Rickie Fowler angle: Doral’s 18th hole plays 0.5 shots over par
Rickie Fowler is not the story on the board, but Trump National Doral’s 18th hole is. Through three rounds at the Cadillac Championship, the 486-yard par-4 has played exactly 0.5 shots over par and emerged as the toughest hole in scoring average, with Sunday’s finish likely to reward patience more than aggression.
Doral’s 18th hole pressure
The numbers explain why. Only nine birdies had been made on the hole through three rounds, and Scottie Scheffler was one of them. His birdie moved him into a tie for second entering Sunday, showing that even the hardest closing stretch has not shut down scoring completely.
Jordan Spieth summed up the challenge on Friday after playing it: “That was one of the harder holes I’ve played on the PGA Tour today.” That assessment fit a hole that has already shown a long memory at Doral. When the course last hosted a PGA Tour tournament 10 years ago, the 18th played 0.425 strokes over par. In a LIV Golf event last year, it played 0.574 strokes over par.
Justin Rose and Jhonattan Vegas
Justin Rose and Jhonattan Vegas both pointed to the same problem before the tournament even began. Rose said, “I had to ask my caddie how many balls we had left.” He added that wind in off the left is the hardest direction to play the hole, with the fairway only about 15 yards wide at the landing section in that setup.
Vegas was even more blunt about the scoring risk. “You can make a massive number on that hole,” he said. “At the end of the day, I guarantee that hole’s going to play way over par. At least in the, you know, 4.5 or something like that. So it’s a hole that you know if you make bogey, you’re not going to kill yourself. Obviously you can make a massive number on that hole. So you have to attack that hole very conservatively. You just can’t let that hole beat you, or be your week. So you have to attack that probably very conservative and try to execute the best four shots that you can on that hole.”
Sunday at Trump National Doral
That leaves the final round with a simple shape: the closer at Trump National Doral can still swing the day. Rose said after playing the hole that the wind was in off the left and that “the right-hand trees are going to be a busy place with 70 guys coming through there on that wind direction.”
With the field heading into Sunday and the hole already producing the week’s toughest scoring average, the finishing stretch is set up to punish any mistake that leaks left. Scheffler’s climb into a tie for second shows there is room to gain ground, but the scorecard on the 18th leaves almost no room to miss once players reach the tee.
