Tommy Fleetwood Faces Doral Test as Gotterup Leads Length Chart
tommy fleetwood enters a course setup that puts distance first. The PGA TOUR returned to Trump National Doral this week for the inaugural Cadillac Championship, its first event there in a decade, and the Blue Monster is set up at 7,739 yards and par 72.
Chris Gotterup Tops Doral Power List
Chris Gotterup was listed as the longest driver in the field, with Jake Knapp second and Gary Woodland third among the longest hitters. Nicolai Højgaard, Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody rounded out the top six, a group built for a week that asks for carry off the tee more than touch around the greens.
That matters at Doral because the Blue Monster is set to play as the longest course on the PGA TOUR this season. The setup also points straight at the kind of tee-shot control that has decided plenty of past tournaments there.
Blue Monster Driving History
The Blue Monster has a 55-year history of hosting TOUR events from 1962 through 2016, and it was significantly redesigned in 2014. Eight of the last 10 winners at Doral ranked inside the top 25 in driving distance for the week, which puts the longest hitters in a far better position before the opening tee shot is even struck.
Gary Woodland brings the cleanest recent form of the long-driving names. He has gained strokes off the tee in every event this season, gained strokes on approach in three of his last four starts, and posted three top-15 finishes in his last four starts, including a win at the Texas Children's Houston Open.
Woodland And The Doral Setup
Woodland was in a few of the fields during the earlier TOUR trips to Doral, and he also enters at +166 for a Top 20 finish including ties. For players like him, the course asks for more than raw speed: more than 59.4% of all approach shots come from 20 and longer, so the long irons are not a side note.
The first return to Trump National Doral in 10 years brings the field back to a venue where the driver has usually carried real weight. Fleetwood will have to survive the same Blue Monster test as the field’s biggest hitters, but the names near the top of the distance list already have the clearest path to the scoring chances this week.
