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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