World's Top-50 Tee off Today at Doral


For the first time since the 2012 PGA Championship, the top-50 players in the World Golf Rankings will be teeing off in the same tournament, the WGC-Cadillac Championship. The $9.25 million event started Thursday at Trump National Doral in Miami.

No. 1 Rory McIlroy leads the elite field. The 25-year-old Northern Irishman, who swept the player-of-the-year awards last year on both the PGA and European tours, is paired in the first two rounds with No. 2 Bubba Watson and No. 3 Henrik Stenson of Sweden.

The new two players in the rankings, Jason Day and Adam Scott, follow the same sequence as the Nos. 4 and 5 will be paired with No. 6 Jim Furyk. The same goes for Nos. 7-9 being paired up: Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth, making the tournament replete with marquee groupings.

Defending champion Patrick Reed, now 15th, will be playing alongside Nos. 13 and 14, Jimmy Walker and Hideki Matsuyama, respectively.

One player to watch this week is Scott, who will be making his 2015 debut. The 34-year-old from Adelaide saw many changes to his life during the off-season: he has a new caddie, a new putter and a new baby girl, Bo, who was born on February 15.

"The last few weeks at home, seeing a bit of the guys play, I've got that kind of itchy feeling to play," said Scott, who has not played competitively since tying for second at the Australian PGA Championship in early December. "But I was home for a good reason and everything is going well, so [it's a] good time to kick it off here."

Scott's new caddie is Mike Kerr, who has worked for Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez and most recently Thorbjorn Olesen. Kerr replaces Steve Williams - Tiger Woods' long-time looper - who retired at the end of the year.

Now in his bag is a short putter, a move Scott is making in anticipation of a rules change on January 2016 that will ban anchored putters. Scott has used the long putter to great effect, including a win at the 2013 Masters.

"I've kind of enjoyed experimenting at home the last couple months because I've had so much time up my sleeve," he told reporters Wednesday. "Thinking a little more objectively about it at the back end of last year, I thought because I do have to make an adjustment by the end of this year, if I'm going to spend some time doing it, I should try and start now and maybe find the best solution.

"I've putted lots of different ways at home, and probably going to putt with a shorter putter this week. It's been feeling good. I've enjoyed doing it. It's not that big a deal. I did it for a long time, too, that way."

For all the tee times in the WGC-Cadillac Championship, visit http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/cadillac-championship/tee-times.html.