For the first time on the PGA Tour in a decade, we head back to Doral, which has formerly hosted a WGC event for a decade. Between 2007 and 2013, Doral was actually one of the easiest events on Tour, and it was routinely won at between 16 and 19 under par. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods both won it at 2019 under par, and it played like a much more benign version of Bay Hill.

It’s a very flat golf course, with very flat, uninteresting greens, and while there was certainly a ton of water, the water did not come into play as much as one would think. Yet everything changed between 2013 and 2014 when Gil Hanse completely renovated the course, and the winning score went from -19 in 2013 to -4 in 2014.

So what did Gil Hanse do to make the golf course play so much harder? Well, he basically re-designed this course in a way that Rees Jones re-designed Hazeltine or Torrey Pines or Oak Hill. He made the golf course significantly longer (and it's become even longer since we last saw the course on the PGA Tour in 2016), he pinched in the fairways, he re-positioned a ton of the fairway bunkers to come far more into play for the modern player, and he moved a lot of the greens and the fairways a lot closer to the water, making the hazards far more intimidating and in play.

Now what’s interesting about this renovation is that is really doesn’t fit with how Gil Hanse typically re-designs golf courses. Yes, Hanse has an extensive resume of improving major championship golf courses to make them play harder for the modern professional, but he typically does not do that in the Rees Jones style (pinch in the fairways, add fairway bunkers left and right.)

Instead, he puts a lot of work into the green complexes, and he certainly makes the golf course longer, but not necessarily more narrow. If you look at what he did at LACC or Southern Hills or the Country Club, the re-design philosophy is so much different than what he did at Doral.

This leads me to believe that he got pretty strict marching orders from the new owner of the resort who commissioned the renovation, Donald Trump, and it appears that Gil Hanse has now distanced himself from this renovation. I don’t know if that’s because he wanted to distance himself from President Trump or he simply just felt like the work that he did at Doral did not necessarily represent who he has come to be as an architect today.

To read the rest of Andy’s preview, click here.

The Turkish Airlines Open finds a new home this year, at the National Golf Club -- down the road from the previous two hosts in the golf heavy Belek region. National is a 7,287-yard par 72 parkland course that winds through thick forests with water in play on 7 holes. There are Bermuda grass playing surfaces, but they have been overseeded with Poa Trivialis over the winter.

Although I expect by late April the Bermuda will be coming back through. There has been an old Challenge Tour event held at National back in 2014, which was won by Oliver Farr (according to his oldest Datagolf skills plot, he was a driving accuracy merchant) at -2 with +6 good enough for a t20. But no past DPWT events here mean no stats, so purely going off mapping the course with Google Earth and some Youtube videos from late 2025 this week.

National is not a long course, with the par fours in particular on the shorter side. The 15th has been converted from a par 5 and is a very long par 4 at 527 yards, and the 9th has had the tee taken back to stretch it to 480 yards. But seven of the 10 par 4’s are under 430 yards. The shortest of them is the 357 yard 6th and I suspect they may move the tee forward to make it drivable from a tee that is 305 yards to the green.

The most interesting of these par 4’s is the 8th hole, which has a dogleg at 280 yards protected by bunkers on the corner and a tree on the outside that blocks out tee shots going too far. There is also water to the right of the fairway for the layup short of the dogleg, and more water past the bunkers on the left for those that try to carry the corner. Water is also in play all the way down the left side on the 18th, which is a short 372-yard par 4 that shouldn’t require more than a layup and wedge on for a final birdie chance.

To read the rest of Bexico’s preview, click here.

We are coming off hitting Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage two weeks ago since most pools take the Zurich Classic off. The Fitzy win got me $3,600,000 and moved me inside the top 100 in Rick Run Good’s big Splash Sports pool and first place in our ISN subscriber league.

Another big week down in Miami as the Cadillac Championship is a signature event on the PGA Tour schedule, with the winner getting $3,600,000, similar to the RBC Heritage.

It’s a really interesting week from an ownership perspective because some of the top players of the world like Rory, Xander, Ludvig, and Fitzy aren’t in the field.

My OAD pick for the Cadillac Championship is: Russell Henley

I believe there’s a great opportunity to in DFS and OAD to take players that don’t fit the elite OTT and drive by far narrative at low ownership. Russell Henley certainly isn’t long OTT, but if you look at his history on long difficult courses, it’s pretty impressive. For example, he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill last year.

He ranks 6th in the field on approach and 2nd in strokes gained total on long golf difficult golf courses. He is one of the best Bermuda putters and overall middle iron players in the field. He let a lot of people down at the RBC Heritage two weeks ago and believe this is a great buyback spot on a course that he could get overlooked.

I also considered Tommy Fleetwood, who I believe has the same narrative as Henley with not being the longest OTT and not the best finish at the Heritage. If you want to fit the elite driver narrative, I don’t mind taking a shot on Jake Knapp.

2026 OAD Total: $9,785,922

Last week, I had the opportunity to check out Brambles, a relatively new Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design in Middletown, California which opened in 2024. I had heard only exceptional things about this golf course, and was forced to reschedule a prior opportunity to see it last summer. This was most definitely one of my most anticipated new golf endeavors of 2026. 

I immediately felt an extremely welcoming vibe from Brambles, unlike other modern high profile destination private clubs. I was set up to play unaccompanied by a friend of friend, so it wasn’t even like I was coming as an official guest of a member. I even called the morning of to see if I could play earlier, as I didn’t realize how much of a hike the golf course was from San Francisco, where I was meeting friends for dinner that evening.

When I called the number on the website, the phone was actually answered by a man who introduced himself as one of the founders of the club, and he quickly invited me to join his earlier four-ball to accommodate my schedule. This turned out to be an incredible blessing, as I was gifted the opportunity to pick his brain on the club’s philosophy and his vision. 

If I was to describe Brambles in one word, minimalist is apt, but that may even be an overly reductive viewpoint on what the club is trying to accomplish from an architectural standpoint. While Coore and Crenshaw are responsible for the routing, the vision for the golf course was really spearheaded by James Duncan. The long-time associate of Coore and Crenshaw has a vast resume that includes Bandon Trails, Austin Golf Club, Old Sandwich, Shanqin Bay, and Yokohama, amongst others.

His work at Trinity Forest, Shanqin Bay and Yokohama inspired the selection Zoysia grass agronomy, which is extremely rare for California. Duncan understood that Zoysia required significantly less water, and that this agronomy could be both a cost saving measure as well as serve the best possible playing conditions for a course that was designed to play firm and fast. 

The course was in remarkable shape at my time of play, with the Zoysia growing in wonderfully, and despite somewhat slower greens, the ball can truly be played on the ground in here in a way that conjures a true links feel. For what it’s worth, slower greens on golf courses with well thought out putting complexes filled with subtle undulations is often a positive, as it can increase the amount of pinnable locations without feeling too severe. I found this to be the case at Brambles. 

If I was to best describe the aesthetic and architectural vibe here, Brambles feels like Rustic Canyon meets North Berwick. It is filled with natural, rugged hazards, not dissimilar from the barrancas at Los Angeles Country Club or Rustic Canyon, and inspiration was clearly drawn from Scottish links courses as well.

My favorite hole on the course was nine, which I doubt will be an unpopular opinion. The ninth is truly unlike any hole I’ve played before. It’s as if the famous 17th “Road Hole” had a baby with North Berwick’s similarly famous 13th “Pit.” Yet instead of the ancient stone wall at Berwick as the defining hazard, the ninth green sits adjacent to a baranca. The green is guarded on one side by the barranca, and on the other by a Road-hole “esque” bunker.

The closer one plays off the tee to the baranca, the shorter approach they are gifted. Like many great risk-reward par fours, the more conservative play off the tee yields a longer, more challenging approach. I decided to hit 4-iron off the tee, but arguments could be made to hit anything from driver to 6-iron, depending on a player’s appetite for aggressiveness. I will be surprised if I play a more singular and engaging golf hole all year. 

I am a sucker for golf course’s that have a distinctive style of place of know exactly what they are trying to be. Everything about Brambles serves its underlying philosophy. From the understated nature of the club-house, to the logo (a simple sheep with wings), to the lack of a locker room, to the lack of over-indulgent comfort stations, to the welcoming atmosphere far more remiscent of golf culture in Scotland than the stuffy feel of private clubs in America, Brambles is an exercise in restraint and a lesson that less is often more.

I joked with one of the founders that Brambles feels like the “anti-Discovery property,” and he laughed, signaling that what they were after was something more pure and minimalistic, stripping golf down to its roots in the British Isles. Duncan, Coore & Crenshaw, and the rest of the founders involved have succeeded on such a highly specific level, on architectural, aesthetic, and even cultural level, in creating the closest thing to Scotland I’ve encountered in California—perhaps even America. 

My recommendation is to run, not walk to see Brambles. They appear to be extremely welcoming to visitors, and lacking the stuffiness and exclusivity of other private clubs, while also showing limited interest in getting the word out about how special what they have is. In fact, they know what they have is perfect as is, and I hope it never changes.

If PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and company decide to keep the signature event model, which I personally don’t think they should (topic for another newsletter edition), the Zurich Classic should absolutely be a signature event for multiple reasons. 

Wouldn’t it be smart to require the best players in the world on the PGA Tour find a partner and play in this team format? You could even scratch the best ball portion of the tournament and have each round be an alternate shot, which in my opinion is more exciting due to its variance and unpredictability. 

Personally, I would love to see groups like Scottie/Burns, Rory/Lowry, Spieth/JT, Hovland/Morikawa, and some of the other top names play in an event that is unlike any of the other weeks on the schedule. 

From a fan viewing perspective and trying to draw new fans to the game, I believe the partner format is very relatable and fun. When the weekend golfer goes out to play with friends, they are most likely doing some sort of 2v2 match. I know the Zurich Classic is not full team format or match play, but it is the closest format that the regular golfer plays at home. The Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup are primarily popular for the team aspect of the event, but the match play format is one of the reasons why fans love it. 

As I stated above, the alternate shot format is highly volatile. The Fitzpatricks looked unstoppable until they got in trouble with Matt’s wayward drive on 12 and then Alex hit a tree with their second shot, ultimately leading to a double bogey and bringing teams behind them back into the mix. 

There was some doubt if the Fitzpatricks could close it out as they seemed shaky after the double bogey on 12, but after Alex’s impressive tee shot on the par 3 17th hole, and Matt’s nasty bunker shot on 18 to cement their win, it turned out to be the storybook ending. 

This isn’t the first time that we have had a great ending to the Zurich Classic. Rory and Shane Lowry won in a dramatic playoff in 2024, and Ben Griffin/Andrew Novak held off the Hojgaard twins in 2025.

Having the best players in the world compete in this format would create a great TV product in my opinion, and I hope Brian Rolapp incorporates a couple of new formats in the future schedule.

Our community of subscribers had another great week at the Zurich Classic, but specifically wanted to shoutout StatATL in our discord. He shipped two DFS contests with the same lineup, taking home a total of $6,000 over the weekend.