Wow, how time flies! Last year’s Ford Championship at Doral made numerous headlines, from the IMG memo, Tiger and Phil going head to head, Tiger setting the 72-hole tournament record with a 24-under par 264 and Tiger regaining his number one position in the World Golf Rankings.
The fans are anticipating another great event and they shouldn’t be disappointed. The event is treated almost major like by the players and fans for the degree of difficulty in the course and the quality of the field. In fact, this is the first stroke-play event this year that we get to see the top seven players in the world in the same field.
Of the top five, Defending Champion, Tiger Woods is off to a much better start this year with two wins and his ass-whooping (sorry, but there’s no other way to describe it) of Stephen Ames at last week’s Accenture Match Play. If he keeps putting well and reaching long greens in two with magical 290-yards three woods he could defend easily. Vijay Singh is off to a decent start this year with four top-ten finishes in five attempts but aside from his loss to Stuart Appleby in a playoff at the Mercedes is yet to be in contention and well below his expectations. Retief Goosen makes his first stroke-play start on the PGA Tour in 2006, finished tied for eighth last year and if he does make a move it will be quiet as usual. Ernie Els hasn’t played here since 2002 when the event was known as the Genuity Championship, he hasn’t started the season well by his standards with a T-23 at the Nissan Open and a first round loss at the Accenture. The Big Easy is down a spot in the World Rankings and after missing most of last season has a lot of ground to make-up.
Finally, Phil Mickelson would love a repeat match with Tiger or would he? The last three times these two have gone head to head, Tiger has come out on top. Last year Phil was hot with two wins and owning the lead in nine consecutive rounds. He has four top-ten finishes this year and did fairly well last week but he’s also down a spot on the World Golf Rankings and still hasn’t finished in the top-five this year. You can bet Tiger or no Tiger he wants to be in the last group again to redeem himself.
Of course you can’t forget the biggest star, The Blue Monster.
The 443 yard par-4 18th hole is one of the most recognizable and famous holes in the world.
The Blue Monster was ranked 40th in difficulty last year with a 70.579 scoring average and out of the 82 men to make the cut only nine were able to break 70 over the weekend. The course has the length at 7,266 yards to favor the long hitters but requires players to work the ball accurately since 12 holes have water that comes into play. Specifically, the 443 yard par-4 18th hole is one of the most recognizable and famous holes in the world, from Greg Norman’s mistake in 1995 to Craig Parry’s winning eagle in 2004. Golf Magazine actually ranked the 18th as one of the top 100 holes in the world and is often ranked the most difficult finishing hole on the PGA Tour. It requires a player with guts to stripe the fairway then go for the back left Sunday pin since both shots face wind and water.
This will be the final year of sponsorship for Ford but Doral will live on in the 2007 PGA Tour FedEx Cup with a new World Golf Championship event in September. This year’s purse is $5.5 million with $990,000 going to the winner. The Ford Championship at Doral will be held at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa’s Blue Monster Course in Doral, Florida. From February 27 – March 5, 2006 it can be seen on USA and NBC plus heard on XM Radio on at the following times:
Thu, 3/2 3pm-6pm ET USA Fri, 3/3 3pm-6pm ET USA Sat, 3/4 3pm-6pm ET NBC Sun, 3/5 3pm-6pm ET NBC
Thu, 3/2 12pm-6pm ET XM 146 Fri, 3/3 12pm-6pm ET XM 146 Sat, 3/4 12pm-6pm ET XM 146 Sun, 3/5 12pm-6pm ET XM 146
The 2006 West Coast Swing presented by Allianz wrapped up last week with Rory Sabbatini taking home the $500,000 bonus. His season is off to a fantastic start in ’06 with his T-2 at the Sony Open, second place finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and a win at the Nissan Open. Chad Campbell finished second with a cool $300,000 while Stuart Appleby takes home $200,000.
Photo Credit: © Doral Golf Resort & Spa.