The grandstands at Trump National Doral told a story this weekend that the PGA Tour would rather not discuss: a near-deserted 18th hole with empty seats and a $20 million event that looked like a practice day by the final round.

The players on the field did a splendid performance, specifically the winner, Cameron Young. He walked away with the $3.6 million prize bag. However, not many were there to watch him do it. Scottie Scheffler, on the other hand, finished the week at 13-under, six shots back and tied for second. The grandstand at the 18th also had visible gaps when Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa were playing.

Even before the 2026 championship began, it had big loopholes. Five of the world’s top 15 players, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert McIntyre, and Ludvig Åberg, decided to stay home. It was the highest number of top 15 absentees with any signature event since the format was launched.

If we look at the history of this championship, Tiger Woods made a big name for himself here. He had won the Blue Monster four times between 2005 and 2013. He had nine top-10s out of 11 starts then. On those Sundays, Doral was loud, packed, and unmissable. The sharp contrast with this weekend was certainly noticeable.

Even though it’s amusing to compare LIV with the PGA Tour right now, the contrast is very true. After the Tour left in 2016, LIV moved in and staged four consecutive events on the same Blue Monster between 2022 and 2025. The Saudi-backed league offered free parking, post-round concerts, and a fan village.

Images from LIV’s Doral stops showed galleries crossing fairways and a course that felt alive. No empty grandstand photos went viral. However, LIV quietly dropped Doral from its 2026 schedule. The PGA Tour picked it up and turned it into a signature event, and that has certainly not turned out well.

One more layer that complicated the entire championship was that the Tour confirmed TSA-style screening at all entry points for weekend rounds, citing a U.S. Secret Service protective detail. Travel times were expected to increase significantly.

This was the PGA Tour’s return to Doral after a 10-year absence, and it was decorated with a handsome $20 million purse and 700 FedEx points. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp called the return a “new era of the PGA Tour” for fans in Miami.

The fans have given an alarming response, in the same tone as the images from the stands go viral. Also, the live audiences have come back and reported their experience, and certainly not in a good way.

Fans React to Empty Stands at the $20M Cadillac Championship

“At a normal, respected golf tournament, that looks like the line for the men’s room. This Trump tournament is an embarrassment to the @PGA and to sponsor @Cadillac (shame on them).”

A fan wrote, “Cadillac’s history with Doral carries its own weight here.”

The brand was the title sponsor from 2011 until it walked away in 2016. When Cadillac left, Trump publicly mocked the Tour’s subsequent move to Mexico City, saying he hoped they had kidnapping insurance. A decade later, Cadillac is back, Trump still owns the venue, and stands are empty as ever.

“Weird, the PGA Tour returned to Doral after so many years of avoiding it. Something smells fishy, especially the way Trump embraced LIV, which never really took off, and there are rumors of it ceasing operations,” wrote another fan.

“So incredibly sad to watch the PGA tour suffer like this. When you host at a tRUMP course you are going to have record low turnout,” wrote another fan.

Just days before the Cadillac Championship teed off, the R&A’s new chief executive, Martin Durbin, confirmed that Turnberry remains in its thinking and described talks with Eric Trump as a really good discussion.

“Why would they plan this the same weekend of the Miami F1 race?” one fan wrote.

The Formula One Miami Grand Prix took place two miles from Doral on the same weekend. The Kentucky Derby ran the same day. Additionally, it was also South Florida’s first real summer heat weekend.

The Cadillac Championship replaced the Mexican Open on the 2026 schedule, a slot that had never previously carried a signature event, and sat between two other consecutive weeks. Adam Scott, on the Tour’s own policy board, said midweek, “Ideally, this wouldn’t be the way.”

One wrote, “3. The cost of admission was a DOGE bonus check, a tariff rebate, and a One Big Beautiful Bill tax refund. MAGA is still checking their mailbox.”

A single-day pass at Ural was $88, four dollars more than next week’s TOUR Championship at Quail Hollow.

“Of course, he will say it’s the biggest crowd ever, but I live in Arizona, and I know for a fact that the WM Phoenix Open has hundreds of thousands of fans show up. Not a few hundred,” another fan wrote.

The WM Phoenix Open drew an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 fans across tournament week in 2026. Additionally, it won the PGA Tour’s own event of the year award in 2025. The 16th hole alone holds 20,000 in a stadium setting.

Doral’s 18th had a visibly empty row on a Sunday afternoon for an event that was supposed to be a signature one.