Notes and Quotes from Bridgestone:
Mickelson staggers to the finish line – WGC - Bridgestone Invitational
AKRON, Ohio - Phil Mickelson is still looking for that final piece. Whatever that piece is, it cost him this WGC-Bridgestone. It was his to win till he bogeyed three of the last four holes. But he emerged undaunted and unscarred.“I played great, I really played well - I played great today,” Mickelson said. “Again, I felt like I should have shot 63 or 64. Had countless birdie opportunities from 6 to 15 feet.” And then that staggering finished, he said, turned a 64 into a 70. And that dropped him to a tie for fourth with Retief Goosen at 8-under 272.
At the par-315th, he bunkered his tee shot, blasted out over the green, and bogeyed. At the par-4 17th, he drove into a fairway bunker and needed two to get down from about 12 feet. And at the par-4 18th, he went from rough to bunker to rough, and holed a 3-footer for his bogey-5. And the world passed him by.
RECIPE FOR HASH - England's Lee Westwood, the guy who's found new hope in sweating in the gym, was flirting with his second victory on the PGA Tour and his first in 10 years. He as keeping right up with the big boys, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson. Then came a little wobble at No. 4, a bogey. Then came the par-3 No. 7.
“Made a complete hash of No. 7,” he said. His recipe consisted of needing two shots to get out of a greenside bunker, the second of which barely reached the collar, and then needing two to get down from there for a double bogey-5. He never quite got out of that hole, shot 69, and tied for second with Stuart Appleby at 9-under 271, a stroke behind Singh.
“I think it will give me confidence, really,” Westwood said, especially for the PGA next week. “Things like No. 7 do happen, and to come back from that . . .”
ONE BOGEY, ONE BAD PAR - Australia's Stuart Appleby, 68 and second by a stroke, figures he made two bogeys. The first was at the easy par-5 No. 2, where he got his par and lost a shot to the field. “You need to get a 4, really, because the contenders are going to be making that,” he said. The other was a real bogey, a 5 at No. 3, where his second shot out of the rough nicked a tree and came down in the fronting pond.
But Appleby was not altogether unhappy. Remember - he'd shot 40 on his first nine, playing the ball from a comfortable position in his stance. Once he finally convinced himself to move the ball forward, where it was slightly uncomfortable, he began playing better. He shot 30 coming in for a 70, and shot 66-67-68 from there.
NO-BOGEY MAN - England's Paul Casey, who racked up more strokes in double and triple bogeys than in singles, simplified the bookkeeping by going bogey-free in the final round. Better yet, he had five birdies to notch as 5-under 65 and tie for eighth at 274.
“I don't know where that one came from, to be honest,” Casey said. “I made a triple bogey on the first hole [in the first round] and sort of clung to things. As the week went on, I've gotten better and better. Any round at Firestone without a blemish is great, and to shoot 5-under, I'm ecstatic with that.”
Casey had a triple bogey and two singles in the first round, two doubles in the second, and three singles in the third.
TOO LITTLE, TOO SOON - Australia's Peter Lonard, who teed off nearly two hours ahead of the leaders and five shots behind them, had hoped to put up a number for them to shoot at. He did finish with a 66, his second of the tournament. It was soon enough, but not low enough.
“I was thinking maybe 10 [under par], and it would have to be 11 or 12,” Lonard said. “But you never know on Sundays, when people start chasing each other and they start putting pressure on each other. It was a perfect opportunity to shoot a score and leave it there and say, OK, there it is. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough.” He finished at 7-under 273 and tied for ???.
HOW TO LOSE MONEY FAST - The most expensive swings over the final two rounds: South Africa's James Kingston finished 71-80 and dropped to 78th; Spain's Pablo Larrazabal, 71-76, 76th; England's David Howell, 70-77, tied for 73rd, and Scotland's Colin Montgomerie finished in a deep rut, 76-76, and ended up 77th.
HOW TO WIN MONEY FAST - Australia's Rod Pampling finished 75-70 and leaped to a tie for 56th, and Brett Rumford, another Aussie, got turned around with 76-69 and tied for 71st.
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - A glance at a handful of young and/or new players who were expected to be heard from but somehow weren't: Boo Weekley, 8-over 288, tied for 66th; Andres Romero, 287, T63; Adam Scott, 285, T56;Aaron Baddeley and Brandt Snedeker, 282, T43; Anthony Kim, 281, T36.
NO CRUSH TIME? - The 2009 WGC-Bridgestone will be held a week later next year, Aug. 3-9, and speculation was that it wouldn't conflict with the NFL's Hall of Fame induction and game down the road near Canton. If so, this would relieve the huge crush of golf and football fans that hits the Akron-Canton area when the events are held at the same time.
ECHOES OF TIGER WOODS (recuperating from knee surgery) - In the nine years of the WGC-Bridgestone, Tiger Woods was the only player who started the last round out of the lead and came back to win, and he did it three times. In 2001, he was two behind Jim Furyk entering the last round, and beat Furyk in a seven-hole playoff. In '06, he started one behind Stewart Cink, and beat Cink in a four-hole playoff. And in '07 he was a stroke behind Sabbatini to start and won by eight over Sabbatini and Justin Rose.
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