OWGR: Part V of the Obscure golf nations’ top ranked golfer
Costa Rica
When you think golf and the Dominican Republic, a couple things tend to come to mind. For one, there’s the famed Teeth of the Dog course at Casa de Campo, a Pete Dye design established in 1971 that’s frequently ranked in the top 100 in the world.
Also, there’s the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. This fledgling event debuted in 2016 on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule and morphed into an opposite-field PGA Tour event in 2018. It was supposed to take place this year opposite the WGC-Match Play.
But, like so many of the countries I’ve covered in this multi-part series, the Dominican Republic isn’t known for its players.
Guillermo “Willy” Pumarol is the best bet at the moment to put his nation of 10.8 million on the golf map.
Twenty golfers from the DR are in the Official World Golf Rankings, but Pumarol is the only one with any ranking points. He’s got 1.35 to sit at No. 1,515.
Pumarol picked up the game at age 3 and by 9 was a national champion in the DR. He later moved to the USA where he played high school and collegiate golf in the Miami area. Pumarol was a solid, though not spectacular, starter at Barry University, one of the top Division II programs in the NCAA.
Pumarol graduated in 2011 and immediately turned pro. His first ever OWGR-counting start was nearly a win that year on what is now the PGA Tour Latinoamerica. Pumarol was runner up at the Open de Argentina.
He couldn’t replicate the success on that tour in 2012 where a T-21 was his best finish. In fact, he didn’t record another top-10 until 2015 when he finished T-4 at home at the Dominican Republic Open.
Pumarol has never won an OWGR-counting event in his career and didn’t play anything than the PGA Tour LA until the KFT came to his homeland in 2017. He made the cut and in 2018 made his PGA Tour debut at that same event.
It’s impressive to see his pro career nearly reach a decade, even if it hasn’t netted him fame and fortune. Pumarol goes to show how you can do well in the lower rung tours that don’t net world ranking points, but how cracking the next level is quite difficult.
GOLF IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The Dominican Republic is just 162 miles wide and 240 miles long. The small island is ripe for golf, though, due to its tropical weather and beautiful oceanside property.
Packed in are 27 courses, five of which are designed by the late great Pete Dye. Rees Jones, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Fazio have also moved sod here.
The aforementioned Casa de Campo and Corales are two of the more well known. Punta Espada is also a frequent guest in the top 100 lists in the world.
Unfortunately from a “growing the game” standpoint, most golf in the DR is expensive and predominantly played by tourists.
The Dominican Golf Federation was established in 1969. It currently lists 13,210 registered members.
Several players in the OWGR rankings from the DR are young amateurs. Perhaps one of them can piggyback off of what Pumarol’s done and really make a mark on Caribbean golf.