DORAL, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler doesn’t have much familiarity with National Doral Golf Club. Then again, hardly does anyone else in the field for the Cadillac Championship.
The PGA Tour is back in Doral for the first time in a decade, this time as a 72-player, $20 million signature event. Some in the field are playing Doral as pros for the first time, and the overwhelming majority of players in the field didn’t play in the most recent tour event on the Blue Monster in 2016.
Scheffler — the world’s No. 1 player — is among the first-timers. After a couple of practice rounds at Doral, he seems to know what awaits over the next 72 holes. Figuring it all out, well, that’s another story.
“There’s not really many tricks to this golf course,” Scheffler said. “It’s just very, very difficult. 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.”
Indeed, it is a tough course and a field including 10 of the world’s top 15 players. Even more of the world’s best likely would have been at Doral if it wasn’t such a jam-packed time on the golf calendar, with either five signature events or majors within this current six-week span that started with the Masters and ends with the PGA Championship in mid-May.
Among those not playing this week: back-to-back Masters champion Rory McIlroy.
“If I had it my way I would play every single week out here,” Scheffler said. “But just (with) the nature of our sport and the demand on our time and everything, it’s not really possible. I have to set up my schedule in certain type of cadence.”
Doral first became part of the PGA Tour schedule in 1962. It became a World Golf Championship in 2007, and then the PGA Tour struggled to find a title sponsor, but now the PGA Tour returns.
The last PGA Tour winner on the Blue Monster was Adam Scott in 2016. That tournament was called the WGC-Cadillac Championship; this one is the Cadillac Championship, and no, Scott isn’t the defending champion. Technically, this is a new event.
“Good memories for me,” said Scott, who beat Bubba Watson by a shot to win at Doral a decade ago. “Obviously winning the last time we were here, but I’ve always enjoyed playing this golf course. It’s a challenge. It’s called the Blue Monster for a reason. It’s a big golf course, very penal. The wind can blow, and that’s the biggest challenge out here. So, you’ve got to strike it well, just demanding tee to green. It’s great that we’re back and looking forward to this week.”
Justin Rose also is a past winner at Doral, after winning the WGC-Cadillac in 2012. He’s one of 18 players in this field who have competed in PGA Tour events at the course in the past — though Rose noted the course has undergone a few changes since then.
He, like Scott, beat Watson by one shot for his win at Doral. Rose made bogey on the 72nd hole that year, then exhaled when Watson missed an 8-foot birdie putt that would have forced a playoff. And the 18th hole now, just like then, is still so brutal that when Rose saw it for the first time this week said he asked his caddie how many balls they still had in the bag.
Into the wind, Scheffler said, he might be hitting 4-iron into the green. Wind at his back, it might be a wedge. And the fairway opens up considerably if it is playing downwind.
“You’re in the lap of the gods there in terms of the lie you get, what have you. Just a very narrow tee shot, and then obviously hazards along the way,” Rose said. “You’re trying to manage the risk really on that hole. To play it properly you have to stand up and make two great swings.”
