THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602230051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, TRAVEL EDITOR
DATELINE: MIAMI LENGTH: Long : 138 lines
IF YOU LIKE GOLF, if golf is probably the most important thing in your very existence (go ahead, admit it), you really should be here at Doral Golf Resort serious winter.
Picture this: The blue sky is dotted with white puffy clouds, a warm gentle breeze sways the coconut palm and banana trees. A skinny white heron walks around on the tops of nearly clipped hedges that surround the practice putting green, hunting for . . . whatever herons hunt for.
The rattle of distant mowing machines that meticulously manicure these 2,400 lush green acres, the slap-slap-slap of irrigation sprinklers, the low whirr of electric carts leaving the clubhouse all are drowned out by the clattery rasping crunch of spikes on brick sidewalks.
Groups of guys - some of them with those plantation grandee hats that Greg Norman wears much beter than they do, but most of them in baseball caps with the bills forward, the old-fashioned way - gather at the marshal's gazebo beside the first tee waiting their turn at the Blue Monster.
That's a golf course, a very famous one.
I notice there is a metal plaque memorializing this as the very site where Our Curtis Strange lost the 1991 Doral-Ryder Open to something called a Rocco Mediate.
These guys, the ones in the hats, are guys just like you and me - well, like you golfers - the next Rocco Mediates, waiting their turn to take their boron-shafted, mega-oversized, titanium-headed war club with the depleted uranium face and CRUSH one . . . really SMOKE it . . . send that little white ball OUT OF SIGHT like a rocket. Heck, maybe even straight.
Is there anything more gratifying than hitting it a TON? Is there any more exhilarating a feeling, even if only in the anticipation, than to really UNLOAD down the fairway?
That instant when a dead-solid-perfect CLICK announces the perfect union of club face and ball may be the ultimate macho moment. Career shot. A guy who can do that can . . . well, let me put it this way: Can you think of any other reason why we celebrate John Daly? Certainly it is not for his hair-styling decisions.
So that's what these guys are waiting for - waiting to unload on the monster.
But, really now, is there anything any more unlikely? This is THE Blue Monster course. You'll see it on TV this weekend when the PGA Tour sets up shop here again for the Doral-Ryder, the first stop on the east coast sojourn.
The first time the pros played here back in 1962, the course rose up and bit a bunch of them in the behind, like a monster. I guess they call it ``blue'' because of all the water - the course was carved out of the edge of the Everglades and there are a lot of lakes and ponds - and not ``green,'' which it also is, because that name, Green Monster, was already taken by the leftfield wall at Fenway Park.
Over the years, though, the pros have figured out the Blue Monster - its winds that make it play longer than its 6,939 yards (from tournament tees), its deceptively tough rough that swallows balls, and its signature 18th hole adjacent to a lake with a sprouting geyser that is one of the most difficult finishing holes on the tour.
In 1990 Greg Norman tamed it with a record 10-under-par 62 and finished 23 under for four rounds. Then he went out and won the Doral-Ryder in a four-man playoff when he eagled the first hole.
So, while it still ranks 93rd best according to the collective wisdom of the experts in Golf Magazine's annual 100 Best Courses, the people at Doral are going to tear up the Blue Monster beginning April 1 and make it a real monster again.
Not to worry. There will still be another championship course - the par-70 Gold Course, recently renovated, restored and just generally improved under the direction of three-time Doral-Ryder champion Ray Floyd, who re-opened it in January with a round of 68. It has an island green finishing hole.
There's also a par-72 White Course and a par-71 Red Course, plus a nine-hole par-three layout; it's sort of a beginner's course, but the people at Doral prefer to call it the executive course.
Significant stat: In 153,000 rounds of golf played annually at Doral, about 400,000 balls are lost . . . and 200,000 are found, mostly by scuba divers.
That's significant because while the courses are demanding, you can learn to play better here.
Maybe this is a good place for a confession. I don't like golf for any number of reasons including (1) I'm not any good and (2) I will never be any good unless (3) I play at least twice a week, which (4) I can afford neither the time nor money to do. Also, golf talk bores me to death.
But I do wish I could spend a few hours with Jim McLean and his staff at the Doral Golf Learning Center. McLean is a hot property.
He was the cover boy of Golf Magazine's November issue, in which he explained the three moves to a power swing (Load, UNLOAD, EXPLODE!). The magazine's December issue listed the country's Top 100 golf teachers; an unheard-of three, McLean and two of his staff, were from Doral.
McLean, 44, ``coaches'' (as he prefers to think of it) a stable of tour pros that include Brad Faxon, Steve Elkington, Bill Britton and Tom Kite.
Now, Kite can flat PLAY. If you're a golfer, you know he is the tour's all-time leading money winner. But for a long time Kite couldn't WIN a major championship, which is what really matters.
After some intensive sessions with McLean - five hours a day for six straight days - Kite went out and won the U.S. Open, which is as major as it gets.
McLean was 1994 PGA Teacher of the Year.
McLean's Learning Center has all kinds of sophisticated equipment, including slow-motion video-tape machines to analyze a student's game, but his philosophy is quite simple. His three rules for golf improvement:
1. Know what you are doing now exactly.
2. Understand what you want to do instead.
3. Learn how to make changes.
One more thing you can probably learn at Doral: concentration.
The courses are more or less beneath the approach and takeoff patterns for Miami International Airport, where 140 airlines take off and touch down.
I love to watch planes come in on final approach, their flaps extended and landing gear down. I'd never be able to concentrate on lining up a putt at Doral.
I'm going to watch closely on TV this weekend to see what happens when one of those officious functionaries holds up a ``Quiet Please'' sign to remind spectators not to yell ``Git legs'' or some other stupid golf expression until after some concentrating pro has hit it a ton.
I do not think the pilot of a Lufthansa 747 on final approach from Frankfurt is going to read that ``Quiet Please'' sign and cut back his engines. Or care.
The pros will just have to tough it out. MEMO: ABOUT DORAL: The 694-room Doral Golf Resort and Spa is northwest of
downtown Miami, near Miami International Airport. Greens fees run about
$185 for nonguests, depending on course. The resort offers several golf
packages that include accommodations and various other amenities.
Private lessons at McLean's Learning Center are $200 per hour; there are
attractive two-, three- and five-day packages available. For more
information on the resort, call your travel agent or (305) 592-2000, or
call (800) 721-DORAL (for reservations); for the Golf Learning Center
call (305) 591-6409.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
STEPHEN HARRIMAN
A heron, top, eyes a foursome at hole No. 1 of the ``Blue Monster''
course at Doral. The signature 18th green, bottom, features a lake
and geyser.
by CNB