“The season starts at Doral.” That was the sentiment amongst the PGA Tour elite into the mid-1990s.
Greg Norman won the 1995 PGA Tour Player of the Year award. He played in the season-opening Mercedes Championship in early January, stayed home for the remainder of the West Coast swing, teeing it up next at Doral in early March, finishing second. He did the same in 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1997 (albeit subbing the Mercedes for that year’s opening event, the Accenture Match Play).
Nick Price won the 1993 and 1994 PGA Tour Player of the Year, and his first event each year was in March at Doral.
Located in the city of Doral, Florida, the property first opened in 1962, known then as Doral Country Club, with the PGA Tour playing the inaugural Doral C.C. Open the same year on the Dick Wilson-designed Blue course.
The event would change title sponsors a handful of times over the years. In 2006, the final Ford Championship at Doral was played with Tiger Woods claiming the title. In 2007, the World Golf Championship event moved from England to Doral, becoming the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
The move was much like the when Weld-Wen Tradition on the PGA Tour Champions moved from Oregon to Alabama to become the Regions Tradition, effectively replacing the previously existing Birmingham area tour stop.
Much like the event’s name itself, the resort would change ownership through the years. In 2012, the Trump Organization purchased the property out of bankruptcy, and renamed it Trump National Doral Miami.
For many years, the golf course stayed the same. Many courses, even into the '90s, resisted the urge to adapt to the technology allowing players to hit the ball farther distances. When Greg Norman won the 1993 event at 23-under, a course renovation was planned, with mixed reviews.
Doral was becoming an event more for what is going on around the event and property than the golf course. When the Trump Organization purchased it, another course renovation began, reopening in 2014. The initial reviews were mixed, though some privately felt the putting surfaces were entirely too firm given their newness in the 2014 event, won by Patrick Reed.
In 2017 and after 54 years, the PGA Tour left entirely and moved to Mexico City. The stated reason was the title sponsor of Cadillac decided to not renew with Mexican-based Grupo Salinas taking over. I wrote more about how host venues are decided here, and to a lesser extent here, but it made sense to move the event to a venue in the Mexican capital, Club de Golf Chapultepec.
Why the PGA Tour would move the event to Mexico certainly raised some eyebrows. Some took the move as distancing itself from President Trump. Some felt it was a result of a potential souring of the golf course itself, given recent renovations. Some felt it merely was the result of the normal course of business.
Unfortunately, it left the Miami area without the PGA Tour. While the PGA Tour Champions and LPGA Tours continue to visit South Florida, the next closest PGA Tour stops would be in the Tampa and West Palm areas.
President Trump, then in his first term, expressed his frustration with the PGA Tour for making the move. It makes sense the owner of a property would want to host events, citing business. At the time, he would assert he would make more money not hosting the event. As a PGA Professional myself, his claims are plausible, as the remainder of the resort would effectively be shut down for a time around the event.
LIV Golf would fill the void, hosting events from 2022 to 2025.
The PGA Tour annually has stops at venues that rarely change: Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach, Colonial, Harbor Town, Bay Hill, and Muirfield Village, for example. Even more so, top golf courses in the country are renovated from time to time: Oak Hill, Oakmont, Quail Hollow, TPC Sawgrass, and Pine Valley.
To compare Colonial’s stop, the event has had nine title sponsor changes since 1962, compared to Doral’s eight. Until two years ago, Colonial has not done a major course renovation, compared to two at Doral.
Potentially citing the shifting political landscape, the PGA Tour has decided to come back. After the Doral event shifted to Mexico City, it further shifted to Nuevo Vallarta on the Pacific Coast and becoming known as the Mexico Open at Vidanta World. It also became wedged between the end of the West Coast swing and the start of the Florida swing.
With an upcoming move to the FedEx Fall in 2026, an open week emerged in the PGA Tour season. Some other moving around opened a week in late April, and the return to Doral. The event will be an additional Signature Event and wedged between The Masters, PGA Championship, and two other Signature Events.
Will the 2026 season really start at Doral? Extremely doubtful. How players plan their spring events next year, however, remains to be seen.
Also to be seen, and a subject for another article, is whether LIV Golf NOT playing at Doral in 2026 is a sign of a potential agreement in the pipeline, with the 2026 PGA Tour playing at Doral a potential venue of the fruit of some agreement.