PGA Tour Returns Trump Doral Completes a Fascinating Pro Golf Transfer

It is best not to attribute it to politics, it is best to attribute it to money.

Money is the real reason why the PGA Tour decided to bring the game back to Trump Doral, a golf destination the president has owned since 2012.

On Tuesday morning, the tour officially announced plans to return to Doral’s Blue Monsters class for a new tournament called “The Miami Championship” (sponsors are pending). In a surprising twist, the new tournament will be the Tour’s ninth signature event in 2026, from eight events in 2025, ensuring star-studded fields and at least $20 million in wallet money. The event will be held in the first week of May 2026 and will be the first PGA Tour held in Doral since 2016.

It is difficult to find any interested party with no financial interest in the new arrangements of the Tour with President Miami Club. For Trump, the deal brings golf’s largest professional tour into a game home for more than fifty years, a healthy growth in his business interests. In addition to the “facilities fee” on the tour, the event will also provide Trump’s Miami resort with a week of tour focus, including exposure from national media and attendance of many of the world’s largest golf stars.

Meanwhile, this tour adds another big big sponsor event to the regular season calendar, with little cost-free—a small price that welcomes itself back to the president after a decade apart. The announcement comes after several industry leaders, most recently Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose public sentiment for the president has helped boost his business interests. (A friendly relationship with the government may be crucial to the future of the Tour business, especially if it advances the LIV merger that will be approved by the Justice Department.)

Even the Tour’s broadcast partner at the Miami Championships, CBS will profit from the deal, adding a week of signature event programs to the 2026 PGA Tour TV show, which also includes the FedEx Cup playoffs. CBS is a natural choice for attending Doral events — it hosted in Doral for decades before the tour stopped visiting — but the news came after a tough merger process that saw David Ellison, the network’s new boss, make several concessions to the White House to reach a deal. The Miami Championship added another Trump-friendly sports show to the CBS radio wave in 2026, which is expected to include a UFC match from the White House Lawn to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States in July.

Can you hear the news? For all parties, in all cases, this is short and straightforward: Follow the money.

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It may sound dazzling These money things are nothing new to doral. Sixty years ago, professional golf first came to the property with a similar arrangement. At the time, the main role was Alfred Kaskel, a New York real estate developer, whose dream of building a world-class golf resort required marketing tools. Fortunately for Kaskel, the world’s best golfers are on sale, playing on freshman golf tours around the world without the trap of high-paying sponsors and TV dollars. If Kaskel is able to pay for the players, they will show up at his new resort to compete. He brought wallets to the inaugural tournament, raising the initial $35,000 wallet to $50,000, as the extra carrot for golf’s biggest star, the Doral Country Club Open Invitational was born.

The name of the paradox won’t stick, but Kaskel’s game does. Billy Casper won the first iteration in 1962, with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Jimmy DeMaret also in the competition. For the next fifty years, golf returned to the Blue Monster every spring.

63 years after the first game drew a transition from wild west to championship golf Forbes List. The Doral CC Open Invitational was originally the Doral-Eastern Open, then the Ford Championship and finally the WGC-Cadillac Championship. A $50,000 wallet emits nearly $10 million.

Trump is a golf idol acne, and long before he was a political flame, he was just a small part of Doral’s history. By the time he purchased the property in 2012, the Doral PGA Tour was in its final form. The days of Tiger Glory begin to disappear, and the interest of sponsors is gradually disappearing. But Trump (who was the marketer himself) seized the opportunity. During game week he has been wandering the entire property throughout the event, posing with the winners, and even named a villa on Woods’ property. (Trump showed Tiger the villa’s “key” at a luxurious ceremony before the WGC in 2014; he will later present Woods with a second piece of hardware, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2019.)

Nevertheless, it can be argued that Trump’s greatest contribution to Doral-PGA Tour relations was intensifying before Tuesday. In 2016, as Trump’s presidential candidacy developed, Cadillac ended sponsorship of the tour in Doral. If a sponsor is not found, the tour’s contract with the property offers an option for a mobile event, which must transfer the Doral event to Mexico’s 2017 season.

The tour insists that Trump’s campaign’s comments on immigration were not a factor in determining location changes, and like other major company players like NBC Universal and Macy’s, they have avoided Trump’s business.

“We are not there because we can’t find sponsors,” said 2017 Commissioner Jay Monahan. “I spent a lot of time trying to find sponsors for the competition. It was disappointing to leave. If we found sponsors, we would still be there.”

Still, optics are inspiring: This tour is still capturing the Mexican comments In Mexico. Of course, the reason for this departure may be what Monahan suggested: The business environment facing Doral events is not as friendly as the Tour would have hoped, but it is hard to believe that Trump’s existence is not a topic with potential partners.

In other words, it might be the money to drive the trip out of Doral’s, but Trump is also important.

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On a broader level The same reason can be used to explain the trip return Go to Doral. Tides turned to Trump in the first year of their second presidency, with Wall Street and large tech leaders frequently making pilgrimage to the Oval Office for courtship. Meanwhile, the president exerted federal power in a way that matched few leaders in American history, without any cover for supporting those who helped their cause.

For much of the past four years, the president’s most friendly golf supporters can be found on Liv. His golf property received millions of dollars in live fees from the Saudi-backed league in exchange for tournaments held in Trump classes in Miami, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., where Reeve enjoyed a comfortable relationship with the president, capturing the commander-in-chief at the league’s events.

The first sign of a change in the relationship came in February, when Trump hosted leaders of Golf’s rival journey to peaceful negotiations at the White House. After this meeting, Monahan issued an unusually likable press release, thanking the president for his participation. Nearly six months later, the trip announced the decision to return to President Doral’s property. Of course, this decision is not primarily about Trump, but about bringing the PGA Tour into an environment where tournament golf makes sense and can make money – but Trump is important again.

It is a miracle to witness the 180 people who happened to Trump in 10 years in professional golf. Ten years ago, he was abandoned by the PGA Tour. Five years ago, the PGA Championship suddenly evacuated Bedminster on January 6. He appeared in a “Breaking 50” campaign video a year ago with Bryson DeChambeau. Today, he is getting prime billing from the tour and teasing a visit to the Ryder Cup next month, conducted by the US PGA.

The journey from PGA tour to signature activity status cannot be explained by politics alone. In many ways, this is the story of one of the most polarized characters of our time.

However, the story of golf in Doral has never been difficult to grasp. It’s always and only – it boils down to money.

Even for the president, cash is king.