Although the Arnold Palmer will rightfully steal the golfing headlines this week, those who have failed to qualify for golf’s latest signature event, will be heading on down to Puerto Rico for the 2025 Puerto Rican Open.
With all of the best players in the world otherwise engaged over at Bat Hill, the Puerto Rican Open offers those further down the PGA Tour pecking order the opportunity to earn a lucrative pay day, as well as the winner receiving a two year PGA Tour exemption.
There will be plenty to play for at the Grand Reserve Golf Club and here is everything you need to know.
The Course
The Puerto Rican Open has been in existence for several decades but ever since 2008 the tournament’s home has been at the Grand Reserve Golf Club.
Measuring at just a tick over 7,500 yards, the course offers up plenty of birdie and potential eagle opportunities due to its four par 5’s and the tournament’s longest hitters should find themselves in business.
A flat course where the conditions are relatively calm, there aren’t too many things that the players need to be concerned with. The fairways are tree lined which means those not accurate from off the tee may find making birdies tough. However, all in all the Grand Reserve Golf Club is one of the easiest courses that the players will face all year and with almost a quarter of the holes on the course being par 5’s, birdies and eagles will very much have to be the order of the day.
The Favourites
Starting the week out as the favourite for victory this week is Ryan Gerard.
Gerard may be a name unknown to most and that’s not surprising given the fact that he is ranked all the way down at 175 in the world, but in a tournament like this the one thing that is often needed is consistency and that is certainly what Gerard brings to the table.
A graduate from the Korn Ferry Tour, Gerard has settled to life reasonably well on the PGA Tour and through to this point of the season, the American is yet to miss a cut.
Playing in the majority of tournaments outside of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events, Gerard is yet to post a top ten but boasts some decent enough form ahead of this week with a seventeenth place finish at last week’s Cognizant Classic.
It’s always tough to call the winner of events like this, but Gerard should find himself in the mix.
Next in the betting comes Niklas Noorgaard Moller. One of many young Scandinavian players that have taken the DP World Tour by storm in recent years, tournaments like the Puerto Rican Open provide a fantastic opportunity for players like Noorgaard Moller to kick start their careers on the PGA Tour.
Ranked 90 in the world, the Dane is playing on the PGA Tour for the very first time, virtue of his efforts in last year’s Race to Dubai and it’s fair to say that he is still acclimatising to his new surroundings.
This will be his fourth PGA tournament since he moved Stateside and as of yet he is yet to finish inside the top twenty. A fine ball striker, this week’s course should be right up to his street as it resembles a layout that is familiar to those seen on the DP World Tour.
He will start the week unknown to most, but has an opportunity to change all of that this week.
Completing the top three in the betting is Piercesen Coody. Aside from having one of the best names in golf, Coody splits his time between the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours and arrives in Puerto Rico in reasonably good form.
Although he missed the cut at last week’s Cognizant Classic, over on the Korn Ferry Tour he has three top ten finishes from the three tournaments he has played and looks in a great position to reclaim his PGA Tour card proper next season.
For players like Coody, the opportunity to compete and win a tournament like this could be life changing. Knowing that a win could see him receive a two year exemption on the PGA Tour, he will hope to take a huge leap and win his first PGA tournament.
Other players to keep an eye on
Matt Wallace is one of the highest ranked players in the field this week and is one of the few men in this field who has tasted success on the PGA Tour.
The winner of the Puntacana Championship, Wallace has form at events like this and will hope to put his winning experience to good use this week.
A fiery competitor, weeks like this are huge for Wallace as he tries to rack up the qualifying points ahead of the Ryder Cup later this year. Not shy in coming forward, Wallace has stated that he wants to make the team this year and compete in his first ever Ryder Cup but in order to achieve that goal weeks like this are fundamental to his chances.
Every time that the Englishman tees it up you know you will get a determined player, whether he has the patience and quality to win yet again this week remains very much up in the air.
In tournaments like this, sticking to players you know can be a good thing to do and backing Brice Garnett could be a worthwhile investment.
The winner of this tournament last year, Garnett will be hoping to become a back to back champion and following an eleventh place finish at last week’s Cognizant Classic, it looks like he is rounding into form at exactly the right time.
Garnett is solid at this level, yet to miss a cut so far in 2025 he is on track to record yet another solid season and could be a very shrewd player to back this week.
A keen golfer and huge fan of the game, Jack has been covering golf for the last five years. Bringing you all the latest coverage and news from the PGA, LIV, LPGA and DP World Tours, never before has golf been so popular and Jack can’t wait to bring all the excitement to his readers.
Jack Hartman
