Two-time PGA Tour winner Bob MacIntyre has joined Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele in snubbing the return of the Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral
Rory McIlroy is among a host of top stars who will not play next week as the PGA Tour returns to a Donald Trump-owned course, and one player has blamed the situation on “carnage” in the schedule.
McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Ludvig Aberg, Xander Schauffele and Matt Fitzpatrick are among the leading players who will not play in the Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral in Miami, where the tournament begins on April 30.
The event is the tour’s first in a decade to be staged at a Trump-owned course. Doral’s Blue Monster course was the host of the WGC Cadillac Championship until 2016, just before the president won his first term. It has been a rough week for Trump in the world of golf, with his Turnberry resort missing out on hosting The Open Championship.
The Cadillac Championship has returned with signature event status, boasting a $20 million purse that typically attracts the tour’s best players. But it has landed in an unfortunate spot in the schedule, with the $20M Truist Championship and the PGA Championship following in successive weeks.
Many top players prefer not to play for two successive weeks leading into a major championship, meaning it is no surprise that some of the elite have snubbed Trump’s event.
And it seems likely that some of those who tee it up at Doral next week will not make the trip to Quail Hollow for the Truist to ensure they are not burned out for the second major of the year at Aronimink.
MacIntyre, a two-time PGA Tour winner and the No. 12 player in the world, gave his perspective before his absence was confirmed when the Cadillac Championship field was announced on Friday
“I’m meant to go away on Sunday, but I might take Doral off just to have a little bit more time at home,” he told The Scotsman. “I will play the Truist at Quail Hollow and then I’ll play the PGA.
“The schedule is so tightly packed now — it’s carnage — that you just feel as though you can’t take a week off. So it’s about trying to manage myself.
“Obviously, living [in Scotland], it’s difficult with the travel and stuff. But it’s what I want to do, it’s what I’ve picked to do. Yeah, I just need to give myself enough time to recover and calm down and get ready to go again.”
The Cadillac Championship field is headlined by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, and top-10 players Cameron Young, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley and J.J. Spaun are also involved.
Brooks Koepka, meanwhile, is the first alternate and faces another awkward wait to see if he makes it into his first signature event of the season. He watched on powerlessly at the RBC Heritage last week before it was confirmed he would not get a tee time.
