Return to Doral brings a funereal vibe on site

Low-key Cam Young dominates a signature event that suited his signature ho-hum style

Cameron Young enjoyed a relative walk in the park at Doral last week (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

DORAL, Fla. — With apologies to Cameron Young, who put forth a dominating effort to get this third PGA Tour victory and continue ascension to world-class over the past two months, that sure was some dud of a deal at Doral.

Yeah, the once iconic Blue Monster course in South Florida still has some teeth, but there was not much buzz at the place that was hosting the PGA Tour for the first time in 10 years.

Why the PGA Tour felt the need to rush back in 2026 without fully being able to promote the tournament — or even play it at a time of year when it is more suitable — can probably be put down to its desire to curry favor with President Trump.

The owner of the resort just west of the Miami airport was none too pleased when the PGA Tour pulled up stakes in Doral after 54 years following the 2016 tournament and moved what was then called the WGC-Cadillac Championship to Mexico City.

Trump cried foul and his backers decried politics as the reason. But when the decision to move on was announced in early June of that year, Trump was yet to earn the Republican nomination for president and few at the time would have thought he could win.

If anything — as this year proves — the tour would love to have been at his course had the circumstances been right. But they weren’t.

For more than a year prior to that final Doral WGC event won by Adam Scott, the PGA Tour sought to renew its deal with Cadillac, which had been asking for a reduction of its sponsorship commitment. It wasn’t going to sign on for the same price, in part because of Trump. Not because of politics but because the owner of the resort had an outsized role at the event, dwarfing Cadillac’s promotional objectives.

“Some of the reaction revolves around the feeling that this is political exercise, and it is not that in any way, shape or form,” said then-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem at a news conference he conducted during the Memorial Tournament.

That, in itself, was unusual, as Finchem would not want to take away from that week’s event to talk about another one. But prior to the official announcement, Finchem had called Trump to tell him the news, then got word that Trump might be talking about it publicly in an interview. He elected to get out in front of it.

And given what Trump said, it was wise.

“They’re moving it to Mexico City, which, by the way, I hope they have kidnapping insurance,” Trump said back in 2016, alluding to Mexico’s reported battle against a nationwide surge in abductions.

“I know everybody’s talking about politics, but it’s actually not that, in my view,” Finchem said. “I think it’s more Donald Trump is a brand, a big brand, and when you’re asking a company to invest millions of dollars in branding a tournament and they’re going to share that brand with the host, it’s a difficult conversation.

“The difficulty there is more that and less the politics. The politics might have contributed some since he’s been running, but it’s more that, and he knows that. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t make it work right now, but our focus is going to come back (Doral) with a solid property to make it work going forward.”

It took 10 years to get back.

The event was played for four years in Mexico City — at the same place where LIV Golf has played the last two years — and then one final year in Florida before the whole WGC idea was scrapped following the 2022 season.

With the move to signature events in 2023, the PGA Tour had eight of them scattered throughout its schedule. Why it felt the need to cram a ninth in this season (the Sentry was canceled in Hawaii to start the year due to agronomy issues at Kapalua) was some poor planning, to say the least.

For the first time, a signature event was missing five of the players from the previous years’ top 50 FedEx Cup qualifiers. That can easily be put down to scheduling. Three signature events in four weeks between the Masters and the PGA Championship was always a disaster waiting to happen.

Rory McIlroy was a no-show and Scottie Scheffler will be missing at this week’s Truist Championship at Quail Hollow Club — where he won last year’s PGA Championship. Something had to give and this scheduling faux pas was the reason for headaches.

That, however, doesn’t explain the poor crowds and lack of any vibe on site at Doral this week. The first two days were a virtual club championship, with just a smattering of fans throughout the course. It got better over the weekend, and Sunday produced a decent enough crowd even with the tee times moved up due to impending bad weather.

Trump’s appearance toward the end of play Sunday and all the hassles associated with a presidential visit for those trying to get there probably didn’t help, but it’s really due more to the late spring timing and a lack of planning.

The 54 previous iterations of Doral’s PGA Tour event were played in March as part of the early Florida Swing. The weather is more conducive to golf viewing then, and the area is populated by an abundance of winter visitors.

Hot, humid temperatures in late April/early May, a Formula 1 race also in town and the relatively short window to plan and sell the event — which was announced less than six months ago — didn’t help.

All in a rush to go back to a place that wasn’t an essential priority.

For Young, none of that really matter. It was a great six-shot victory over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler — a wire-to-wire win that saw him move back to No. 3 in the world after a strong run of events that also saw him win the Players Championship and tie for third at the Masters.

But the atmosphere — or lack of it — was all in keeping with Young’s understated, somewhat boring demeanor. A lack of buzz wasn’t going to bother him in the least.

It should bother the tour, however. They rushed back to a place that had more recently hosted lackluster LIV Golf events and they got a LIV vibe out of it.