2011 WGC-Cadillac Championship

2011 WGC-Cadillac Championship

Tournament information
Dates	March 10–13, 2011
Location	Doral, Florida, United States
Course(s)	Doral Golf Resort & Spa
Tour(s)	PGA Tour European Tour Japan Golf Tour
Statistics
Par	72
Length	7,266
Field	66 players
Cut	None
Prize fund	$8,500,000
Winner's share	$1,400,000
Champion
Nick Watney
272 (-16)

The 2011 WGC-Cadillac Championship was a golf tournament that was contested from March 10–13 at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Doral, Florida. It was the 12th WGC-Cadillac Championship tournament, and the second of four World Golf Championships events staged in 2011. Cadillac replaced CA Technologies as the title sponsor.^[1] Nick Watney shot a final round 67 to win his first World Golf Championship event, beating Dustin Johnson by two strokes.^[2]

Initially, all 69 players who qualified for the tournament were scheduled to play.^[3] Three golfers withdrew from the tournament shortly before it started: Tim Clark (elbow), Ben Crane (back), and Bubba Watson (flu).^[4]

The field

Round summaries

First round

The first round was significantly delayed when a storm blew in shortly after play began on Thursday. Thursday's 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. He would hold on to this lead when the first round was concluded on Friday morning. Japanese 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.^[5]

#	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Hunter Mahan	United States	64	-8
2	Ryo Ishikawa	Japan	65	-7
3	Martin Kaymer	Germany	66	-6
T4	Luke Donald	England	67	-5
	Charley Hoffman	United States
	Martin Laird	Scotland
	Nick Watney	United States
T8	Thomas Aiken	South Africa	68	-4
	Pádraig Harrington	Ireland
	Matt Kuchar	United States
	Rory McIlroy	Northern Ireland
	Francesco Molinari	Italy
	D. A. Points	United States
	Adam Scott	Australia
	Vijay Singh	Fiji
	Kevin Streelman	United States
	Steve Stricker	United States

Second round

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.

#	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Hunter Mahan	United States	64-71=135	-9
T2	Martin Kaymer	Germany	66-70=136	-8
	Francesco Molinari	Italy	68-68=136
T4	Matt Kuchar	United States	68-69=137	-7
	Martin Laird	Scotland	67-70=137
	Rory McIlroy	Northern Ireland	68-69=137
	Nick Watney	United States	67-70=137
T8	Aaron Baddeley	Australia	72-66=138	-6
	Dustin Johnson	United States	69-69=138
	Adam Scott	Australia	69-69=138

Third round

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 more congested, with three shots covering twelve players. 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.

#	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Dustin Johnson	United States	69-69-65=203	-13
T2	Luke Donald	England	67-72-66=205	-11
	Matt Kuchar	United States	68-69-68=205
	Nick Watney	United States	67-70-68=205
T5	Hunter Mahan	United States	64-71-71=206	-10
	Rory McIlroy	Northern Ireland	68-69-69=206
	Francesco Molinari	Italy	68-68-70=206
	Adam Scott	Australia	68-70-68=206
T9	Pádraig Harrington	Ireland	68-71-68=207	-9
	Martin Laird	Scotland	67-70-70=207

Final round

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.

#	Player	Country	Score	To par	Winnings ($)
1	Nick Watney	United States	67-70-68-67=272	-16	1,400,000
2	Dustin Johnson	United States	69-69-65-71=274	-14	850,000
T3	Anders Hansen	Denmark	71-69-68-67=275	-13	465,000
	Francesco Molinari	Italy	68-68-70-69=275
5	Matt Kuchar	United States	68-69-68-71=276	-12	350,000
T6	Luke Donald	England	67-72-66-72=277	-11	271,000
	Adam Scott	Australia	68-70-68-71=277
8	Rickie Fowler	United States	71-73-68-66=278	-10	200,000
9	Hunter Mahan	United States	64-71-71-73=279	-9	175,000
T10	Jonathan Byrd	United States	70-74-68-68=280	-8	129,000
	Pádraig Harrington	Ireland	68-71-68-73=279
	Martin Laird	Scotland	67-70-70-73=279
	Rory McIlroy	Northern Ireland	68-69-69-74=279
	Tiger Woods	United States	70-74-70-66=279

References

External links