World Golf Championship and Bridgestone Invitational Preview
The World Golf Championship and Bridgestone Invitational kicks off next week at the Firestone Country Club and Anthony Kim announced Tuesday that he will be making his first PGA appearance in three months at the tournament. Tiger Woods, Carl Pettersson and Louis Oosthuizen, to name a few, have also confirmed their entrance for what is shaping up to be an action-filled tournament next week.
The tournament will take place August 3rd through to the 8th in Arkon Ohio. Kim revealed the news of his return to the game first to fans on his Facebook page: "I will be back next week at the wgc...looking forward to (being) back," he posted on the online social network.
Kim has been absent from Tour events since May when he underwent surgery to repair the torn ligaments in his left thumb. Kim opted for the surgery days after he tied for seventh at the Quail Hollow Championship though he had been complaining of pain in his thumb as far back as the spring of 2009. The injury has cost him 20 yards off the tee and has been very painful, though Kim does not like talking about the weakness.
“It’s definitely uncomfortable and something I didn’t want to talk about,” Kim said. “I have a great doctor . . . and he’s trying to figure it out. Maybe we go to Nike and get a new glove that fits my thumb and holds it in place a little bit better. We are just trying to figure something out.”
Kim’s doctor, Thomas Graham, told Kim he would be out for 10 to 12 weeks. Kim is ranked in fourth place on the Ryder Cup standings after dropping two points due to his absence. Only the top eight players at the end of the season will be automatically selected to join Corey Pavin on the American Ryder Cup team and Kim is determined to be one of those people. He began shooting balls again in early July and has remained in the top 10 on the FedEx Cup points standing despite his leave.
Kim won the Shell Houston Open in April and had three top ten finishes out of five starts this season prior to the surgery. There are only four more weeks remaining in the 2010 season, so every event counts. The final PGA Tour event is the PGA Championship and will be held the week following the Bridgestone Invitational at Whistling Straits.
Woods, defending champion of the Bridgestone Invitational, is still hoping to turn his luck around and win a tournament this season. He is a seven time winner of the World Golf Championship, the first and only player in PGA history to win that many times. Woods beat out Irishman Padraig Harrington in a playoff last year when he was still considered a player to contend with. Woods has played, and won, on the Firestone course every year since 2005 except for in 2008 when he missed the second half of the season to recover from knee surgery.
As always, golf enthusiasts are wondering if this is the tournament that will bring Woods career back from the dead. After his performance at St Andrews for the British Open landed him in 23rd place, it seemed safe to say (if it hadn’t already been) that Woods’ career is on a downward spiral that doesn’t look like it is going to get better any time soon. Woods has never finished lower than fourth in the Firestone event.
The Bridgestone Invitation field includes members of the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams, as well as winners of tournaments held around the world in the past year. Players who have an Official World Golf Ranking in the top 50 are invited to participate and the winner of this week’s Greenbrier Classic and Irish Open will be given a berth if they did not already qualify.
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