you have a little nerves, but I think that’s why we all like to test ourselves and see where we are, so it will be a fun day tomorrow.”

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