Even contest at Tiger-less Bridgestone
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 Bridgestone Invitational | Preview | 30 Jul 2008
The third of the four World Golf Championship events for 2008 will be played this week at the famed Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, with an eclectic mix of international golfers playing the US$8 million dollar event.
The tournament brings together the top 50 in the world rankings, winners of specific events from various tours around the world and members of the most recent Ryder and Presidents Cup Teams. As a result a field of 80 of the game’s leading players will tee it up at one of the iconic golf courses of American golf.
The South Course at Firestone is an original Bert Way designed layout, first established in the 1950 but remodelled in 1960 by Robert Trent Jones Sr. It has played host to this event or its predecessor, the World Series of Golf, since 1976 although in 2002 the event was taken to the Sahalee Country Club in Washington when Craig Parry won his first PGA Tour event.
Without the event’s five time title holder and the winner in each of the last three years, Tiger Woods, in the field the list of potential victors is even greater than might have otherwise been the case. 1996 winner of the World Series Phil Mickelson is likely to be the favourite despite not being at his best of late. Mickelson’s second best is often good enough to win PGA Tour events however and he could still do very well.
Stewart Cink missed the cut at the Open Championship but won in his previous start at the Travelers Championship and does have a victory in this event to offer further claims to his winning chances. Cink defeated Woods and Rory Sabbatini in 2004 and then lost a playoff to Woods in 2006. On those performances alone he stands a very good chance to do well.
Sergio Garcia was very disappointing at the Open Championship but his lead up form was very good. The Spaniard has had the occasional good finish at the event although nothing too spectacular. Any player capable of winning the Players Championship and in the main holding good form since has a genuine chance this week.
Jim Furyk was very impressive at the Open Championship when 5th following a good week at the AT&T National event. He backed up last when 14th in Canada and the only thing that could possibly stop him having another good week might be a schedule that has been a little hectic. Furyk has not won this event but has often done well and could do so again.
It will be interesting to see if Kenny Perry can maintain his remarkable run of 2008 form with yet another big week in Akron. He has admittedly played against slightly weaker fields in recent weeks but his win at the Memorial was against a field of similar strength to that he faces this week. His great driving skills will be a significant asset this week despite the rough not being quite as penalising as it has been in previous years.
Rod Pampling was blown away by the winds of Royal Birkdale but prior to that he had been doing very well in PGA Tour events. Pampling has done well in events at Firestone at times in his golfing career when he was not in the same form as he has been in recent months. He could bounce back from a rather ordinary week across the Atlantic and has a good chance to be the leading Australian.
Robert Karlsson has been riding high of late with an amazing run of consistency. He has finished inside the top ten in eight of his last nine starts worldwide including those at the Masters, the US Open and the Open Championship. In three starts at this venue he has struggled to make an impact but he they were at another time and given the rich vein of form he is in then he has to be a chance.
There are 14 Australasians in this field, three of whom get their first start in the event. Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott are the leading ranked players and Ogilvy was doing well before struggling at Royal Birkdale. He had three top tens prior and that might be good enough form for him to do well again.
Robert Allenby comes off his equal best finish in a major championship while Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Nick O’Hern, Richard Green, Peter Lonard, Craig Parry and Brett Rumford have been here before and just by virtue of being in the field are good enough players to have their chance.
Brendan Jones, Scott Strange and New Zealander Mark Brown are all playing this event for the first time, all three in Akron as a result of wins in significant events over the past eight months or so.
