Dates March 10–13, 2011 Tour(s) PGA Tour
European Tour Length 7,266 yards (6,644 m) | Location Doral, Florida, U.S. Par 72 | |
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Course(s) Doral Golf Resort & Spa | ||
The 2011 WGC-Cadillac Championship was a golf tournament held March 10–13 at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Doral, Florida, a suburb west of Miami. It was the 12th WGC-Cadillac Championship tournament, the second of four World Golf Championships events staged in 2011. Cadillac replaced CA Technologies as the title sponsor.
Contents
Nick Watney shot a final round 67 (–5) to win his first WGC event, two strokes ahead of runner-up Dustin Johnson.
Field
The field consisted of players from the top of the Official World Golf Ranking and the money lists/Order of Merit from the six main professional golf tours. Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
Initially, all 69 players who qualified for the tournament were scheduled to play.
1. The top 50 players from the Official World Golf Ranking, as of February 28, 2011
Robert Allenby (2,3), Paul Casey (2,3,5,6), K. J. Choi (2,3), Jason Day (2,3), Luke Donald (2,3,4,5,6), Ernie Els (2,3,5), Ross Fisher (2,5), Rickie Fowler (2), Jim Furyk (2,3), Retief Goosen (2,3), Bill Haas (2), Peter Hanson (2,5), Pádraig Harrington (2,5), Yuta Ikeda (2), Ryo Ishikawa (2), Miguel Ángel Jiménez (2,5,6), Dustin Johnson (2,3), Zach Johnson (2,3), Robert Karlsson (2,5), Martin Kaymer (2,5,6), Anthony Kim (2), Kim Kyung-Tae (2,7), Matt Kuchar (2,3,4), Martin Laird (2,3), Hunter Mahan (2,3), Graeme McDowell (2,5), Rory McIlroy (2,5,6), Phil Mickelson (2,3), Edoardo Molinari (2,5), Francesco Molinari (2,5), Ryan Moore (2,3), Geoff Ogilvy (2,3,8), Louis Oosthuizen (2,5), Ian Poulter (2,5), Álvaro Quirós (2,5,6), Justin Rose (2,3), Charl Schwartzel (2,5,6,9), Adam Scott (2,3), Vijay Singh (4), Steve Stricker (2,3), Bo Van Pelt (2,3), Camilo Villegas (2,3), Nick Watney (2,3), Lee Westwood (2,5), Mark Wilson (2,4), Tiger Woods (2), Y.E. Yang (2)
Three golfers withdrew from the tournament shortly before it started: Tim Clark (2,3) (elbow), Ben Crane (2,3) (back), and Bubba Watson (2,3,4) (flu).
2. The top 50 players from the Official World Golf Ranking, as of March 7, 2011
Hiroyuki Fujita (7)
3. The top 30 players from the final 2010 FedExCup Points List
Charley Hoffman, Kevin Na, Jeff Overton, Ryan Palmer, Kevin Streelman
4. The top 10 players from the 2011 FedExCup Points List, as of March 7, 2011
Aaron Baddeley, Jonathan Byrd, D. A. Points, Rory Sabbatini, Jhonattan Vegas
5. The top 20 players from the final 2010 European Tour Order of Merit
Rhys Davies, Anders Hansen
6. The top 10 players from the European Tour Order of Merit, as of February 28, 2011
Thomas Aiken (9), Thomas Bjørn, Shiv Chowrasia
7. The top 2 players from the final 2010 Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit
8. The top 2 players from the final 2010 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit
Peter Senior
9. The top 2 players from the final 2010 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit
10. The top 2 players from the final 2010 Asian Tour Order of Merit
Marcus Fraser, Noh Seung-yul
First round
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
The first round was significantly delayed when a storm blew in shortly after play began on Thursday. Play was resumed in the afternoon, but almost all players were still on the course when darkness fell. At this point, Hunter Mahan led the field at 7-under-par through his first 11 holes, and held on to the lead when the first round was concluded on Friday morning. Teenager Ryo Ishikawa was one shot back in second, while new world number one Martin Kaymer was third; several players including Luke Donald and Matt Kuchar had reached the 6-under mark in their rounds, then dropped back.
Second round
Friday, March 11, 2011
Scoring proved more difficult in the second round as high winds returned to the Doral course. The low round of the day was Aaron Baddeley's 66. Hunter Mahan retained his one shot lead after a steady 71, with Martin Kaymer and Francesco Molinari a shot further back. This meant that the three leading players at the halfway stage were the World Number One, and the winners of the previous two stroke play-format WGC events. Ryo Ishikawa, who started the round in second place, shot a four-over-par 76 on the day his home nation of Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami.
Third round
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Dustin Johnson was the big mover on Saturday, shooting a 65, the lowest round of the day, to open up a two-shot advantage. Behind him the leaderboard was bunched with seven players within three shots. Luke Donald, Nick Watney and overnight leader Hunter Mahan all had chances to match Johnson's score before faltering over the closing holes, while Martin Kaymer, in the final group, fell away after a 74.
Final round
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The final round began strongly for the American challengers, with Nick Watney, Hunter Mahan, Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar all getting under par early, while the international players struggled. As the leaders reached the turn, Doral's famous back nine began to bite, with a number of the leading players making bogeys and double bogeys. This opened the tournament back up to the field; ahead of the leaders, Anders Hansen was going low, but missed makeable birdie putts on 16 and 17 to settle for a 67 and 13-under. Meanwhile, Nick Watney holed long par putts at 13 and 15 to stay at 15-under, and shared the lead with Dustin Johnson going into the final stretch. But Johnson bogeyed 16, and when Watney birdied the tough 18 it left Johnson, in the final group, needing to hole his second shot to force a playoff; he hit it close, but eventually had to settle for a par, leaving Watney the winner by two. The low rounds on the final day were a pair of 66s by the young American Rickie Fowler, and former world number one Tiger Woods, a multiple winner of this event.