{"id":609531,"date":"2026-04-27T16:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609531\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T16:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:13:13","slug":"five-things-to-know-about-trump-national-doral-host-of-cadillac-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609531\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things to know about Trump National Doral, host of Cadillac Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

2H AGO<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

6 Min Read<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Need to Know<\/p>\n

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Golf Is Hard: Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster Course<\/p>\n

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A<\/p>\n

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Written by Paul Hodowanic<\/p>\n

The PGA TOUR returns to Trump National Doral for this week\u2019s Cadillac Championship, a new Signature Event on the 2026 schedule.<\/p>\n

While new to this year\u2019s calendar, the return to Doral will mark the 56th playing of a TOUR event at the club \u2013 rejuvenating one of the longest-standing relationships in professional golf.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the return, refamiliarize yourself with everything you need to know about Doral. Here are five things to know.<\/p>\n

1. The famed \u201cBlue Monster\u201d<\/p>\n

The golf course has undergone many name changes, from the founding Doral Country Club to the current Trump National Doral, with several in between, but ubiquitous through the various nomenclature tweaks is a nickname that\u2019s stuck, and represents the challenge afoot: the Blue Monster Course.<\/p>\n

Depending on the source, you\u2019ll hear various origins of the nickname. There\u2019s a theory that it came from the signature blue tees. Others say it\u2019s from the omnipresent water that players must navigate around. The monster tagline has sparked more theories, most often that it dates back even before the course was created, as architect Dick Wilson was tasked with building a stern test amid swampland, or based on comments from a former tournament director who said the course was playing like a \u201cmonster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irregardless of the origins, the nickname has stuck, and it\u2019s fitting, particularly of the famous finishing hole: the 473-yard par-4 18th, which bears the resemblance of that nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the toughest par 4s you\u2019ll ever play if it\u2019s into the wind,\u201d Tiger Woods once said.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s the last in a series of difficult, water-lined closing holes \u2013 particularly the 15th, 16th and 18th \u2013 that make it an enthralling finish for a golf tournament.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it will lead to a much tougher test. In the 10 years that Doral was the site of a World Golf Championship event, the tournament yielded a winning score of 10 under or lower on seven occasions.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The final hole of the infamous “Blue Monster,” the 473-yard par-4 18th, bears the resemblance to that nickname. (PGA TOUR))<\/p>\n

Doral\u2019s history as a professional golf venue is extensive. A mainstay on the PGA TOUR, the course hosted an annual event for more than 50 years. Billy Casper won the first TOUR tournament there in 1962, and the venue remained on the calendar through 2016.<\/p>\n

As such, it counts some of the game\u2019s greatest players as champions. Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Nick Faldo, Ben Crenshaw and Woods are among the winners.<\/p>\n

Woods was a prolific force at Doral throughout his career. He won three straight starts from 2005 to 2007 and then again in 2013. In 11 starts in his career, Woods had nine top 10s.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertain golf courses just fit your eye and this golf course, ever since I played here in \u201898, it just fit my eye,\u201d Woods said in 2009.<\/p>\n

The course is one of nine current venues to appear on the TOUR schedule for more than half a century, joining Waialae Country Club, Torrey Pines Golf Course, Pebble Beach Golf Links, The Riviera Country Club, Augusta National Golf Club, Harbour Town Golf Links, Colonial Country Club and Muirfield Village Golf Club.<\/p>\n

\"Tiger<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods poses after his two-stroke victory at the 2013 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at the Trump National Doral Miami. (Warren Little\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Doral Country Club was built in 1962 for $10 million by Alfred Kaskel, a powerful real estate developer in New York City. Kaskel immigrated to the U.S. from Poland in the 1930s and quickly amassed a lengthy portfolio around Manhattan.<\/p>\n

In the late 1950s, Alfred and his wife, Doris set their sights on 2,400 acres of swampland in South Florida, which would eventually become Doral Country Club and Doral Hotels and Resorts.<\/p>\n

The unincorporated town in western Dade County fed off this property, with the club becoming the hot spot for the community. So it was no surprise that the town eventually took the name of Doral, a combination of Doris and Alfred\u2019s names, Dor-Al.<\/p>\n

The club itself quickly rose in acclaim. The Blue Monster Course was designed by famed architect Dick Wilson. Wilson\u2019s solo-design work includes Royal Montreal Golf Club, host of the 2024 Presidents Cup, Cog Hill Golf and Country Club, Wilmington Country Club and BallenIsles Country Club. He also worked as an assistant to William Flynn during the expansion of The Country Club of Brookline and the redesign of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, site of the 2026 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

With a strong layout at Doral and an influential owner in Kaskel, the club hosted its first PGA TOUR event in just its second year of operation.<\/p>\n

The club was eventually sold by Kaskel\u2019s company, Carol Management Corporation, in 1994, and the property was acquired and later sold by various owners as the course experienced a downturn before finally finding stability under its current ownership group, which now bears the course’s name.<\/p>\n

4. Trump takes over, renovations begin<\/p>\n

The Trump organization purchased Doral Resort & Spa out of bankruptcy in 2012. Trump reportedly paid $150 million, renamed it Trump National Doral, and began a $250 million renovation of the resort the following year.<\/p>\n

In the next four years, all four of the resort\u2019s golf courses \u2013 along with the hotel itself \u2013 underwent renovations. The changes to the Blue Monster gained the most notoriety, with the project led by Gil Hanse.<\/p>\n

Hanse described it as a \u201cnew golf course,\u201d given his team rebuilt every green, shifted and moved every bunker and fundamentally changed the strategy of the majority of holes. Hanse told Golf Digest in 2013: \u201cTwelve of the holes have had significant alteration in either direction or water being brought into play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most noticeable differences came to the par-3 15th, which now asks players to carry their shot over water to a peninsula green. More water was also brought into play on the reachable par-4 16th, creating more suspense to the closing stretch.<\/p>\n

Trump holds some sentimental value to the property. The Miami Herald reported in 2013 that Trump used to visit the resort on childhood vacations and later brought his own family there before buying it.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In 2012, a total redesign by Gil Hanse fundamentally reshaped the property, most notably transforming the par-3 15th hole into a challenging peninsula green guarded by water. (PGA TOUR)<\/p>\n

The only new TOUR event added for the 2026 regular season, the Cadillac Championship immediately gained Signature Event status, adding a Florida event to the calendar outside the traditional Florida Swing.<\/p>\n

Sandwiched in a hectic part of the PGA TOUR schedule, 17 of the top 25 in the OWGR will compete in the inaugural Cadillac Championship, headlined by Scottie Scheffler. It\u2019s the fifth of eight Signature Events on the TOUR schedule this season.<\/p>\n

Notably, though, the tournament is starting fresh. It will not carry the tournament history of previous PGA TOUR events contested at Doral. Though the sponsor is familiar.<\/p>\n

Cadillac has a longstanding history with professional golf and the PGA TOUR, including at Doral. In 2010, the company signed on as umbrella sponsor of the World Golf Championships series and later became title sponsor of the WGC-Cadillac Championship, an elite invitational event contested at Trump National Doral from 2011-2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to welcome back Cadillac, a world-class brand whose partnership with the PGA TOUR is synonymous with Trump National Doral, a legacy venue on our schedule,\u201d said PGA TOUR CEO Brian Rolapp. \u201cWe appreciate the support of Cadillac as we bring a new era of the PGA TOUR to our fans in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Apr 27, 2026<\/p>\n

The First Look: Blue Monster awaits TOUR’s return at Cadillac Championship<\/a>The First Look<\/a>\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2H AGO 6 Min Read Need to Know *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Golf Is Hard: Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster Course…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-609531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}