Trump Creates a Monster

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

I HAVE never been a fan of the Blue Monster at Doral, which was one of the most over-rated golf courses on the planet. Toothless Monster, more like.

Donald Trump has spent $250m on the place. He doesn't do things by half and wanted to create a course fit to host the WGC Cadillac Championship and no doubt Patrick Reed, who won the tournament, will be of the view that the billionaire succeeded.

My take on it is rather different. I believe it was a waste of money. What Trump succeeded in doing was turning the course into The Unplayable Monster. It is one thing to see professional golfers struggling on a great course carved out by nature. It is quite something else to see a bit of wind making them look like idiots, with water hazards all over the place, huge ridges across greens, putting surfaces that measure more than 50 yards and run-off areas that are so closely mown that it guarantees any ball that finds them will finish up in the water.

The Blue Monster used to feature water on six holes - it now comes into play on 14. There is a fine line to be drawn between a fair test of golf and a lottery, and it is safe to say that when the finest players in the world deposit more than 110 golf balls in the water in the first two rounds, then the test they were asked to sit was not fair.

Only three players in the field survived the opening 36 holes without at least one penalty shot on their cards as a result of finding the wet stuff. One of those was Zach Johnson, who quickly put that right in the third round.

That not a single golfer broke 70 in the second round tells you everything you need to know. Yes, it was windy, but we are not talking a gale. And if you have windy conditions, you ought to be able to put flags in positions that don't make great golfers look like hackers. If you can't do that, then you need to get some water ON the greens, not around them, so that these self same players have half a chance of stopping the ball.

Reed has now won three times in a year, is racing up the world rankings (he is 20th) and is a certainty to make Tom Watson's Ryder Cup team. He is a throwback to the old days when not every professional golfer felt it was necessary to spend half his life in the gym. Reed certainly doesn't. It would appear that he spends rather more of his time at McDonald's - and we should all celebrate that fact.

One of the men Reed will be staring in the eye at Gleneagles is Jamie Donaldson, the Welshman who came so close to beating Reed. Donaldson waited a long time for his first victory but has since looked like a potential winner every time he tees the ball up.  His play at Doral was superb. Like everybody else, he suffered bad breaks throughout the 72 holes, and he took them in his stride.

The Blue Monster is now a course on which huge amounts of patience are required, so it was a big surprise to see Bubba Watson, of all people, tie with Donaldson for second place. Watson's last round was a 68 that did not include a single dropped shot - quite remarkable on this golf course.

Tiger Woods raised hopes of a first victory of the year with a third round of 66. Suffering with back pain, Woods was swinging within himself and actually managed to find some fairways, but the feature of that 66 was a series of huge putts that disappeared from sight - something he was unlikely to repeat in the final round. And, indeed, his 78 should have surprised nobody. Woods was obviously in pain throughout the round.

Last year there were 46 players under par after two rounds - this time there were four. When the wind dropped so did the scores, but hardly markedly. With hard, fast putting surfaces, pins were still located in inaccessible places - go for the flag and miss the ideal landing spot by six inches and the ball would end up in water, in an impossible lie behind the green or plugged in a bunker.

And when all the scored were counted up, only three men were under par - Reed (four under), Donaldson and Watson (three under).

Image Credit - WGC Cadilliac Championship Twitter

Derek Clements is a sports journalist with a particular passion for golf with over 12 years of experience covering golf and other sports including Chief Sub-Editor on the sports desk of The Sunday Times. To contact Derek email direct via [email protected]

Related Articles

Chipping In: Weekly Tour Wrap Up