WGC At Doral: So Much And Yet So Little Buzz

Jason Sobel at ESPN.com noted there was some buzz around the WGC Cadillac Championship first tee with the Spieth--Day-McIlroy grouping, but as television viewers could attest, it soon wore off.

McIlroy blamed the weather.

"It was good at the start, and then it kind of declined coming in," Day explained.

"The front nine, the atmosphere was better," McIlroy said. "Then the sun went in, so the people went away, basically. I think that's what really happened."

If you were watching and wondering why, yet again, the event at Doral seems to have so energy, Bob Harig explores the shift from regular PGA Tour event to WGC. With that has come a shift toward the corporate with higher prices, prioritizing corporate hospitality over community and fans.

"The tournament has lost its luster,'' said Erik Compton, a PGA Tour player who lives in Miami. "The community just doesn't seem as involved.''

Compton, 36, has never played his hometown event since it became a WGC in 2007. He received sponsor exemptions to the tournament years ago when it was a regular, full-field event.

Last year, he decided to attend as a spectator with his daughter, Petra, and was surprised to see almost no one in the grandstands behind the 18th green.

"I don't think anything says it better than this,'' Compton said. "It was a corporate tent, but there was nobody in the tents and somebody asked us to leave. We got kicked out. She had an ice cream in her hand, and I told them I was a tour player, showed them my badge, and they still made us leave. If the tournament directors knew that, I'm sure they would be upset.

"But the community is really not part of it. It was one of the premier events on the PGA Tour and then it went totally corporate.''

Harig goes on to analyze the future with Cadillac likely departing and the issues that come with WGC events.