Woods' Firestone record offers hope

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 Bridgestone Invitational | Preview | 04 Aug 2010

Two big weeks of golf begin this Thursday when the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Championship is played at the Firestone Country Club’s South Course in Akron Ohio. A week later the final major of the year, the USPGA Championship, is played at the Straits Course at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

If there was ever a golf course for Tiger Woods to reassert his authority in the game it would be the South Course at the iconic Firestone Country Club. Woods has won this event on a ridiculous seven occasions in the past ten times the event has been played at this layout. When winning it for the seventh occasion last year, Woods became the first player to win an event on seven occasions on the same golf course on either the PGA or European Tours.

Woods also finished runner up on one of the other occasions. He has won the tournament on two occasions in a playoff but on the other five occasions his cumulative winning margin has been a staggering 25 shots, further highlighting his domination of the event.

In winning, Woods has demolished some of the strongest fields in the game and so his return to the original Bert Way and Robert Trent Jones Sr redesigned layout is awaited with much anticipation, especially given the trials and tribulations he has been through since winning by four over Robert Allenby and Padraig Harrington last year.

Despite his simply stunning success on the golf course it is hard to be convinced of his chances. There have been two impressive performances at the Masters and the US Open since his return to tournament golf after his self imposed layoff earlier in the year, but in three other starts he has been less than his normal convincing self. This is perhaps the litmus test we have been waiting for.

Phil Mickelson has won this event once and been three times runner-up but the last of those was eleven years ago. He has recorded only one top ten in this event in his last seven starts in Akron. Mickelson’s recent British campaign was rather ordinary also although he has never really played well there and he gets his chance to atone this week. There was little doubt of the form he was in prior to crossing the Atlantic but there are some stats he needs to overcome.

Lee Westwood has played Firestone really well in the last two years finishing with a round of 65 last year when 9th and sharing second, one shot behind Vijay Singh in 2008. His great runner up finish at the Open Championship and generally outstanding consistency in big events in the past two years gives him a great chance of this week challenging Woods and Mickelson for the number one position in the game.

Padraig Harrington finished runner up to Woods last year and, although he missed the cut at the Open Championship, the manner in which he bounced back to finish runner up last week to Ross Fisher in Ireland was a sign that there was not too much wrong.

If the European success rate on the PGA Tour continued this week then few would be surprised and Harrington might just be the man to do just that.

Charl Schwartzel showed earlier in the year that he has the game to succeed in the US and although he has played this tournament on only one previous occasion he did reasonably well then and as a potential long-shot chance he deserves respect.

Zach Johnson is another who perhaps deserves more respect than some of his betting odds suggest. He was ordinary at the Open Championship but prior to that was playing well and does enjoy a good consistent record at Firestone. It is a long course and therefore not one that would automatically suit Johnson’s game but he has found a way to play it and with some success.

Both Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby have been runners-up in the event at this golf course, Allenby last year and Appleby the previous year. Both are playing well enough to challenge for the title as leading Australian this week, Appleby earning his right to play courtesy of his stunning and historic victory last week in West Virginia.

Other Australians how have earned their way into the field are Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy who are far too inconsistent of late to be seriously considered, Jason Day and Marcus Fraser. Day makes the field courtesy of his win in Dallas and Fraser because of his win at the Ballantines Championship in Korea.

The tournament has prizemoney of US$8.5 million, the winner to receive US$1,530,000.