First-round notebook:
Unconcerned Woods enjoys leisurely 68 – WGC - Bridgestone Invitational
AKRON, Ohio -- Tiger Woods, who owns Firestone South (six wins in 10 trips in the Bridgestone Invitational) wasn’t concerned Thursday with his opening 68, four off Padraig Harrington’s lead. “You know, you don’t have to go super low here,” he said. “Just kind of plod your way along, make a few birdies here and there, and if you get on a little stretch like I did, make two in a row, boom – all of a sudden you’re in eighth place.”
That was at the 12th and 13th, two of his three birdies against one bogey, making for a leisurely stroll along the 7,400-yard, par-70 course.
He also picked up a shot at the 464-yard 18th – by not making a bogey. He hit his drive into the right rough, and was fairly well blocked by a tree some distance downrange. It would be tough to fade a shot out of the high grass, but he managed just enough of one that the ball came back to the right and ended up on the left edge of the green. And from there, he two-putted.
“Perfect par, wasn’t it?” Woods said.
SOME ENDORSEMENT – Japan’s Shingo Katayama opened with a not-so-hot 74, and then, after turning in his score, expressed his opinion of his driver by smashing it into the clubhouse driveway. Then he tossed the remnants to his caddie.
“He has other drivers,” the caddie offered, with a little grin.
Katayama plays OnOff clubs. He turned this one off.
THE BIG RACE SLOWS -- The Race to Dubai, the European Tour golf extravaganza with the flavor of major league baseball money, has been hit by the global economic crush. It had been a $20 million production – a $10 million purse and a $10 million bonus pool. Both have been cut to $7.5 million, leaving golfers partially stunned at the whack, but appreciative, nonetheless. “That’s still a massive prize,” conceded England’s Lee Westwood. “We’re lucky to be playing for that kind of money.”
Even Tiger Woods’ grand golf course, Al Ruwaya, has been put on hold. It was to be the centerpiece of a real estate development in the oil-rich Persian Gulf emirate, which was to have some 22 palaces and 75 mansions. They’re not selling. Sounds like the Race to Dubai is turning into the Race Not To Buy.
WHADAYA HAVING? – Stewart Cink, noting that people have been drinking all sorts of stuff from his British Open wine jug trophy, was asked whether he’d place any restrictions on what could be quaffed. “Nope,” he said. “No requests turned down.”
BLESSED NO-CUT – The Bridgestone comes along just in time for Adam Scott. It’s a no-cut Tournament for an exclusive field. He’s missed eight cuts in 14 starts and has finished in the 60s twice, and he opened with an 8-over 78 Thursday. The good news is that he gets to play three more rounds. That’s also the bad news.
* Tim Clark’s 4-under 66 represents his best round at Firestone Country Club. He is now a collective 45-over-par in his seven starts at the Bridgestone Invitational, with just five (out of 25) sub-70 rounds. Three of the sub-par scores came in opening rounds (68/2006, 67/2008, 66/2009). His best finish here was a T6 in 2007, aided by a closing 1-under 69.
* Clark is enjoying a solid campaign on the PGA Tour, with 13 made cuts in 15 previous starts and eight top-25 finishes. One of those finishes was a T9 at the Accenture Match Play Championship, set up by a 4 and 2 victory in the second round over Tiger Woods. He sits No. 27 on the FedExCup points list.
* Clark, a seven-time PGA Tour runner-up, is seeking his first PGA Tour victory in his 188th Tour start. Counting his runner-up finish at the 2009 Crowne Plaza Invitational, he has posted at least one second-place finish each of the last five seasons (including three in 2007).
* Padraig Harrington posted a 6-under 64 to take the first-round lead at the 2009 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational by two strokes over Prayad Marksaeng, Tim Clark and Scott Verplank. He fell just one-stroke shy of the Tournament-record 7-under 63 set by Stewart Cink (2004) and Adam Scott (2006).
* The 64 represents the best round of the season for Harrington on the PGA Tour (topping a 6-under 66 during the first round of the WGC-CA Championship) and his best on Tour since a first-round 63 at the 2007 THE Tour Championship. He has just eight rounds in the 60s this season (42 rounds).
* Of the seven-lowest opening-round scores during Padraig Harrington’s PGA Tour career, four have come in World Golf Championships events:
8-under 63 2007 Northern Trust Open
7-under 63 2007 THE Tour Championship
7-under 64 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
6-under 64 2009 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
6-under 66 2000 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
6-under 66 2007 Quail Hollow Championship
6-under 66 2009 WGC-CA Championship
* Harrington is making his 11thstart at the Bridgestone Invitational, with three top-20 finishes. His best result came in his first start in 1999, finishing T12. Harrington’s 64 is one better than his previous-best 65 during the second round of the 2000 Bridgestone Invitational (41 total rounds).
* Harrington, a three-time Major Championship winner, has just three top-25 finishes on Tour in 2009, with a season-best T11 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He is currently No. 142 on the FedExCup points list.
* This represents the fourth first-round lead/co-lead of Harrington’s career: 2003 THE PLAYERS Championship (finished T2), 2007 Northern Trust Open (7th) and the 2007 Quail Hollow Championship (T43).
* The first-round leader has gone on to win seven of 32 stroke-play events on Tour this season. The first-round leader has gone on to win here four out of 10 times (Tiger Woods – 1999, 2000 & 2005; Stewart Cink –2004).
* Of the 80 players in the field, Padraig Harrington (64), Lee Westwood (69), Phil Mickelson (70), Darren Clarke (71) and Stuart Appleby (73) are the players who are competing for the 11th time at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. This group has combined for one victory (Darren Clarke, 2003), three second-place finishes, one third and 13 top 10s.
* Marksaeng is making his 10thcareer appearance on the PGA Tour (four in WGC events), with his first start beginning with an opening-round 91 en route to a missed cut at the 1999 British Open. His best Tour showing was a T13 at the 2009 WGC-CA Championship, where he shared the 18-hole lead with Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen and Jeev Milkha Singh after a Tour-best 7-under 65.
* This is Marksaeng’s second start at the Bridgestone Invitational, posting rounds of 70-73-73-73 en route to a T68 finish in 2008.
* Marksaeng grew up in poverty, sharing a bedroom with at least 10 siblings in the upper room of a two-story house. Mornings consisted of driving a three-wheel taxi for six hours beginning at 4 a.m., with caddie duties beginning at the Royal Hua Hin Golf Club each morning at 10:00. Marksaeng played golf for the first time with a self-made club consisting of metal attached to a bamboo stick, with a used bicycle tire supplying the materials needed for a grip. He would use golf balls retrieved from the jungle surrounding the fairways at Hua Hin GC.
* Three international players have earned victories at the Bridgestone Invitational:
Craig Parry, Australia (2002)
Darren Clarke, Northern Ireland (2003)
Vijay Singh, Fiji (2008)
* Tiger Woods opened with a 2-under 68 (T8) in his bid to win the Bridgestone Invitational for a seventh time (1999-2001, 2005-07), matching his highest opening-round in 10 starts at the event. Only Sam Snead has more victories in a single Tournament, with eight wins in Greensboro, N.C. Woods has never finished lower than fourth at the Bridgestone Invitational (4-2002, T4-2003).
* The only player to win on the PGA Tour the week before the Bridgestone Invitational and then go on to capture the WGC event was Tiger Woods, doing so in 2000 and 2006. Both seasons he followed up his victory at the PGA Championship with a win at Firestone Country Club. Woods is hoping to perform the feat again this year, one week after his win at the Buick Open.
* Woods has won 15 World Golf Championships events in 29 previous starts:
Official World Golf Championship Victories (15)
Bridgestone Invitational 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007
Accenture Match Play Championship 2003, 2004, 2008
CA Championship 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007
* Tiger Woods and the World Golf Championships (not including World Cup)
Tournament Starts Victories Top-10s Earnings Scoring Average
Accenture Match Play 10 3 7 $4,712,500 --
Bridgestone Invitational 9* 6 9 $7,952,500 67.58*
CA Championship 10 6 10 $7,740,000 68.32
Totals 29* 15 26 $20,262,500
* not including this week
Danny Lee, at 19 years, 1 month and 7 days old, is the youngest player to tee it up in a World Golf Championships event. The Kiwi wasn’t in awe at the experience, posting a 2-under 68 to sit T8. Previously, Sergio Garcia was 19/7/17 at the 1999 Bridgestone Invitational and Rory McIlroy was 19/9/22 at the 2009 Accenture.
* Danny Lee has made four of 10 cuts on Tour this season, including a missed cut as an amateur at the Masters Tournament and a season-best T7 at the AT&T National. With $350,054 in earnings, Lee has two events (WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the upcoming Wyndham Championship) to earn $187,904 and equal the money earned by No. 150 (Todd Hamilton) on the 2008 money list career-best. He’ll then need to finish inside the top 125 at the end of the season to secure his card for the 2010 campaign.
* Vijay Singh opened his title defense with an even-par 70. Like last year, Singh heads into the late summer looking for his first win of the season. He used the win at the 2008 Bridgestone Invitational as a catalyst to his FedExCup victory, adding victories later in the year at The Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championship. Thus far, he has posted three top-10 finishes, including a T7 recently at the AT&T National. Singh is currently ranked 65th in FedExCup points.
* Jim Furyk (68.94) entered the week with the second-best scoring average at the Bridgestone Invitational (Tiger Woods, 67.58), but struggled to a 3-over 73 in the first round. It equals his highest round ever at the Bridgestone Invitational (second round, 2005). Making his 10th start here, Furyk has six top-10 finishes with his best finish a third-place showing in 2006.
Phil Mickelson, making his first start on Tour since a runner-up finish at the U.S. Open on June 21, posted an even-par 70. The lefthander owns five top-10 finishes in 10 previous starts at the Bridgestone Invitational, with a runner-up finish in his inaugural start in 1999 his best result.
* The field includes 11 past champions of World Golf Championships events, including four past champions of the Bridgestone Invitational: Stewart Cink (2004), Darren Clarke (2003), Vijay Singh (2008) and Tiger Woods (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007).
* Five players have finished in the top 10 in the previous two World Golf Championships this season. Here’s a look at their record and start this week:
Name Accenture CA Bridgestone Rd. 1
Justin Leonard T5 T9 70
Jim Furyk T9 3 73
Phil Mickelson T9 Won 70
Camilo Villegas T9 T5 70
Oliver Wilson T9 T5 69
* The par-70 Firestone Country Club played to an average of 70.835 during the first round, with the par-4 fourth hole playing the toughest at 4.278. The par-5 second hole was the easiest at 4.532.
FIRESTONE CC - (SOUTH COURSE) - Par 70
Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Total (to par)
2009 70.835 --- --- --- ---
2008 70.388 70.713 70.613 70.488 70.555 (+0.550)
2007 72.181 73.049 72.720 73.207 72.787 (+2.787)
2006 71.410 71.397 70.731 71.145 71.171 (+1.171)
2005 71.930 71.958 70.343 71.214 71.365 (+1.365)
2004 70.803 70.853 70.987 71.720 71.090 (+1.090)
2003 70.624 70.788 71.259 72.341 71.253 (+1.253)
2001 69.128 69.842 69.838 72.027 70.192 (+0.192)
2000 69.405 69.919 70.000 69.405 69.682 (-0.318)
1999 70.293 70.244 69.585 72.732 70.713 (+0.713)
SAHALEE CC - SAMMAMISH, WA - Par 71
2002 70.885 71.091 71.831 71.338 71.285 (+0.285)
* Paul Casey withdrew after the sixth hole with a pulled muscle under his rib cage. He was making his seventh start in the Bridgestone Invitational, with top-10 finishes in two of the last three years (T4-2006, T8-2008). He will receive unofficial money for finishing 80th ($35,250), but no FedExCup points.
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