Monday, 15 April 2013

Florida Swing Special Report Wednesday 6 March WGC-Cadillac Championship Preview




Welcome to the 8th edition of the Florida Swing Special Report, today my preview to the years second World Golf Championship, the Cadillac Championship on the Blue Monster Course at the Trump Doral Resort near Miami. The second stop on the Florida Swing assembles by far the strongest field of the four weeks with 49 of the world's leading 50 players competing at the newly renovated Doral for the seventh consecutive year following the tournament's previously nomadic existence, and a recently announced extensions will keep the championship at Doral until 2023 at least. The championship was established along with the Accenture Match Play and NEC Invitational in 1999 as one of three individual World Golf Championships and for the first two years was played at Valderrama in Spain and was the final counting tournament for the European Tour Order of Merit, it was due to be played in 2001 at Bellerive CC near St Louis, Missouri but the events of 9/11 forced a cancellation. In 2002 Mount Juliet staged Ireland's first ever WGC, the championship returned to American soil at the Capital City Club in Atlanta, Georgia in 2003 and made the opposite trip back to Mount Juliet in 2004 before Atlantic hopping twice more for editions at Harding Park, San Francisco in 2005 and The Grove near London in 2006. In 2007 the PGA Tour was re-structured and because of this the tour explained that they didn't feel it possible to stage a World Golf Championship outside of their season so the championship moved to Doral, replacing the long-serving Doral Open, to the consternation of many in both South Florida and the rest of the world as it meant that all 3 WGC's were to be staged in the United States.

Tiger Woods has dominated the championship overall with 6 wins but only one since the tournament was moved to Florida, Australia's Geoff Ogilvy, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Nick Watney and Justin Rose have each claimed the title in the last five years at Doral with Els and Mike Weir the other two champions of the event in the years prior to Doral other than Tiger Woods. Doral though has a long and distinguished tournament history prior to its staging of the WGC-Cadillac Championship with the Doral Open being played on the Blue Monster course from 1962 to 2006 attracting a world-class field and having a roll of honour to compare to any outside the Majors. The Doral Open was an integral part of the Florida Swing prior to The Players Championship for many years and despite its lack of WGC status still managed to attract a strong field generally because of the respect the PGA Tour members showed to the renowned Blue Monster course. In 2012 Donald Trump purchased the entire resort and has employed Gil Hanse to undertake a massive restoration project to return the course to its fearsome past as a real 'Blue Monster', the project will begin next week as the resort begins its new 10-year tenure as host to the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Despite the course as a whole being challenging the venue is synonymous with one hole, the 18th, so it will surely be a task of Hanse's to make the course more memorable from 1 to 18 and restore the challenge of shot placement and shot making rather than just blasting away with the driver. However I would anticipate a lengthening of the course in some places, after all it is supposed to be a 'Monster'.


The 2013 WGC-Cadillac Championship will assemble one of the strongest fields in all of golf with 49 of the world's top 50 teeing it up at Doral, Brand Snedeker is sitting out to nurse his sore ribs, and they all come in with varying levels of form from the season so far. Defending champion Justin Rose posted a respectable top ten finish at PGA National and will be looking for a successful defence of his first World Golf Championship as he looks towards Augusta and the opportunity to win a first Major title. Lee Westwood had a disappointing final round at PGA National but as I have said ever since Dubai I really fancy the Englishman to have a fine season and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he had another solid top ten finish. Luke Donald hasn't played much golf so far this season and because of that I don't see him featuring that much this week. Louis Oosthuizen has had a good season with a single win on the European Tour but doesn't have an especially good record at Doral, unlike his compatriot Charl Schwartzel who finished second to Ernie Els here in 2010 and finished tied for fourth in 2012 on the Blue Monster. Phil Mickelson looked invincible at the Phoenix Open but has done virtually nothing since, in recent years that has tended to be the way for the 3-time Masters champion so it would be silly to rule him out but I don't think he will contend for the title. Last year's runner-up and 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson has had an average season so far and I think the whole year may well turn out like that for Watson following the three most successful seasons of his career.

The four main protagonists from the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, Ian Poulter and Jason Day all have the game in varying styles to conquer Doral but it is very rare that the contenders in the Match Play contend for the title at Doral, I don't know the reasons for this but one might be the proximity of one WGC to another.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that this will be the week that we get that Rory v Tiger showdown. Yes it is the week after McIlroy controversially withdrew from The Honda Classic and Tiger finished some 13 shots off the winner, in a year that both have (with the exception of one week for Woods) played very average golf at best BUT these sorts of runs come to an end for two great golfers who have won across the world and won multiple majors. Doral is a course liked by both Woods and McIlroy, Woods has won three times as a professional while McIlroy has won here as a junior and finished third last year behind Rose and Watson, and I think McIlroy certainly has added motivation to quieten the media frenzy and social media comments with a good performance as he plays four rounds for the first time in 2013.

Whoever does contend and eventually win the WGC-Cadillac Championship it will be fun to see four rounds featuring almost all of the world's great players and you can do so by the following means on Thursday:

In the US: GOLF CHANNEL 2-6pm ET
In the UK: SKY SPORTS 5-11pm GMT


Catch the ninth edition of the Florida Swing Special Report, reviewing the first day and looking ahead to the second day this Friday.




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