This will be 48th year in a row when a PGA Tour event is played at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa’s Blue Monster course, in Miami Florida. That must has to be coming close to the record for most standard tour events in a row at a single course (63 by Augusta National, Masters). The first one was in 1962, the year the course opened, which says something about its quality from the get-go. But then, it was designed by Dick Wilson, one of the masters of the trade. It also speaks to how good the condition of the course was so early in its existence. Of course, in those days the south Florida courses were in native Bermuda grass, which needs little cultivation and covers the landscape as quickly and thoroughly as paparazzi on a Britney Spears South Beach lunch. All you did was cut it down to various lengths, depending on if it was a green, fairway or the rough.
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So highly have the pros always felt about the Blue Monster that when Raymond Floyd was hired to make some changes about 10 years ago, so unfavored were they by his colleagues that revisions back to the original were executed soon after. So soon after that they didn’t even get a notation in the Cornish/Whitten The Architects of Golf, the ultimate reference book on golf architecture and architects. Indeed, Floyd himself is not even listed.
One mark of a true championship golf course is the list of winners it has seen. And, the very few from the second rank who did win. Hence, we have Jack Nicklaus and Casper both winning twice at Doral; Lee Trevino and Nick Faldo won once, Floyd was a three-time winner, as was Andy Bean.
On a personal note, when I was working on the original Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf television show, we staged a match at Doral. It was 1967 (although the show aired in ’68), between Casper and Gay Brewer. Even Gene Sarazen, who was the host of the program and could be a spiky, caustic critic, spoke well of the course. Sarazen, it might be mentioned in this context, didn’t play in the first Masters tournament because he didn’t think much of the course and opted to play some lucrative exhibitions that week.
My recall of Doral has to do with the accommodations. The television crew was put up in the lodging on the grounds of the course, and I of course noticed the price per day that was posted on the door. It was around $170, which in 1968 was pretty high. I wondered how they could ask so much when, starting every morning at 7 o’clock the first airliners took off directly over the hotel. The end of the runway of Miami International was only a mile or so away. My judgment at the time was, this joint ain’t gonna make it. Who’s going to come back again after that sort of early morning interruption? Which proves how wise it was for me to not get into the hotel business.
I also remember the owner, Al Kaskel, a nice little Jewish guy from New York with a warm smile who told me, with a neat glint in his eye, how he came to name his place. His name was Al, his wife was Doris. Combine dor and al, and you get Doral, which strangely enough has a Spanish ring to it. And to be sure, the symbol or logo of Doral has always been one of those steel helmets the conquistadores wore.
May The Doral, under whatever name, carry on for all time.
