The PGA Tour is returning to Doral next week for the Cadillac Championship, a newly created Signature Event at Trump National Doral in Miami that will carry a $20 million purse. But the field is already missing five players ranked in the world top 15, including Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Bob MacIntyre, Ludvig Aberg and Matt Fitzpatrick.
Two sponsor exemptions were still not finalized Sunday evening, with only Joel Dahmen and Max Greyserman listed at the time. That left the event short of its full complement of four sponsor exemptions, and the final two spots were being decided after Max Homa was listed as a sponsor exemption last week before he qualified for the Heritage at Augusta National.
The absences matter because the Signature Event series is designed to gather the game’s strongest week-to-week players. Under the format, the events normally include the top 50 from the previous year, a handful of winners from this season, the 10 players not already in who have played best this year, five others who have played best recently, and four sponsor exemptions. That structure means 99% of pros are largely shut out, while top 50 players and the rest of the game’s leading form players are expected to fill the card.
McIlroy’s decision stands out most. For him, next week will be the second Signature Event he has skipped this season, and the Miami stop comes in the middle of a packed stretch that runs from the Cadillac Championship to the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow and then on to the PGA Championship in Philadelphia. The Cadillac Championship did not exist last year, which makes the scheduling even more compressed for players deciding which events to play.
That leaves the field at Doral with a different look than the Tour likely envisioned when it added the event. Five top-15 players are out, the sponsor exemption list was still in flux less than 48 hours before the week began, and the tournament sits in a difficult lane between two other major stops. The early shape of the entry list suggests the new event will be judged as much by who stayed away as by who turns up.