Leading Australians lead World's best
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2011 World Golf Championship -Bridgestone Invitational | Day One | 05 Aug 2011
The opening round of the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational at the Firestone Country Club in Akron in Ohio has turned into an all-Australian affair with Adam Scott and Jason Day the star turns for most of the opening round.
Scott stole the lead from Day late in his round, a lengthy birdie putt at the 17th edging him ahead to set up a round of 62 and lead by one over his fellow countryman.
Day played early on the opening day and hardly put a foot wrong as he fashioned a round of 63 over the normally demanding South Course. Playing his opening round with Phil Mickelson, Day, as he has done on several occasions this season already, displayed a capacity to handle the big stage. He opened with a birdie at this first hole of the day and never looked back.
I really enjoy playing against the best golfers in the world on the biggest stage, which is nice," said Day after his round. “I’ve always wanted to play on the big stage, and I’m finally here, which is nice. I just want to — obviously I just want to keep the year going in the right direction. I don’t want to go backwards.
“I hit driver well and hit a lot of good quality iron shots into the greens. I didn’t stomp it all day, but I hit it to a good 15 to 20 feet all day. My putter was good all day. I hit a lot of good quality putts and felt — like I said, it felt like it was a boring kind of a game. It was down the middle, on the green, and every two or three holes was a birdie which was nice.
“I’ve got ties to Ohio, I’ll tell you that much. It really is good. Obviously we live here, just two hours south of here, and it’s good to have the family out this week and have a lot of fans out there kind of supporting me, which is nice. Obviously I’ve got good vibes up here in the Akron area, Cleveland area, and obviously my first win was at Stonewater. It’s good to be back really.”
Scott played much later at the end of the afternoon field and he too was virtually mistake free, accumulating birdies, sparingly to start then in a flood over his closing nine holes.
“I played extremely solid today, said Scott. “The first 15 holes, I struck the ball beautifully and drove it in the rough the last three holes. But other than that, I mean, everything was right in the spot where I wanted it. Conditions were perfect for scoring. There were so many good scores out here today. It’s probably not what we’re used to seeing around this course, so it was good to take advantage of that.
The obvious question would come however as to the Tiger Woods and Steve Williams situation and Scott handled it well. “I haven’t seen him (Tiger) this week yet, no. I saw him at Aronimink, but I had no idea that it was going down like that.
“I don’t think it should be awkward. I mean, this kind of thing happens on the TOUR. It happens a lot every year with everyone, and just because it’s Tiger and Steve, I’m not going to treat it like it’s anything different than anyone else going through this. I hope it’s not going to be awkward. I don’t have a problem, but if he has a problem, then he can definitely tell me.”
“I think he (Williams) just wants to bring a good energy toward me. I think he believes in my game, that I can be one of the best players in the world. You know, I think he thinks he can help me achieve that, and I believe that, too. So it’s just a positive energy and just good motivation. Everything is very positive and confident with Steve so far, and you know, that’s hopefully rubbing off on me.”
The ever present Nick Watney is at 5 under and two behind Day.
World number one Luke Donald opened with a round of 68, Lee Westwood and Phil Mickelson 67 and Tiger Woods a solid enough start of 68.
Amongst the other Australians Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley had rounds of 68 and Richard Green a 69.
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