While Doral has not been a stop on the PGA Tour schedule for a decade, there will be a sense of familiarity for many this week, with the Blue Monster hosting the Cadillac Championship.
It was announced ahead of the 2026 PGA Tour season that Doral would be hosting a signature event 10 years on from the last WGC-Cadillac Championship at the iconic venue.
The Blue Monster is known for being an extremely tough course, particularly for the players who lack distance or accuracy.
The PGA Tour have been urged to move the Cadillac Championship in the schedule
Unfortunately, a number of the game’s best players will not be in the field over the coming days. Rory McIlroy is one of the five top 15 players in the world who has decided to skip the event.
Meanwhile, Patrick Cantlay has also withdrawn.
The Cadillac Championship is being played one week before another signature event, with the Truist Championship much more established on the modern schedule.
And the PGA Championship follows the following week. That concludes a run of five tournaments in six weeks that are either majors or signature events.
With that, Ryan Lavner has told the Golf Channel Podcast that Doral may be the perfect venue to visit in the early stages of the season from next year.
“I’m viewing this year as a one-off. You look at where the event is falling, it’s an additional signature event, pushed at the end of April. You now have nine signature events on the PGA Tour schedule, they needed to make room for a $20 million event in the Cadillac Championship. I don’t think, at least according to Adam Scott who’s a member of the Future Competitions Committee that this is going to be its set spot in the schedule,” he said.
“I think Doral can be, and can rekindle some of those old feelings, it can be a big event if the PGA Tour actually uses it at the beginning of the season. Remember one of the tenets for Brian Rolapp when he’s talking about his future schedule, one of those tenets is starting big, making it feel like it’s important, having a big kick-off to the PGA Tour schedule.
“Obviously the Hawaii swing was not it. As you and I talked about, I don’t really necessarily think that The American Express would be either. But having it in Doral, having a big event, whether it’s the first event of the season or the second event of the season is just going to feel a little bit bigger.
“It’s going to draw a better field. I just think it could potentially be a bolder start. Go where the players are. Most of the best players in the world live in South Florida. Make it convenient for them, make it a little bit more accessible as well.”
The impressive list of names to have won at Doral over the years
The Doral Open did act as an unofficial start to the season for a number of years. It always tended to attract an incredibly strong field.
The likes of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, Sir Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods all won the tournament on the Blue Monster before Doral began to host the WGC event from 2006.
It is the kind of venue that tends to leave an impression. Wins at those courses do seem to matter even more than usual to the world’s best players.
Putting the Cadillac Championship at the start of the season could allow a player to make a real statement that will bode well for the majors later in the year.
