Monster Mania

Blue Chipper

Doral Resort and Spa's Blue course (a.k.a. the Blue Monster) and the Genuity Championship have gone through 40 years together, longer than all but two other venue-and-event pairings on the PGA Tour, Augusta National and the Masters (68 years), and Colonial Country Club and the MasterCard Colonial (56). The marriage between Doral and the tournament has endured a disastrous face-lift (a course renovation gone wrong, in 1996), seen the extraordinary ( Greg Norman's 65 for 19 holes in 1990) and been the subject of rumor (the tarpon in Doral's water hazards are said to weigh 200 pounds; in fact, the resort comps the player who lands the biggest fish during tournament week). This old couple will celebrate its anniversary from Feb. 28 to March 3. What's the secret of its longevity? Spontaneity born of wind, water and sand. They turn D-o-r-a-l into o-r-d-e-a-l (just add one ill-timed e), and that's why we still tune in. How about that? A marriage that survives because of its volatility.

1959
Alfred Kaskel buys 2,400 acres of swampland in Miami for a golf resort called Doral—a hybrid of his wife's name, Doris, and his own. Skeptics dub it Kaskel's Folly.

1960
Construction begins on clubhouses, lodges and courses. Dick Wilson designs now-fabled Blue course. High-profile amateur Frank Strafaci is hired as director of golf.

1961
Burn to be Wild
Kaskel's Doral Hotel and Country Club opens in west Miami. Meanwhile the $25,000 Sunshine Open Invitational in Miami Beach is played for the last time. Kaskel sees an opportunity and proposes a stunning $50,000 tournament for the same spot on the Tour calendar.

1962
At the first Doral Country Club Open, 92 Tour pros go 104 over par on the par-4 18th hole in the third round. "This is a monster...a blue monster," Strafaci tells the press.

1963
Palm Thursday
During the pro-am before the tournament Kaskel notices players cutting the corner of the dogleg-left 16th. Displeased, he orders a row of palm trees planted there that night. When George Bayer gets to 16 the next day, his caddie eyes the palms and says, "Things grow pretty fast down here."

1970
The 1968 U.S. Open champion, Arthur Ashe, joins Doral as director of tennis in the prime of his career. He will go on to his greatest win, at Wimbledon, in '75.

1975
The Great Confrontation: Jack Nicklaus beats Forrest Fezler and Bert Yancey by three strokes and archrival Johnny Miller—already a three-time winner this year—by four.

1977
Big, affable Floridian Andy Bean gets the first of his 11 victories on the Tour—he'll win twice more at Doral—as the final round falls on his 24th birthday.