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As the PGA Tour returns to Trump National Doral after a decade-long break from playing at the historic course, some notable big names are missing from this week’s field.
Back-to-back Masters champion Rory McIlroy will be absent, and five of the top-15-ranked players in the Official World Golf Ranking, and three of the top 10, won’t be teeing it up at the Cadillac Championship, which begins Thursday and is one of eight $20 million signature events on the PGA Tour’s 2026 schedule.
Here’s who will be sitting this one out:
- Rory McIlroy (No. 2)
- Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 3)
- Xander Schauffele (No. 9)
- Robert MacIntyre (No. 12)
- Ludvig Åberg (No. 14)
As a signature event, the Cadillac Championship has a limited field of just 72 players, and no 36-hole cut, meaning all players are guaranteed to receive at least some prize money, ranging from $3.6 million for the winner to $36,000 for last place.
This marks the largest absence of top players at a signature event so far this year.
While McIlroy is not playing in Doral, the star golfer was among the celebrities that attended the White House state dinner Wednesday evening, where President Donald Trump broke from his planned remarks to congratulate McIlroy on his latest Masters win. “Stand up, Rory, will you please? That was unconquerable courage,” Trump said. “That was very good, Rory.”
The RBC Heritage earlier this month was missing three of the top-15-ranked players, including McIlroy, Justin Rose, and Hideki Matsuyama. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational each had just one top 15 player missing, but all players inside the top 10.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational in March had the entire top 15.
Crowded Calendar
The contingent of stars sitting out this week is not too surprising, since the Cadillac Championship is the first of a busy, high-stakes three-week stretch on the PGA Tour.
Next week is the Truist Championship in Charlotte—also a signature event—followed by the second major championship of the year, the PGA Championship in Philadelphia, starting May 14.
While McIlroy isn’t in the field this week, he is expected to play next week in Charlotte, where he has won four times. However, No. 1–ranked Scottie Scheffler is expected to skip the Truist Championship as he’s committed to playing the week following the PGA Championship at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas, where he’ll defend his 2025 tournament title.
The Cadillac Championship is a new event this year, taking the spot on the calendar previously held by the Mexico Open.
Trump’s PGA Tour Return
The PGA Tour last played at Doral in 2016, when Trump’s South Florida course hosted the WGC-Cadillac Championship, which was part of a series of the former World Golf Championships that offered elevated purses for elite player fields (the WGCs ceased operations after 2021).
The Trump Organization bought the former Doral Golf Resort & Spa out of bankruptcy in 2012 for $150 million.
After the 2016 edition of the old tournament, Cadillac opted not to renew its tournament sponsorship and the PGA Tour decided to move that WGC event from Doral to Mexico City, where it was played from 2017 to 2020.
The move away from Doral was announced in June, as Trump emerged as the 2016 Republican presidential nominee. At the time, former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said the move was due to the inability to find a new title sponsor at Doral, not because of political controversy surrounding Trump. Cadillac never explicitly cited Trump’s ownership of the course as a reason for not renewing its sponsorship.
From 2022 to 2025, Trump Doral hosted an annual LIV Golf event. Trump-owned courses in Virginia and New Jersey have also previously hosted LIV events. Next week, Trump National Golf Club Washington, D.C., is hosting LIV Golf Virginia.
In September, the DP World Tour’s Irish Open will be played at Trump International Golf Links Ireland in Doonbeg for the first time.
The Trump Organization owns 21 golf properties and resorts worldwide, according to its website.
Watch Party
Viewership for the signature events this season has been a bit of a mixed bag.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational was the only one of the first four to draw higher TV ratings over last year, garnering 3.3 million viewers on NBC, which was up nearly 18%. The other three signature events saw small drops, all under 4%.
Overall, this season’s signature events have averaged 3.55 million viewers, which is slightly up—just over 2%—from what those same four tournaments averaged in 2025.
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