Golf Betting: is this the last of Doral on the PGA Tour?

When you go outside the four major championship and the Ryder Cup, there may not be a better atmosphere for golf, or golf betting, than the WGC-CA Championship, held at Doral Golf Resort and Spa in south Florida since 2007. This event essentially replaced the Doral Open (known under several names) that had been held every year since 1962, the jewel of the PGA Tour's "Florida Swing," which has attracted the absolute greatest players in the world.

This tournament is different than almost every other on the PGA Tour, and actually resembles the Masters a little, in that there are very specific qualifications for getting an invite. There is no open qualifying, but rather, a pre-qualifying that players must have. The field consists of:

• The top 50 players in the World Golf Rankings, inclusive of those players who were in the Top 50 two weeks ago but may have dropped out;

• The top 30 in the FedEx Cup rankings, inclusive of those who may have been in the top ten a week prior before dropping out;

• The top 20 players on the European Tour

• The top two on the following: the PGA Asian Tour, the PGA Australasian Tour, the Japan Tour and the Sunshine Tour. The Sunshine Tour is not one that takes place in the Sunshine State of Florida but in Southern Africa. As you can see, like the Masters, this event has an international flavor to it.

However, unlike the Masters, there is no cut. That means all of the players (68 this year) can play all four days. That is a big attraction for the players, who live an existence of uncertainty from week to week, as they have to beat half a field to get paid. It also can mean something to golf bettors, who know that their player won’t be eliminated when they are wagering on golf futures.

This particular event has been held at a number of different golf courses. In 2007, the first year it was held at Doral, Tiger Woods posted a score of ten under par to win the WGC-CA for the sixth time. Geoff Ogilvy took home honors in 2008, and last year, Phil Mickelson won the $1.4 million first place purse.

When Doral was hosting its PGA Tour event previously, Woods twice won the Ford Championship at Doral (2005 and 2006), which means he chalked up three straight wins at Doral. Ernie Els won the Genuity Championship, as it was called, in 2002. Jack Nicklaus has won at Doral twice; Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd have won three times, as has Andy Bean. Billy Casper won the first Doral tournament back in 1962.

At various times, the event was called the Doral-Ryder Open or the Doral Eastern Open as well, as sponsorship quite obviously dictates a lot. At the moment, sponsorship for a PGA Tour event at Doral is very iffy. The contract with CA, the New York-based software company that has underwritten the event for four years now, is expiring, and there is no indication that they are going to renew. That leaves tournament organizers in a pickle, an even though they are confident that they can put a deal in place with somebody for next season, if they don't the tournament could be in danger of getting shut down altogether.