Well, with an eye on politics the TOUR Insider brings you one port deal that never causes controversy in Miami: the 45th visit of the PGA TOUR to Doral Resort & Spa. The $5.5 million Ford Championship at Doral, the first of five in the Southern Swing, begins Thursday on Doral’s famed Blue Course, otherwise known as the Blue Monster, which last year was dressed up like the Lady in the Red.

No disrespect for the marvelous Dick Wilson layout that used to evoke a little caution, but this is one place where golf professionals, those referred to in “These Guys are Good,” ad campaigns, have prominently displayed, well, how good they are. Out of the 55 layouts the TOUR denizens traversed last year, Doral’s par-72 Blue Course was ranked 40th in difficulty by yielding a collective 70.579 scoring average. Only nine of the 82 men who made the cut failed to shoot at least one sub-70 round.

Next year, Doral Resort & Spa becomes a stop in the World Golf Championships series. This is a good thing. Instead of 144 guys beating up on the grand old dame there will only be half that many.

Regardless of scoring, Doral always hosts a first-class event with plenty of drama. In the last 10 years the winner hasn’t been able to separate himself from his nearest challenger by more than two strokes. That means the famed 18th hole, a watery demon of a finisher, is usually in play to decide the outcome.

International players have won six of the last 11: Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Steve Elkington (twice), Ernie Els and Craig Parry. Nice imports.

Last year: Tiger Woods, posting a rare rally in his career, overcame a two-shot deficit to Phil Mickelson with a closing 6-under 66 and registered a one-stroke victory and set the 72-hole tournament record with a 24-under-par 264 total. A 30-foot birdie putt on the 17th was the difference as Woods reclaimed the No. 1 ranking from Vijay Singh with the victory.

How he did it: A 129 weekend total, lowest in tournament history, thank you very much. Woods made 14 birdies and an eagle against just one bogey over the final 36 holes, and he led the field with 27 birdies. Additionally, Woods ranked second in driving distance, third in sand saves, fourth in greens in regulation and fifth in putting -- an all-around great effort, really.

Strange but true: Woods and Mickelson have played in the final round together only three times. Woods has won them all, by the way.

True but not necessarily strange: Woods has at least a share of the 72-hole scoring record at six events, including the Ford Championship at Doral.

Nick Faldo will make a rare TOUR appearance this week at Doral. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

Worth Knowing:

• Two-time Ford Championship at Doral winner Steve Elkington arrives in Miami fresh off signing a comprehensive deal to play MacGregor equipment, including its irons, fairways woods and a Bobby Grace M-1 putter.

• Bernhard Langer, the former Ryder Cup captain who wants to make the European team again as a player, is in the midst of a busy schedule, which includes five tournaments in a row through THE PLAYERS Championship. After a week off, he’ll enter the Masters and the Verizon Heritage, making seven events in eight weeks. At age 47, Langer usually plays no more than two in a row.

• John Daly, off this week, has signed on with TaylorMade golf and will play a Maxfli ball. He also will be the centerpiece of TM’s rollout of its new Maxfli club line in 2007.

• Craig Parry, who won the ’04 Ford Championship at Doral with that spectacular eagle from the fairway in a playoff against Scott Verplank, is making his first U.S. start of the season.

• Parry’s isn’t the most intriguing Doral entry, however. That distinction belongs to 1995 champ Nick Faldo. The six-time major winner hasn’t played in a PGA TOUR event since the British Open. His last U.S. appearance was at THE PLAYERS Championship, where he tied for 27th.

Three players -- Phil Mickelson, David Toms and Vijay Singh -- posted four rounds in the 60s last year, tying the mark set in 1993 and equaled in 2000 and bringing the total number of players to accomplish the feat at Doral to 12. Only one player has done it twice: Jim Furyk.

Congratulations to South Africa's Rory Sabbatini for winning the West Coast Swing presented by Allianz. He is the first player from outside North America to win the $500,000 bonus for the best overall performance in the TOUR’s first eight weeks and only the second non-American after Mike Weir, who won it in 2003. This is no small feat; five times the West Coast King went on to win a major later in the year.

TI’s strength of field index: Nine of the top 10 in the world on hand and 15 of the top 21. Maybe that’s why the Monster is blue. 9.3.

TI’s power ranking for the Ford Championship at Doral: 1. Jim Furyk, 2. Steve Elkington, 3. Zach Johnson, 4. Tiger Woods, 5. Angel Cabrera.

Parting shot: “There's not that much difference between the top seeds and the last seeds. … When you talk about 64 of the best players, over 18 holes it's hard to see a difference.” -- Phil Mickelson, on handicapping the field for the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.