Bridgestone veterans averaging top 20 finish or better
On Thursday 82 golfers will descend on the South Course at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio for the much anticipated WGC Bridgestone Invitational. The tournament marks the last golf event before the PGA championship and is an important opportunity for players to advance in the world rankings and earn points towards the FedEx Cup.
Of the 82 players in the limited field, many of them fall within the world’s Top 55. The tournament has a no-cut policy which will afford every golfer the four round opportunity to win the $1.4 million purse. The par 70 course stretches 7,400 yards and is the longest par 70 course out of all the non-majors. While the length might seem unfair to the amateurs playing the tournament, the real test to players isn’t driving it off the tee but hitting the greens in regulation.
This year the field features 21 players who have played in the past four Bridgestone Invitational’s, and five more players who have made it here the past three times. Of these 26 players, six players distinguish themselves amongst the rest for averaging in the top 20 or better.
Lee Westwood
After three years of attending the event, Englishman Lee Westwood has an 11th place average. He is well suited for the course and is one of only four other players in this year’s field to have two top-10 finishes this season. Westwood was runner up for the 2008 Bridgestone Invitational, won the 2009 St. Jude Classic, and came in second to Phil Mickelson at the Masters Tournament this year. He also came in second place at this year’s Open Championship, so the question remains: is he capable of breaking through at one of these big events for a win.
Westwood is in a position to outrank Tiger Woods in the Official World Rankings if he can win the tournament.
Tiger Woods
Woods will be ‘defending’ his title this year but let’s cut to the chase and just admit that it’s more than likely someone else is going to be taking home the trophy. Out of the last four times he has teed off on the course Woods has walked off the final hole with the title, last year beating Padraig Harrington and Robert Allenby by an easy four strokes. Woods thrives on this course, but that’s exactly what was said about him before St. Andrews, the AT&T National, and the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
If the golf gods choose to bless Woods with his first win of the season this weekend, it will be his eighth victory at the event. Remarkable, career saving, confidence restoring, yes it would be all of these things. Possible? Not likely.
Hunter Mahan
Mahan recently dropped to 35th place on the rankings system. He has two top 10 finishes at Bridgestone which speak to his favour, both occurring in the last two years. Bridgestone is somewhat of a lucky exception to his career; Mahan has missed the cut in one-third of his starts this year. He did win the Waste Management Open, one of two top ten finishes this season so it might be too soon to write him out of the competition.
Zach Johnson
Johnson has missed two cuts and has only one top 10 finish this year. To his benefit the top 10 finish was a win at Colonial. The Bridgestone Invitational is a big event for Johnson, who is returning to the game this week after taking the last couple of weeks off from the golfing world to celebrate the birth of his son.
The South Course has been kind to Johnson, and it would be the perfect place for a comeback win.
Justin Rose
The thunder surrounding Rose in recent weeks has quieted down since his victory at the AT&T National was overshadowed by the Open Championship, the recent 59’s, and Ryder Cup hype. He is a player not to be forgotten especially going into this tournament, where he has finished within the top 30 in the past three years and T2 in 2007.
Ian Poulter
Pouler has performed well in WGC events. Since 2005 he hasn’t missed a cut in any of the 17 WGC events he has participated in, and in almost half of these appearances he has landed in the top 15 or better. Poulter is still listed amongst the top 10 in the rankings, even though recently he hasn’t been making headlines or winning many competitions.
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