The Blue Monster returns to the PGA Tour this week with the introduction — or rather, reintroduction — of the Cadillac Championship, beginning Thursday at Trump National Doral outside Miami.
Doral hosted a tournament annually from 1962 through 2016; it was a World Golf Championship event for the final 10 years and sponsored by Cadillac from 2011-16. As the PGA Tour distanced itself from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, the event was moved to Mexico City for the next few years.
Now the PGA Tour has gone back into business with Trump National Doral, which held LIV Golf events from 2022-25. It is the latest $20 million signature event added to a schedule increasingly full of them.
Three of the four weeks between the Masters and the PGA Championship feature signature events, causing many star players to pick their spots. Some of the sport’s biggest names are not in the field this week, namely Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, Xander Schauffele and Ludvig Aberg of Sweden. Patrick Cantlay withdrew midweek.
“Ideally this wouldn’t be the way,” Australia’s Adam Scott said. “It was a little bit, you know, it’s one event we’re talking about, so it makes that much of a difference adding one, it makes that much of a difference taking one away. I think we’ve got to get through this year and hopefully the schedule looks a little more balanced next year.”
Of the 72 golfers in the field, only two previously won at Doral: Englishman Justin Rose in 2012 and Scott in the final edition in 2016.
“The course is playing really nicely,” Rose said Tuesday. “There wasn’t a ton of wind which I think is a huge factor on this golf course. The rough is, I would call it in the fair department, for sure. Obviously you can get some fliers, get some balls that sit down, get some tricky shots out there all the time.
“Greens are relatively big, especially when the wind is not blowing as much. But obviously there’s a lot of little sections to the greens that, as the weather gets a little tougher, or should you get some gusty winds you kind of, I think incrementally this course gets harder and harder.”
True to its name, the Blue Monster is known for the prevalence of water hazards on nearly every hole of the par-72, 7,739-yard course. The two par-5s on the back nine, Nos. 10 and 12, will play 608 and 667 yards long, respectively.
“There’s not really many tricks to this golf course. It’s just very, very difficult,” Scottie Scheffler said. “It’s a flat piece of land. There’s just a lot of bunkers, a lot of water and the golf holes are long. So with that combination, it’s going to be tough.”
This tournament will mark Scheffler’s first professional rounds at Doral. He finished runner-up at his past two starts, the Masters and RBC Heritage, but is still searching for his first win since The American Express in January.
Other notables in the field include Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young, Englishman Tommy Fleetwood and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. Then there’s the newest member of the PGA Tour, Alex Fitzpatrick of England, who received a PGA Tour card through 2028 and entry into the rest of this year’s signature events when he and brother Matt Fitzpatrick won the Zurich Classic on Sunday.
“I don’t have a clue what’s going on, I’m not going to lie to you,” Alex Fitzpatrick said of his upcoming schedule culminating in the PGA Championship. “Yeah, just hearing that, you know, you’re playing against the best players of the world all of a sudden and even like the purses are obviously much bigger and, yeah, I’m just excited to be here and hopefully play some good golf.”
–Field Level Media
