World Golf Championships – Cadillac Championship Notes 2016

2016 World Golf Championships – Cadillac Championship – Tournament Notes
Dates: February 29 – March 6, 2016
Where: Doral, Fla.
Course: Trump National Doral (Blue Monster Course)
Par/Yards: 36-36—72/7,543
Field: Approx. 70 players
2015 champion: Dustin Johnson
Purse: $9,500,000 ($1,612,432/winner)
FedExCup: 550 points to the winner
Format: 72-hole stroke play competition with no cut.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CadillacChampionship
Twitter: @CadillacChamp
Instagram: @CadillacChamp

Trump National Doral (Blue Monster Course)

• The Blue Monster played host to the Doral Open on the PGA TOUR from 1962 to 2006, and since 2007 the Cadillac Championship has made its home there after having been played at different venues in the United States and Europe since its inception in 1999.
• Originally designed by Dick Wilson and Robert Von Hagge in 1962, the course was redesigned by Jim McLean in 2000.
• It is now tougher, significantly longer, and more dramatic than just a couple of years ago after Doral’s owner Donald J. Trump acquired the services of golf course architect, Gil Hanse, to meticulously re-sculpt every hole in 2013-14.
• The 7,543-yard course features a series of strategically placed deep bunkers, long flowing fairways, interesting undulating greens, deep Bermuda rough and a challenging assortment of water hazards – all of which combine for a course that requires both length and finesse to score well.
• The famous 18th hole is traditionally ranked as one of the most difficult on the PGA TOUR.
• Many great names in golf have triumphed on this world-class course.
• Although the 18th hole at the Blue Monster Course has ranked as the most difficult hole (+.417 over par) over the nine years of the Cadillac Championship, it has not given up the most triple-bogeys or worse. That honor belongs to No. 3, the 436-yard par-4, where 32 scores of triple-bogey or worse have been recorded. No. 18 has given up 30 triples or worse.
• The 605-yard par-5 first hole at the Blue Monster ranks as the easiest hole over the nine years of the Cadillac Championship playing at -.568 under par. A total of 123 eagles have been recorded at the opening hole, but no eagles were recorded at No. 1 last year after Gil Hanse’s redesign. In fact, the opening hole ranked as the easiest on the course from 2007-2013. In 2014 it ranked the 17th most difficult hole (-.232) and in 2015 Hole No. 1 was the 15th most difficult (-.202).
• The Blue Monster was the center of attention when Craig Parry had a shining moment at the 2004 Ford Championship at Doral with a stunning shot, holing his second from the fairway – 176 yards with a 6-iron – on the famous 18th hole for an eagle 2 to win the playoff against Scott Verplank. This was the most recent playoff at Trump National Doral. Parry recently turned 50 and played his first PGA TOUR Champions event in February.

How the Cadillac Championship was won in 2015

• Dustin Johnson, who entered the final round trailing J.B. Holmes by five strokes, carded a final-round, 3-under 69, for a one-shot victory over Holmes in his 20th World Golf  Championships start.
• It marked Johnson’s ninth PGA TOUR victory and the eighth consecutive season he has had at least one TOUR victory – currently the longest active streak on TOUR.
• His five-stroke, come-from-behind victory on the final day is the largest at the Cadillac Championship, topping the previous mark (three strokes) held by Justin Rose in 2012.
• Johnson’s hole-in-one on the par-3 fourth hole during the third round made him the first player to record an ace and win that same week since Steve Stricker at the 2011 Memorial Tournament.
• Dustin Johnson’s win at the 2015 Cadillac Championship is his most recent win on TOUR. Since that victory, Johnson has recorded eleven top-10 finishes.
  • 2015
    • T6 – Valero Texas Open
    • T6 – Masters Tournament
    • T8 – AT&T Byron Nelson
    • T2 – U.S. Open Championship
    • T7 – PGA Championship
    • T9 – The Barclays
    • T7 – BMW Championship
    • T5 – TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola
    • T5 – World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions
  • 2016
    • T10 – Hyundai Tournament of Champions
    • 4th – Northern Trust Open
• Dustin Johnson has three top-10 finishes in Cadillac Championship tournament history – 2nd/2011, T4/2014 and 1st/2015.
• Only seven players have more top-10s in this event – Tiger Woods (12), Sergio Garcia (7), Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh and Adam Scott (5 each), Retief Goosen and Rory McIlroy (4 each).
• Dustin Johnson is seeking to become the first winner from the 2014-15 PGA TOUR season to defend a title.
• Patrick Reed, the 2014 Cadillac Championship winner, finished runner-up at the 2016 Hyundai Tournament of Champions in defense of the title he won last year, the best result of any defending champion this season.

Eligibility for the Cadillac Championship

• The top 50 players, including any players tied for 50th place, from the Official World Golf Ranking as of February
  22, 2016.
• The top 50 players, including any players tied for 50th place, from the Official World Golf Ranking as of February
  29, 2016.
• The top 30 players from the final 2015 FedExCup Points List.
• The top 10 players from the FedExCup Points List as of February 29, 2016.
• The top 20 players from the final 2015 European Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 10 players from the European Tour Order of Merit as of February 22, 2016.
• The top 2 players from the final 2015 Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 2 players from the final 2015 Australasian Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 2 players from the final 2015 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit.
• The top 2 players from the final 2015 Asian Tour Order of Merit.
• The week of The Honda Classic was the final opportunity to qualify for the Cadillac Championship. Players not previously eligible could qualify by being inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking or the top 10 of the FedExCup standings following The Honda Classic.

Player Notes

• Bubba Watson, winner of the Northern Trust Open two weeks ago, has two runner-up finishes at the Cadillac Championship (T2/2014, 2/2012). Watson has nine PGA TOUR victories, including two Masters Tournament wins (2012, 2014) and the 2014 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions.
• Since the World Golf Championships began being played at TPC Blue Monster in 2007, J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson share the low 18-hole record of 10-under 62. Watson posted his 62 in the second round of 2012 and it was matched by Holmes in last year’s opening round.
• Stephen Ames’ 61 (-11) in 2000 is the low 18-hole score at the Blue Monster.
• Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler are currently Nos.1-5 on the Official World Golf Ranking and all are in the field at the Cadillac Championship. The last time these five players competed in the same event was the 2015 TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola when Spieth won, Watson was T5, Day was T10, Fowler was T12 and McIlroy was T16.
• Since November last year, Brandon Grace has recorded consecutive finishes of 3rd-T8-T4-T4-T5 before a win at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in January.
• First-timers in the Cadillac Championship field this week include Byeong-Hun An, Daniel Berger, Steven Bowditch, Kristoffer Broberg, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Fabian Gomez, Emiliano Grillo, Nathan Holman, Smylie Kaufman, Kevin Kisner, Russel Knox, Danny Lee, David Lingmerth, Yusaku Miyazato, Andy Sullivan and Jordan Zunic. Players in bold will be playing in the first World Golf Championships event.
• Nathan Holman earned the first professional win of his career, the 2015 Australian PGA Championship, defeating Harold Varner III of the United States and Dylan Frittelli of South Africa in a playoff. The win at the tournament co-sanctioned by the European Tour earned Holman the top spot on the final 2015 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit and a berth in the 2016 Cadillac Championship, 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon and the 2016 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. The win also secured Holman’s card on the 2016 European Tour just two weeks after he had failed in his bid to secure a spot on that Tour via the qualifying school.
• Yūsaku Miyazato earned a spot in the field as the No. 2 player on the 2015 Japan Tour Order of Merit.
• The 35-year-old is in an exclusive club as one of three players to make two aces in the same round of a PGA TOUR event. Miyazato, the older brother of LPGA Tour star Ai Miyazato, holed-in-one twice during the second round of the 2006 Reno-Tahoe Open. Bill Whedon was the first to achieve the feat at the 1955 Insurance City Open, while Brian Harmon was the most recent to score two aces in the same round, at last year’s The Barclays. Miyazato won the 2015 Dunlop Phoenix for his third career win in Japan.
• Phil Mickelson, 45, is the oldest player in the field this week and he is one of five players in their 40s teeing it up at the Cadillac Championship. Jamie Donaldson, Scott Hend, Zach Johnson and Soren Kjeldsen are all 40 or older. Ernie Els, aged 40 years, 4 months, 25 days in 2010, is the oldest winner of the Cadillac Championship.
• Matthew Fitzpatrick, 21, is the youngest player in the field this week. Should Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth (22), Daniel Berger (22) or Emiliano Grillo (23) win the Cadillac Championship this week, they would become the youngest player to capture the title. Patrick Reed is the youngest winner of the Cadillac Championship at 23 years, 7 months, 4 days in 2014.
• Former International Team Presidents Cup representative Kyung Tae Kim will play his 10th World Golf Championships event this week. At No. 72, Kim is the second-highest ranked Korean on the Official Work Golf Ranking behind Byeong-Hun An (No. 28). Last year, from June to November, Kim won three times in 14 starts on the Japan Golf Tour and finished outside the top-20 just once during that period.

The Cadillac Championship and the FedExCup

• The Cadillac Championship enters the third season featuring a wraparound schedule that bridges two years with 47 events.
• The 2015-16 PGA TOUR Season began with seven events during the fall of 2015, each of which awarded FedExCup points.
• After a seven-week break, the season resumed with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, won by Jordan Spieth.
• The FedExCup Playoffs once again features four events and concludes in September with the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola and the crowning of the FedExCup champion.
• Since the FedExCup’s 2007 inception, the winner of the Cadillac Championship has made it all the way to the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola all but once, with Geoff Ogilvy missing the 30-player event in 2008 after victory at Doral: Dustin Johnson (2015), Patrick Reed (2014), Tiger Woods (2013, 2007), Justin Rose (2012), Nick Watney (2011), Ernie Els (2010) and Phil Mickelson (2009).
• Woods, in 2007, captured both the Cadillac Championship and the inaugural FedExCup, while Mickelson, in 2009, won at Doral and also claimed the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola.

Field Notes

• Twenty countries will be represented at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship this week with the United States having 24 players in the field. Australia will be represented by eight players and England will have seven players competing.
• The field includes 48 of the top-50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking and six of the top-10 in the current FedExCup standings.
• 39 players in the field have PGA TOUR victories, accounting for 196 total wins on TOUR.
• 41 players in the field have won on foreign Tours, accounting for 218 total wins on foreign Tours.
• Past winners of the Cadillac Championship in the field this week include Dustin Johnson (2015), Patrick Reed (2014), Justin Rose (2012) and Phil Mickelson (2009).
• Fourteen of 16 Cadillac Championship tournaments have been decided by two strokes or less, including the last five. This applies to seven of the eight times that the Cadillac Championship has been held at Trump National Doral.
• Tiger Woods went wire-to-wire for victory in 2006 at The Grove and 2002 at Mount Juliet Conrad. No player has gone wire-to-wire to win at Trump National Doral in the Cadillac Championship.
• Since 2007, when Doral became the home of the Cadillac Championship, only three players have completed the tournament with all four rounds below 70 – Phil Mickelson (65-66-69-69/1st) and Jim Furyk (68-68-69-67/3rd) in 2009, and Steve Stricker (67-67-69-68/2nd) in 2013.
• During the 2016 Cadillac Championship players will have the opportunity to win a Cadillac performance vehicle with a hole-in-one on the 9th and 15th holes.
  • An ace at the 9th hole will earn a player a 2016 Cadillac CT6 sedan, while a player recording a hole-in-one at No. 15 will be rewarded with a 2017 Cadillac XT5 crossover.
  • While there have been seven aces in tournament history, no aces have been recorded at No. 9 in the nine years the event has been held at Doral and the hole has averaged underpar just once in that time (2.942 in 2012).
  • Paul Casey is the only player to have made a hole-in-one at No. 15, during the final round in 2012.
  • Only three other aces have been recorded at Doral; Robert Allenby’s at No.13 during the second round in 2010 and Dustin Johnson and J.B. Holmes, who both aced the 4th hole during last year’s third round.