WGC Cadillac Championship Preview and Picks

Course vitals
Yardage: 7,266
Par: 72
Designed by: Dick Wilson (1961).
Bunkers: 110
Water Hazards: 11
Green speeds: 11.8-feet.
2010 difficulty rank: 34
Defending Champion: Ernie Els
Course record: Stephen Ames, 61

Key Back nine holes

603-yard par five 12th: It may not be the glorious eagle opportunity that some par-fives are, but it's certainly a coin flip birdie. Last year -- while playing 0.342 strokes below par -- there was just one eagle and 106 birdies. There was only 10 bogeys, one double and one triple.

467-yard par four 18th: The infamous Blue Monster actually ranked as the second hardest hole on the course last year. The real difficulty comes from the tee considering the wind is most often into tee or a crosswind, making it difficult to find the fairway. There was more than double the bogeys or worse (76) than birdies (36).

Foursome Picks

Full disclosure: I couldn't decide whether I liked Paul Casey or Nick Watney more this week, so I turned my foursome plus longshot into a six-pack.

Nick Watney, 22-1: You'd be hard pressed to find a player hotter this year than Watney, at least without having won a tournament. He's posted no worse than a T9 -- at the match play -- and is cumulative 34-under par in his three stroke play events so far. He's also played well here with a runner-up finish in 2009 and a T26 last year. He's had just one round over par -- an opening one-over 73 last year -- in his eight rounds.

Paul Casey, 25-1: Posted a T6 here last year and has had marginal success at Doral over the years with a T9 in '07 and a T8 in '03. Aside from a second round exit at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship where he often plays well, he's been on form this year and picked up a win at the end of January at the Volvo Golf Champions in Bahrain.

Charl Schwartzel, 30-1: Was the runner-up to Ernie Els here last year after sharing the 54-hole lead with him and has been playing well early in 2011. He defended his title at the Joburg Open and hasn't posted a result worse than T17 -- his finish at the Match play.

Bill Haas, 40-1: Was a solid T6 here last year and has posted no finish worse than T33 this year, including three straight top-10s to start the season.

Jim Furyk, 55-1: Admittedly the 2010 Fed Ex Cup champion has not gotten off to a good start this year. But he has been solid at Doral over the years. In the four years it has been a WGC event, he's posted: T35, T2, 3, T37. Add in the non-WGC years and his record is even better with a win -- in 2000 -- another 2nd, a T8 and a T9. He got off to a pretty slow start last year as well -- granted not quite as bad as this year -- but it was once the Florida swing started that his season really kicked into gear, snapping a 32-month winless drought at the Transitions Championship.

Louis Oosthuizen, 100-1: On the negative side, he's played here three times and broken par just five times. On the plus side, three of those came last year when he posted a T20. He's also still buoyed by the confidence of his resounding victory at last year's open championship and already has a win this year at the Africa Open.

Puerto Rico Open Picks

Brendan de Jonge, 25-1: T3 here last year.

Angel Cabrera, 45-1: Two-time major champion. 'Nuff said.

John Merrick, 40-1: T68 last year after posting T6 and T13 in the first two years.

Kris Blanks, 66-1: Solo second last year.

Longshot: Paul Stankowski, 100-1. Improved each year he's played here -- from cut to T21 to T12.