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Tournament Stats:
WGC - CA Championship
March 11 – 14, 2010
Doral Golf Resort & Spa (Blue Monster Course)
Miami, Florida
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,266
Purse: $8 million with $1.35 million going to the winner
Defending Champions: Phil Mickelson
There was no WGC-CA Championship played in 2001 due to 9/11 tragedy.
List of Champions & Scores
Results & Scores 2009 WGC-CA Championship
Box Score of 2009 WGC-CA Championship
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record for WGC CA Championship:261 (Tiger Woods in 2006 at The Grove)
54-Hole Record:
194 (Tiger Woods in 2006 at The Grove)
36-Hole Record:
127 (Tiger Woods in 2006 at The Grove)
Low round of tournament:
62 (Retief Goosen, 4th round & Sergio Garcia, 4th round both in 2002 at Mount Juliet)
Tournament Record for Ford Championship at Doral:
264 (Tiger Woods in 2005)
54-Hole Record:
195 (Greg Norman in 1993)
36-Hole Record:
129 (Franklin Langham in 2000)
Low round of tournament:
61 (Stephen Ames in 2nd round, 2000)
Tournament information:
The second World Golf Championship of the 2010 season, the WCG-CA championship, will be a 72-hole, stroke-play event with a limited field of 68 players. It will include the top-50 players in the World Golf Ranking plus the top-30 from the FedEx Cup point list not otherwise exempt.Also, the top 20 from the 2009 PGA European Tour Volvo ranking, not otherwise exempt (players have to be in the top 100 of the world ranking), will be included along with the top-10 of this year's list. Also given spots are the top two from the 2009 Australasian Tour order of merit and the 2009 Japanese PGA Tour money list and the top two from the 2009 Southern Africa PGA Tour order of merit as well as the top 2 from the final 2009 Asian Tour money list. There will be no cut in the 72-hole event, which has an $8.5 million purse with the winner receiving $1.4 million. This is only the second time that this event has been played at the same course back-to-back since the first two years at Valderamma. This is the last year of a four-year contract for this event to be held at Doral Resort, just outside of Miami. Doral was the site of the Ford Championship of Doral between 1962 - 2006 and is now the home of the WGC-CA Championship.
Course information:
Doral was designed by Dick Wilson, with some help from Robert Von Hagge, and opened in 1962. After the 1996 tournament, Doral officials closed the course and commissioned Raymond Floyd to add 186 yards, put in an additional 18 bunkers, change the grass of the rough from Rye to Bermuda and change the banks around the greens. In total Doral spent $3.5 million on those changes. After the 2000 tournament, officials spent some more money, this time on the bunkering of the course. In total 91 bunkers were redesigned with 10 bunkers being completely eliminated. After all the work was done, only 10 bunkers were left unchanged. In 2003 the course was lengthened by 166 yards.Again, Doral has gone through some more changes for this year's event. The greens were renovated with TifEagle in a hope of making them firmer and faster. This grass also doesn't hold water as well so if it rains, the greens should stay firm.
The average green size at the Doral is 6,500 square feet, which is a little over the average on the PGA Tour. The course has 108 bunkers and water comes into play on nine of the 18 holes. For a more comprehensive look at the course, look at this Course Overview done by PGATour.Com
The Buzz:
So the big buzz is the drastic change over for Tiger Woods. Just three weeks ago he was the Howard Hughes of golf, a big recluse that was in the front page of newspapers because of his self imposed exile from golf. Before February 17th a picture of Tiger could fetch up to a quarter of a million dollars, now unless the picture has Tiger eyeing some blond it's not going to fetch anything.Tiger is back in the mainstream and of course doing things his way. We never can speculate about Woods because he throws everyone off the path of what he wants us to know and of course he has everyone second guessing on his return. After his "announcement" on February 19th I would of bet a week's salary that Woods wasn't going to be back until after the Masters Now with word of Woods not only practicing but with Hank Haney, you have to think that some announcement is near of his return, as early as Bay Hill in two weeks.
Guess Woods hasn't changed in wanting to do things his way but I really sense the animosity growing with the media in which we can't trust anything Tiger says. Now Woods never lied to us on February 19th, he never set a date for his return but he did give the impression that he wasn't going to be shifting into overdrive on his practicing so soon and he gave us more of an impression that it was going to be months not days before he got things rolling again. Still he will be welcomed back and will create a big buzz on if he can put this chapter in his life in the rear-view mirrow or have it hanging around his neck.
So the two questions that will linger this week will be a return date for Woods and a possible firing of his caddie Steve Williams. Again rumors and that's all they are floating in golf cyberspace on a possible dismissal of Williams for being vocal on his bosses affairs in this video piece done by a show called 60 minutes in New Zealand (no relationship to American 60 minutes). If there is nothing worst in Woods lies is those close to him discussing Woods life outside of golf and Williams has broken this code. Guess it's all up to Woods and tests his very close 11 year relationship with Williams, I and nobody else can predict what will happen over this.
Now while all of this is happening we do have a big event happening at Doral as the PGA Tour plays the "Blue Monster" for the 49th straight year. Yes a PGA Tour event has been coming to Doral since 1962 but the question will be if Doral returns next year or not. Right now the contract with CA is up after this year and all signs are that CA won't return next year so the PGA Tour has the daunting task (along with the federation of golf tours) of finding a new sponsor. Of course the Tour will want to continue this event at Doral but money talks and if some big sponsor is willing to pluck down up to $11 million and he wants to take this championship elsewhere I can't see the tour stopping that from happening.
When the World Golf Championships started in 1999, they took three of their most historic venues on tour, Doral, Firestone and LaCosta, and started playing on those courses. Four years ago they abandoned LaCosta so it will be interesting to see how things play out. Still I can't see in this cycle of PGA Tour events (PGA Tour schedules are pretty much etched in stone through 2012 because of TV contracts) changing, along with Doral getting dropped but we will just have to wait and see.
One thing that will be buzzing is the Spanish speaking community around Miami on the victory for Camilo Villegas. The Honda win will be a boast of attendance this week at Doral as many want to see Villegas, who could be one of the greats on the PGA Tour. His win was very popular and is the kind of boast the PGA Tour needs in finding other "stars".
Villegas played great and because of that I am eating a lot of crow this week since I categorized him in last week's picks as one not to pick. Of course all of that was because of his hectic schedule of visiting his native country Colombia to help promote the Nationwide Tour event held there last week. Still I guess you can't underestimate youth and the private plane that makes travel so much easier. Still Villegas win at the Honda was intriguing considering that he never had a single practice round at PGA National the week of the event. You can bet that I won't place him in the same category this week. Oh for the record, I have used the worst best category twice this year, the other time I used it was back at the SBS Championship who I said Geoff Ogilvy was the worst bet and of course he went on to win. Oh well, only shows that I am human on these picks.
Since there has been a lack of wind the last couple of years that will create a "buzz" because no win changes Doral drastically, it goes from being a really tough course in winds to a push over on calm days. In the early years, Doral gave players nightmares as it was once one of the toughest courses on the PGA Tour. If you look at the chart to the right, you can see how the course has played easier the last couple of years, all of that because of lack of win. In looking at weather reports the last couple of years, the tournament has lacked the winds that were present between 1962 and 1999. Doral is one of those courses that needs winds to guard par so without it scores will go down. That was the reason for the climb in 2007, the last real windy week at Doral and the last couple of years. So look for the lack of wind to make Doral pretty defenceless.
For years Doral has been nicknamed the "Blue Monster." In 2007 it was a monster playing at 73.00, but as we said above it was easier the last two years because of lack of wind, Looks like we will have another low wind year which means that different players, just like defending champion Phil Mickelson, who aren't wind players will have a better chance.
It will also be interesting to see what affects the TifEagle greens will have on scoring. This type of grass holds up better in the heat of Florida and helps keep the putting surface firmer. If the course gets limited rain and plays fast, that could lead to higher scores. Another factor that could bring higher scores is the famous "Blue Monster" rough. Even though it's only two to three inches high, this rough is unforgiving as balls nestle down into it and make it very hard to get it out and control the flight and spin of the ball.
Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at the WGC-CA Championship:
A lot is written about the drama of the FedEx Cup race and the Race to Dubai but honestly the drama of the world rankings is pretty exciting and the great drama sometimes is the wait to see if someone can overtake Woods in the coming weeks. A lot will have to do with his return, but with the push in the rest of the Florida swing it looks very unlikely that Woods will be toppled before the Masters. Mathematically it would take a win this week and another before the Masters to see either Steve Stricker or Phil Mickelson to over the number one spot.
The Blue Monster regains its "bite"
Years
Scoring Average
1962 - 1965
74.74
1966 - 1970
73.28
1971 - 1975
72.94
1976 - 1980
73.28
1981 - 1985
72.77
1986 - 1990
72.49
1990 - 1995
72.07
1996 - 1999
73.09
2000 - 2006
71.18
2007
73.00
2008
71.04
2009
70.92
Here are some things to look for this week:
Photo: © Chris Condon/WireImageThe scene at the 18th hole at the Doral Resort in Miami, Florida.
Solid shotmakers, since Doral demands ball control, especially if there is any wind. In the last 12 years, nine of the winners at Doral (including the Ford Championship in Doral) have been in the top four in greens hit. Last year was the first major change as Phil Mickelson ranked T33 in this stat which is the highest any winner at Doral has done in greens hit.