Jordan Spieth? On Friday, he talked numbers. 

“That was one of the harder holes I’ve played on the PGA Tour today.”

Justin Rose? On Tuesday, he also talked numbers. 

“I had to ask my caddie how many balls we had left.”

And Jhonattan Vegas on Tuesday? You know where this is going. 

“You can make a massive number on that hole.”

And players have. Bogeys. Double bogeys. And beyond. Spieth, Rose and Vegas were commenting on Trump National Doral’s 18th hole, and they’d likely receive concurrence from the field at the Cadillac Championship, this week’s PGA Tour stop. The 486-yard par-4 has been a bruiser, though that’s certainly welcome news for those who like their golf being undetermined until the final stroke. A meltdown may very well be coming. 

How difficult has the finisher been? Through three rounds, it’s played to exactly a half-shot over par, which makes it Doral’s toughest hole in terms of scoring average. That was also the rank last year, when the 18th played .574 strokes over par during a LIV Golf event; and that was also the mark 10 years ago — the last time Doral hosted a PGA Tour tournament — when it played .425 strokes over par. As it stands after Saturday, Doral’s 18th would also rank as the hardest closing hole on the PGA Tour this year. (The complete list is at the bottom of this article.) 

Birdies aren’t impossible. Nine have been made this week, including one by Scottie Scheffler that moved him into a tie for second entering Sunday. But tunnel vision is needed. Water streams along the hole’s entire left side, palm trees sway on most of the right. and claustrophobia kicks in most on the tee box — balls that travel up to about 300 yards are squeezed into about a 25-yard-wide landing area, which, of course, can look like just a few blades of grass from three football fields away. (Bigger hitters, though, are rewarded with more fairway, but that necessitates a 320-plus pop.) Wind also seems ever present, which means a player will potentially target either the lake or some branches. In short, there’s no real bail-out; a great shot is required. From there, the second shot is obviously dependent on the lie, though the water and wind remain, and Scheffler said the green has “a ton of pitch to it.”  

Thoughts on the 18th this week have had a theme. 

It’s hard, players have said. 

Said Vegas ahead of the tournament: “At the end of the day, I guarantee that hole’s going to play way over par. At least in the, you know, 4.5 or something like that. So it’s a hole that you know if you make bogey, you’re not going to kill yourself. Obviously you can make a massive number on that hole. So you have to attack that hole very conservatively. You just can’t let that hole beat you, or be your week. So you have to attack that probably very conservative and try to execute the best four shots that you can on that hole.”

Said Rose ahead of the tournament: “Yeah, I just played it like 10 minutes ago and I had to ask my caddie how many balls we had left. Wind was in off the left today, which is ultimately like the hardest wind you can play that hole in because you can’t quite cover the left side so there’s a bit of a pinch point — fairway’s only about 15 yards wide maybe at that section, which today was the landing section. So the right-hand trees are going to be a busy place with 70 guys coming through there on that wind direction. You’re in the lap of the gods there in terms of the lie you get, what have you. Just a very narrow tee shot, and then obviously hazards along the way. So you’re trying to manage the risk really on that hole. To play it properly you have to stand up and make two great swings.”

Said Adam Scott: “The fairway is one of the more narrow fairways on the golf course, so there’s not a lot of room as that ball starts moving on the left-to-right wind to hold the fairway. Just a very demanding tee shot. If you’re in the fairway, it’s still a demanding second shot with the water left again, but once you’re off the fairway it’s really tough because angles are a problem, rough is a problem, trees are a problem. So it’s a great closing hole for championship golf because it demands two great shots to have a kind of a regulation par. I quite like that, to be honest.”

For at least Scott then, the challenge is welcome, the potential for a big number be damned. 

How the 18th holes have played this year on the PGA Tour 

Here is a look at how the 18th holes have played this year on the PGA Tour:

–Sony Open, Waialae Country Club 546-yard par-5: second-easiest hole of the week, 4.429 strokes  

–American Express, Pete Dye Stadium Course 439-yard par-4: tied for third-hardest hole of the fourth round (the first three rounds are split among three courses), 4.068 strokes 

–Farmers Insurance Open, Torrey Pines South Course, 544-yard par-5: second-easiest hole of the fourth round (the first two rounds are split between two courses), 4.541 strokes 

–WM Phoenix Open, TPC Scottsdale, 442-yard par-4: 11th-hardest hole of the week, 4.010 strokes 

–AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Pebble Beach Golf Links, 528-yard par-5: third-easiest hole of the fourth round (the first two rounds are split between two courses), 4.563 strokes 

–Genesis invitational, Riviera Country Club, 501-yard par-4: second-hardest hole of the week, 4.142 strokes 

–Cognizant Classic, PGA National Champion Course, 592-yard par-5: third-easiest hole of the week, 4.678 strokes 

–Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bay Hill Club & Lodge, 458-yard par-4: hardest hole of the week, 4.270 strokes 

–Puerto Rico Open, Grand Reserve Golf Club, 450-yard par-4: 11th-hardest hole of the week, 3.944 strokes 

–Players Championship, TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, 462-yard par-4: hardest hole of the week, 4.338 strokes 

–Valspar Championship, Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, 445-yard par-4: seventh-hardest hole of the week, 4.127 strokes 

–Texas Children’s Houston Open, Memorial Park Golf Course, 503-yard par-4: 10th-hardest hole of the week, 3.988 strokes 

–Valero Texas Open, TPC San Antonio, 591-yard par-5: fourth-easiest hole of the week, 4.831 strokes  

–Masters, Augusta National Golf Club, 465-yard par-4: fifth-hardest hole of the week, 4.214 strokes 

–RBC Heritage, Harbour Town Golf Links, 478-yard par-4: hardest hole of the week, 4.122 strokes 

–Zurich Classic (team event), TPC Louisiana, 585-yard par-5, third-easiest holes of the week, 4.358 strokes 

Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster course hosted its first PGA Tour round in 10 years on Thursday at the 2026 Cadillac Championship. While the course used to present a difficult challenge to the best golfers in the world, that was not the case in Round 1.

That was evidenced by the low scores that populated the leaderboard, but also by comments from some of the biggest Tour stars in the field, including Cameron Young, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler.

Those stars called it “straightforward,” and described it as “right in front of you” and “not super tricky,” all of which suggests some of the “Monster” has been taken out of the Blue Monster course.

Stars go low at Trump Doral: ‘Right in front of you, they don’t hide anything’

While many players went low in the opening round of the Cadillac Championship, none went lower than Young. The 2026 Players Champion fired an eight-under 64 on Thursday to take the early lead.

Despite windy conditions, Young’s round featured eight birdies and, most notably, zero bogeys.

While Young called the Blue Monster a “good solid golf course” after his round, he also described the challenge it presents as “pretty much right in front of you,” that it “doesn’t hide anything,” that “learning the course wasn’t a huge deal” and that the greens are not “particularly firm.”

“Yeah I think it’s pretty much right in front of you for the most part. I think most of the tee shots are pretty apparent, which is what good courses give you,” Young said of Trump Doral’s Blue Monster. “I think it doesn’t try to hide anything. So learning the course wasn’t a huge deal… I think you can be pretty aggressive into a lot of the greens. They’re not particularly firm.”

He continued: “I think it’s a good solid golf course. Right in front of you, they don’t hide anything. It’s kind of what you want.”

Scheffler didn’t fare as well as Young on Thursday. Surprisingly, Scheffler was only able to get to one under through his first 18 holes, though that’s a first-round trend he’s experienced this season.

Despite not having the best day, Scheffler did not suggest that the course was any harder than Young had.

Scheffler called it “straightforward” and said that the course does not demand “a ton of strategy” or a “ton of decisions off the tee.”

“I think a golf course like this there’s, this golf course is I don’t want to say straightforward, but most of it is in front of you. You can see what you need to do and there’s not a ton of like strategy, I don’t know if that’s the right word,” Scheffler said on Thursday. “There’s not a ton of decisions off the tee. There’s some lines and stuff and maybe some areas you can play from if you’re not playing your best, but outside of that it’s like you can definitely learn enough from a couple of days.”

Spieth admitted he only played one 9-hole practice round at the Blue Monster to prepare for this week, not counting Wednesday’s pro-am. Despite that, Spieth shot a seven-under 65 on Thursday to get within one shot of Young.

When asked to explain why he was able to perform so well on a course he’d barely seen, Spieth said “it’s not super tricky,” and then elaborated on his opinion.

“It’s not super tricky. During the pro-am you’re still looking, all right, here’s this corner. Michael is saying, Hey, check this is out. This pin will be in the middle of the greens in the pro-am, and you’re like there were some I wanted to see and write down the grain changes, when you’re hitting a wedge into this one, just nerdy stuff that helped knowing on a few of the pins.”

He continued: “It’s not tricky, so it was more just getting back out and recognizing what do I need to prioritize on the range, what shots am I really going to have throughout the week versus others. And you have quite a few long irons, more long irons than I think you have a lot of other places and so I’ve been trying to prioritize kind of up the bag getting good control of those clubs and I did today.”

Brian Harman, the 2023 Open champion, shared a different opinion, calling the Blue Monster course “very difficult.”

“I never played here. So it’s my first look at it. It’s very difficult especially coming in, 17, 18 with the wind blowing a little bit now. There is, 18’s as hard of a finishing hole as I can think of,” Harman said. “It’s very difficult because if you’re out of position there’s really not a lot of spots that are very easy to get up-and-down from. So it’s like you really need to drive it good and then you really need to iron it good and then make some putts. So if you’re out of position it’s tough. But I got fortunate.”

But despite his opinion on the course’s difficulty, Harman went out a shot a four-under 68 on Day 1. His round was also bogey-free.