Not for nothing is it called the ‘Blue Monster’.
Last year, Trump National Doral bared its teeth, with just three players in the elite 68-man field for the WGC-Cadillac Championship finishing below par.
Only the winner Patrick Reed and joint runners-up Jamie Donaldson and Bubba Watson went some way towards taming the Blue Monster, which in recent years has undergone extensive renovations by renowned golf course architect Gil Hanse.
Reed’s triumph was all the more remarkable given that the American – who took up European Tour membership at the start of the season – was teeing up in the tournament for the very first time.
In so doing, the then-23 year old became the first debutant to lift the trophy since Tiger Woods achieved the feat in 1999 – and as that was the year the tournament was inaugurated every player in the field was making his debut, so you could argue that Reed was in fact the first ‘real’ rookie to take the title.
Either way, his performance should provide some encouragement for the 12 European Tour rookies bidding to join Reed in that highly exclusive club in Miami this week: Brooks Koepka, Anirban Lahiri, Bernd Wiesberger, Shane Lowry, Danny Willett, Gary Stal, Marc Warren, Alexander Levy, Mikko Ilonen, Tommy Fleetwood, David Lipsky and Danie Van Tonder.
Of that dozen, perhaps Lahiri will head to Florida with the highest of hopes, having hit a purple patch of form which has yielded a brace of victories in his last two appearances.
The Indian, who earned his place in the WGC-Cadillac Championship field courtesy of his runner-up finish in the 2014 Asian Tour Order of Merit, jumped to second place in The Race to Dubai last week after securing victory in his national Open, and will be hoping to ride the crest of a wave when he tackles Trump National Doral for the first time.
Lipsky, the man who pipped Lahiri to the Asian Tour Order of Merit, does not go into the US $9.25 million event in quite the same rich vein of form, but the American proved what he is capable of with his breakthrough victory in the Omega European Masters last summer.
The same could be said of Alexander Levy who, despite a top 20 finish in Abu Dhabi, is yet to recapture the scintillating form which yielded two European Tour victories last season.
But having taken the last three weeks off to work on his game, the Frenchman should at least be fresh for the daunting challenge which lies in wait for him – all 7,481 yards of it.
Lowry has also been busy during his time off, although the clubs have largely stayed locked away in the garage – thanks in no small part to a spell of wet weather in his native Ireland.
Instead, the affable Irishman has been put through his paces by his new strength and conditioning coach Robbie Cannon, so we could see a meaner, leaner Lowry when he tees up on The European Tour for the first time in 2015.
Lowry will head to Trump National Doral in a very positive frame of mind, having followed up his top ten in the Farmers Insurance Open with a tied 21st finish in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on the US PGA Tour.
Koepka, who has been paired with his friend Rory McIlroy and compatriot Dustin Johnson in this week’s Honda Classic, has enjoyed even more success across the Atlantic, having won the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Koepka has charted a stratospheric rise over the past 12 months, and the former Challenge Tour graduate – who won both the Turkish Airlines Open and the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award during a stellar 2014 campaign – will seek to further his burgeoning reputation with another noteworthy performance on his WGC bow.
Like Koepka, Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Champion Stal and South African Van Tonder will both be making their debut appearances in a World Golf Championship event.
Read more at http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015015/news/newsid=250129.html#AUcUElhCV0vKyx7t.99
