WGC Cadillac Championship 2015: Tee times, pairings for Saturday’s round at Doral

The first WGC event of the year heads to the weekend with the biggest news being an angry heave of a club into the water. Rory McIlroy’s frustrated launch of his 3-iron into the lake that abuts the 8th hole was the highlight of Friday’s second round, and probably the only thing we’ll remember from that day at Doral.

McIlroy started the year as the unquestioned world No. 1 and only reaffirmed that position with a second-place finish and a win in two Euro Tour appearances over in the Middle East. But after a lengthy layoff, it hasn’t gone so smoothly over in the States. He made his PGA Tour debut last week at the Honda Classic and promptly missed the cut after a bunch of wayward tee shots. It was almost certainly just a blip in Rory’s continued stay as the game’s most dominant player, but then he went out this week and started the WGC-Cadillac Championship with a 40 on his first nine. Some more shakiness on Friday, and then finally that yanked 3-iron into the water at the 8th set him off as he deposited the Nike stick in the bottom of the drink.

While that became the story of the day, McIlroy actually went on to post a solid round minus the club he said he knew wouldn’t need again as he decided to let it fly. His 2-under round of 70 puts him in the red for the week at 1-under, and just outside the top 10. It’s a full eight shots off the pace, but with all the water troubles and potential for wind at Doral, blow-up holes are always lurking for the leaders and Rory could be right there by Sunday afternoon.

McIlroy will undoubtedly have a new 3-iron in the bag on Saturday when he tees off with Brooks Koepka at 12:35 p.m. ET. Koepka is one of those up-and-coming American players who is just now getting experience at the biggest and toughest events. He absolutely demolishes the ball off the tee and it’s one of the rare instances where Rory will play in a twosome where he’s not the longest hitter. Koepka got a win earlier this year to solidify his status on the PGA Tour, one which they acknowledged last week when they paired him with Rory and Dustin Johnson at the Honda. Koepka could be one of those contemporary challengers pushing Rory over the next couple decades.

The WGC events are some of the most exclusive, big money tournaments of the year. It’s hard to qualify and get an invite, but once you do, you’re guaranteed a sizable check. That’s because this limited-field event has no cut. All 74 players will cash out and can play four rounds (even Thomas Bjorn, who withdrew after the first round, walked away with more than $40,000).

The Tour will switch it up for the weekend and use the typical format of sending players off in twosomes on one tee throughout the entire day. For the first two rounds, even though they have a small field, they opt to send them in threes off split tees in a condensed two-hour window. That puts the entire field on the course at the same time and is great for TV. Saturday is a more traditional format with tee times from 7:50 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. ET. With the entire top 50 in the world rankings here (for the first time since August 2012), every tee time has a headliner or multiple big-name players in it.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Saturday’s third round (all times ET):