Doral: Blue Monster
Originally played Doral in 2005 when it was a Marriott property and hosted the Ford. In fact we played it right before the tournament. More on that in a second. You can find it in the scrapbook here. We came back here in 2019 and played it again after Gil Hanse updated it and Trump took it over. Both times we stayed on property. I really didn’t take photos on the 2019 trip so almost all are from 2005. Couldn’t find either scorecard and if memory serves me correctly, that’s a good thing. This is a tough track with water and sand aplenty.
So the first time we played it was right before the Ford. The rough was up to tournament length or higher. A ball in the rough got swallowed alive and was practically impossible to find. We asked our forecaddie – who we nicknamed Slowie – to do one thing: Spot balls. All four were lost on the first hole after four decent drives that jumped into the rough by no more than a few inches each. This made for an agonizing round. Fast forward to 2019. Came down for the Eagles-Dolphins game. Eagles lost and we needed to drown our sorrows. Could barely control my bowels the next day let alone golf. That made for an agonizing round. So I’d like to say it would be nice to play Doral in resort conditions and without a screaming hangover, but at least this way I can blame my bad rounds on external forces instead of my own suckitude.
Even though I played this just over a year ago, I don’t remember much. The 18th is great, there is a ton of water and when your ball is not finding the water it will certainly find the sand. It’s flat. Flat-out flat. The conditioning was first class. Some of the holes (and those of the neighboring courses) all blend together. And did I mention there is a ton of water. I think they moved the WGC to Mexico so there is not a tourney here anymore. Without that, it’s likely the Blue Monster will drop some in the magazine rankings but for now it ranks as the 24th Golf Digest Best in State behind Pine Tree but ahead of Lake Nona (disagree) and ahead of World Woods (agree). It used to be in the Top 100 conversation in the late 80s in both GOLF and GOLF DIGEST. I’d say a bit lofty.
The resort is nice. As all things Trump it has become a bit ostentatious. The restaurant there is good not great. I have spent a lot of time in SE Florida over the years but more so up in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm. I do a review of that area on the PGA National write-up. Maybe I’ll do more Fort Lauderdale later but let’s talk about Miami and surrounds.
So I’m white, old and straight. None of those fit the demo for the South Beach crowd. So this is not Destination One for me. On Doral trip one. not sure how much we left the property. At the time, the surrounding area was meh. It’s developed a bit now. For Doral trip two, we stayed here or went to the Hard Rock. I have been to South Beach a couple of times though and again not a place I’d design an old straight guys golf trip around.
On property BLT Prime is good. Of course if you’re with a bunch of old straight dudes, you need a casino. Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood is a bit of a hike but if you got Uber or sprinter vans then WTF – do it. The Council Oaks there is a better than the BLT steakhouse. We ran into DeSean Jackson there after the game and he saw us all Eagled up and sent over his birthday cake to us.
OK South Beach. Stayed at the Savoy. If you’re going to stay down there this is a little south of the nonsense so a good choice. Two great restaurants: A Fish Called Avalon at the Avalon was really good and the top steakhouse there was Red the Steakhouse. Top 20 IMO. Maybe I’ll do a list for that. We played Gold at Doral which was good. Played the Biltmore and Miami Beach Golf Club nearer South Beach and both decent if unspectacular tracks. Further north: Inverrary blows monkey balls. South – Crandon Park at Key Biscayne was good too. You could really do a South Beach trip with those three and a shot over to Trump and have a good time. Personally, I’d shoot up north a bit and do Fort Lauderdale after a couple days at Trump. But that’s me. I don’t salsa. Shoot crack. Nor wear banana hammocks.
Golf Scrapbook 