Garrick Higgo wins Corales Puntacana Championship, Joel Dahmen finishes tied for second

It has been a very busy time in the world of golf.

On the heels of Rory McIlroy winning The Masters the PGA Tour lost no steam as they continued on with a signature event in the RBC Heritage that Justin Thomas ultimately won, like McIlroy at Augusta, in a playoff.

Elsewhere the 2024 Masters low amateur (also the 2024 U.S. Open low am) Neil Shipley won for the first time on the Korn Ferry Tour. Speaking of firsts, Ingrid Lindblad won for the first time on the LPGA Tour. Again, it was a big week.

As fate would have it the PGA Tour was holding an alternate event week with the Corales Puntacana Championship taking place in Puerto Rico. It seemed like it was going to be far less dramatic than the results we got out of Harbour Town as Joel Dahmen held the lead after Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but bogeys on the final three holes of Sunday’s round saw victory slip away for him.

It was Garrick Higgo who won out in Puerto Rico, his second career victory. Higgo is still only 25 years old and is in fact the youngest winner ever of the event. The win will certainly open some doors for him across the rest of this season.

While Higgo was the winner, Dahmen not being so was arguably the bigger story given his popularity. Interestingly his not winning marked the third time in the last four years that a player holding the solo lead after the first three rounds did not win, and as noted the bogey-bogey-bogey finish made things rather rough in this regard.

Dahmen has been playing well this season as he now has three different top 10 finishes. Winning is clearly the ultimate goal, but his game is in a good place.

Hopefully he is able to enter the winner’s circle soon enough.