Rory McIlroy will ‘jump the wall’ to play Donald Trump’s former PGA Tour event in Mexico

It was not exactly a tradition unlike any other. But with the PGA Tour leaving Trump National Doral for Mexico, it leaves behind the fourth-longest running Tour event.

Doral, in one form or other, had been home to a Tour contest for more than half a century, beginning with Billy Casper’s 1962 victory and ending with a win by Adam Scott in 2016. Tour commissioner Tim Finchem confirmed on Wednesday that his organization would take the second World Golf Championship on its schedule away from the Blue Monster’s current owner, controversial presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and plunk it down in Mexico City.

Starting next year, the Tour’s heavy hitters will, as Rory McIlroy quipped ahead of this week’s Memorial Tournament, ‘jump the wall’ to compete in the March 2-7 WGC-Mexico Championship at a facility that Finchem declined to name. Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte, however, reported that the Tour will stage the event at Club de Golf Chapultepec near Mexico City, with the Grupo Salinas conglomerate as sponsor. Grupo Salinas is a group of corporations involved in television, banking, retail, internet services and other industries.

Finchem and Trump traded barbs about whether the move to leave Miami after the contract for the sponsor of the WGC-Cadillac Championship expired was politically or financially motivated. Finchem did say that Trump (although not necessarily his divisive political remarks) played a role in the Tour’s inability to attract another title sponsor for Doral.

“I think one of the difficulties with sponsorship here -- I know everybody’s talking about politics, but it’s actually not that, in my view,” Finchem said. “I think it’s more Donald Trump is a brand, a big brand, and when you’re asking a company to invest millions of dollars in branding a tournament and they’re going to share that brand with the host, it’s a difficult conversation.”

Finchem also noted that he hoped the Tour would return to the home of the iconic Blue Monster — or some other Miami locale with the same name.

“We are keen on coming back to Doral,” he said. “We need to find the right property to resume our long-term involvement in the community. We’re proud of being there for over 50 years, and we’d like to come back.”

For sure, reaction from players gathered for Jack Nicklaus’ tourney at Muirfield Village, was varied.

McIlroy was quick to recognize the humor in the Tour moving its limited field, no-cut, big-purse event from a course owned by the man who said he would build a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“It’s quite ironic that we’re going to Mexico after being at Doral,” cracked McIlroy. “We just jump over the wall.”

Jokes aside, McIlroy, who had a special, if tempestuous relationship with Trump’s track, supported the Tour’s decision.

“They’re called the World Golf Championship for a reason,” he said. “I always felt that having three of them in the United States wasn’t really spreading the game. So I think that’s good news, you’re getting at least one of those outside the States.”

He noted that Mexico was not exactly uncharted territory for the Tour, which has the OHL Classic at Mayakoba on its calendar.

Phil Mickelson, who must have been relieved that the Trump-Finchem heavyweight bout upstaged not only Nicklaus’ event but his first public appearance since news of his insider-trading brouhaha broke, said the news offered pros and cons.

Doral has “been a special place for the PGA Tour going back to the ‘60s, when it started,” said Mickelson. “But it also offers an opportunity to take a World Golf Championship event outside the United States to another part of the world and bring world class golf to Mexico City. So I think there could be some positives.”

Sounding more the careful politician than the shoot-from-the-hip Trump, Lefty said his emotions are mixed.

“It’s a great opportunity moving forward,” he said, “but we also are losing a good long-term partner.”

Jordan Spieth, out early on Thursday with McIlroy to start the Memorial, was pleased to know that the Tour assured everyone would be “safe, secure.” He also acknowledged that some players would not be sorry to say so long to Trump’s real estate.

“Miami was fun. The golf course was in great shape,” said Spieth. “It wasn’t one that everybody loved -- it wasn’t everyone’s favorite golf course, but it was always in pristine condition, and some great champions came out of it.”

Champions like four-time winner Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Mickelson.

“It’s tough to leave places like that,” said Davis Love III. “It’s hard to leave traditional places. Doral’s changed a lot over the years. The golf course has changed a lot. It’s not the Blue Monster we played for a long time. The city’s grown up around it -- the airport’s grown up around the golf course. It’s just for the sponsors, it hasn’t really worked quite as well the last few years.

“But it’s still disappointing,” said Love.

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