DORAL, Fla. – Kaskel’s folly is home to the PGA Tour again.
That’s what both friends and business associates said in 1959 when Alfred Kaskel, a New York real-estate developer, plunged his fortune into the construction of a golf resort in the center of 2,400 acres of swampland in northwest Miami-Dade County. Even his wife, Doris, voiced her concern.
“It’ll never work, Alfred,” she said. “You’re creating a monster.”
Alfred coined the name Doral, charmingly melding their two first names, and hired Dick Wilson, one of the leading golf course architects of the day, to build what became known as Doral Hotel and Country Club. His wife was right about one thing: a monster was created, indeed, and the course bears the nickname of “the Blue Monster.”
In 1962, Kaskel grabbed an open date on the PGA Tour calendar and offered an inflated purse of $50,000, more than double any of the other Florida Swing events. Billy Casper won the first title and Doral became a staple of the Tour through 2016 with a winner’s list that reads like the World Golf Hall of Fame roll call (14 of them all): Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Raymond Floyd, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, who won three in a row from 2005 to 2007 and again in 2013.
PGA Tour returns to Trump's Doral course after a decade
“I watched a lot of iconic golf shots at this golf course,” said Maverick McNealy, who recalled viewing the tournament on TV in his youth.
If Doral were a beer, it would be Budweiser. It was a Clydesdale of the PGA Tour – a big and brawny track through the 1980s and 1990s. It always attracted an international field when that was less common. Norman said the Tour season started at Doral and he and the likes of Nick Price made it so; winning there often elevated the champion to Masters favorite.
Doral, like Bud, got the equivalent of a new font and a new can a couple of times in the form of splashy makeovers, but it was eclipsed by the new IPAs (Bandon Dunes, Streamsong and Whistling Straits) and even a few old favorites that better excelled at keeping up with the times, such as Pinehurst Resort. Venerable Doral had become vulnerable to the pros, who began to aim at driving some of the par 4s that were never imagined to be played that way.
Donald Trump bought it in 2012 out of bankruptcy, reportedly for $150 million, rebranded it Trump National Doral and hired architect Gil Hanse to lengthen, toughen and add water to six to 14 of the holes.
“It's called the Blue Monster for a reason,” said Adam Scott, who won the last edition of the tournament here in 2016. “It's a big golf course, very penal. The wind can blow, and that's the biggest challenge out here. So, you've got to strike it well, just demanding tee to green.”
Hanse made sure the 18th is again one of the most feared holes in golf. The fairway is narrow and serpentine, with water looming large on the left and trees on the right. There is nowhere to hide off the tee and the second shot is played to a green that is long but narrow, with the lake on the left and a bunker to the right.
Trump hasn’t just transformed the golf course. His crest is embossed in gold on everything from golf carts to water bottles. Ornate columns adorn the entrances and balconies of the refurbished villas named for golf greats such as Gary Player and Sam Snead. A two-story fountain by the putting green features stallions snorting water from their nostrils. But that was staid in comparison to the 15-foot statue of Trump that was installed on Sunday night in the space between the driving range and practice-putting green. Even pro Jason Day snapped a selfie with it.
The Tour pulled up stakes after Cadillac pulled out as the title sponsor in 2016, opting to move the former World Golf Championship event from Doral to Mexico City, which didn’t sit well with Trump, who was running for his first term as U.S. president at the time. In the interim, LIV Golf held events at Doral from 2022 to 25. But the Tour players are glad to be back at an iconic venue that needs them as much, if not more than they need them, as part of its plan to regain past glory. The Blue Monster is ready for another close-up.
“The 18th here was the hardest tee shot on the PGA Tour when we were (last) here, so many balls in the water. I guarantee that hole's going to play way over par. So it's a hole that you know if you make bogey you're not going to kill yourself,” said Jhonattan Vegas, whose brother Julio is a professional at the resort. “I got a feeling it's going to play a lot harder than it's played in the past … If the wind picks up and the weather gets right, it's going to be an incredible test.”
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Trump Doral's 'Blue Monster' golf course returns to PGA Tour
