Doral's Blue Monster never fails to provide drama
By T.J. Auclair, PGATOUR.COM Interactive Producer
MIAMI -- Trust me, you want to tune into the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral this week.
Why, you ask? For starters, every player currently ranked in the top 77 in the world will be teeing it up, highlighted by world No. 1 Tiger Woods, who is making his first start in a stroke-play event since the 2008 U.S. Open.
Then there's the course -- The Blue Monster at Doral. It doesn't get much better than this, folks, especially if you like to see duels down the stretch.
Doral has a rich history of producing dramatic endings and that was before it even became a stop on the World Golf Championships schedule three years ago.
There's gamesmanship at Doral. Like in the 2002 Ford Championship when Scott Hoch was battling in a playoff with Jim Furyk.
On the second playoff hole that year, both players were on the par-5 first hole in three shots. Hoch had a 7-footer for birdie, while Furyk had a 5-footer.
Rather than stroke the putt, Hoch was within his rights to elect not to putt due to darkness, sending the Ford Championship into a Monday finish. In his defense, Hoch had some problems with Lasik eye surgery the year before and didn't want to risk it.
That gave both players something to agonize over when they went to bed Sunday night, but like the true stars they are, both players made birdie putts the next morning and trudged on to a third playoff hole.
When the players returned Monday morning, it was for one hole -- the par-5 18th (now a par-4), for the fifth time that tournament.
Hoch hit a 9-iron approach from 140 yards out to eight feet and rolled home the birdie for the 11th and final win of his TOUR career.
You want drama? How about Australia's Craig Parry winning over Scott Verplank in a playoff at the 2004 Ford Championship? That playoff ended nearly as quickly as it began.
Parry made a miraculous eagle 2 with a 6-iron from 176 yards on the par-4 18th -- the first hole of the playoff -- to win. It was Parry's first start on TOUR in 2004 and it almost never happened, as the man known as "Popeye" nearly missed his first-round 7:54 a.m. tee time when he slept through his alarm.
It was clear that Sunday evening that Popeye had a nice helping of spinach and his club toss after the eagle landed as if to say, "I can't believe I just did that," has become legend around Doral.
How about a new, but old No. 1? Doral lays claim to that too.
In 2005, Tiger was paired with Phil Mickelson in the final round -- at the time just the third occasion in the career of these two superstars that they were teeing it up together. As if that wasn't enough, Mickelson began the day with a two-shot lead only to be caught by Tiger at the turn.
Tiger took command with a two-shot advantage of his own after an eagle at the par-5 12th hole. Mickelson wasn't ready to fade just yet, making birdies on the next two holes to even the score.
Both players made bogey at the 16th hole and were knotted up with just two holes to play. That's when Tiger did what he almost always does... A birdie on the 17th hole gave Tiger a one-shot lead as the players made their way to the daunting closing hole.
Mickelson lipped out a birdie chip to force a playoff and Tiger went on to earn the 42nd win of his career. The icing on the cake was the fact that Tiger overtook Vijay Singh to regain his No. 1 world ranking and hasn't given it up since.
A streak crusher? File that under, "Doral."
Just last year in the second CA Championship played at Doral, Australian Geoff Ogilvy was the victor, or, for lack of a better phrase, "the Tiger-stopper."
Tiger entered the 2008 CA Championship on the strength of another TOUR win streak, traveling to Miami with five wins in as many TOUR starts.
It looked as though Tiger might be on the way to win No. 6, but Ogilvy proved to be too much. Darkness suspended play on Sunday night and Ogilvy had a one-shot lead with nine holes to play on Monday.
The break didn't have much of an effect on Ogilvy, who grinded out what was the fourth win of his TOUR career, by a one-shot margin over Tiger, Singh, Furyk and Retief Goosen.
Those are just four examples of great duels at Doral. Which is why you need to watch. With the best of the best descending on Doral again this week, who knows what can happen?
You don't want to miss it.
T.J. Auclair is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
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