Play Underway Again At Cadillac Championship
DORAL (CBSMiami) - Play resumed Friday for the opening round of the Cadillac Championship at Doral that was started, suspended for rain, restarted, and then suspended again for darkness Thursday.
Much of the focus was on Tiger Woods who managed to play through 10 holes Thursday before finally having to call it a day. Woods has played 39 rounds at the Blue Monster course and finished over par just three times. Woods has only seven holes left to keep from making it four rounds over par.
Woods didn't make a single birdie in the first 10 holes he played finishing with a score of +2 through the front nine of the course.
Woods' day ended with a three-putt bogey from 55 feet, set up by a pitching wedge that landed some 20 yards short of what he had wanted.
"I'm ready to go back out tomorrow and play well," he said.
Harris English was simply glad he finished. English knew it was getting dark, so it helped when playing partner Jonas Blixt quickly headed over to the par-3 ninth to put a ball in play before the horn sounded to stop play. English hit 5-iron to 45 feet and made the long birdie putt for a 3-under 69.
English is tied for first with Jason Dufner and Hunter Mahan.
The 62 players who didn't finish were to return at 8:45 a.m.
Trump National Doral, completely overhauled by Gil Hanse, showed plenty of bite on a windy, cloudy afternoon.
Jason Dufner was going along beautifully for 10 holes until he struggled to find fairways in a crosswind. Brett Rumford began his round by hitting four shots before he put one in play. Three went into the water on the par-5 10th, and he started out with an 11.
The course average was at 73.8. Only 19 players were under par when the round was halted.
Dufner, Hunter Mahan, Francesco Molinari and Patrick Reed also were at 3 under. Russell Henley, coming off a playoff win last week at the Honda Classic, made only one par in six holes on the back nine — two birdies, three bogeys. He was in the group at 2 under that included Masters champion Adam Scott, who is in the Nos. 1-3 group with Woods and Henrik Stenson.
Stenson might have hit the most memorable shot of the day — a cold shank from the middle of the second fairway that sailed at a 45-degree angle into bushes.
Scott has a chance to replace Woods at No. 1 in the world if he wins this World Golf Championship and Woods finishes worse that fifth.
Rory McIlroy got off to a blazing start with four birdies in five holes, only to end the back nine with back-to-back bogeys with a long three-putt bogey and a tee shot on the 18th that caught the edge of the water and bounded into the hazard.
That might be the most penal aspect of the new Doral. Anything hit toward some of the edges feeds toward the water, and there's a lot of water in play.
Not even English was immune. His tee shot on the 18th found the water, and he still had 4-iron to get to the green. But he bounced back on the par-5 first hole by smashing a tee shot so far with help from the wind and the firm fairways that he had a 7-iron left from 213 yards. He hit that to 12 feet for a two-putt birdie, and he was bogey-free the rest of the way.
(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
