This weeks PGA tour wagon pulls into the Firestone Country Club, Akron, for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational championship for what traditionally is one of the best fought out tournaments of the year. The years top 80 players are invited to play here and so the field is super, super strong, with this years line up being no exception. Just like the Players championship at Sawgrass win this tournament and you win the respect of your golfing rivals. But thats easier to say than do as Tiger Woods has had a strangle hold on this tournament for a long time now winning 7 of the last 14 tournaments. His last coming back in 2009 where he cleared up with a 4 shot lead and stood top of the hill in the world rankings. He hasnt got to them heady heights yet, but he will have a say in where this years trophy will go. Adam Scott is this years current holder of the trophy and will be trying to put the massive disappointment of his Open collapse behind him and be only the 2nd player to retain the trophy after Tiger. But who else can we see trying to wrestle the title into their grubby little hands... The course is massive, and long, coming at you with 7,400 yards to cover in only 70 shots for par. Its the longest par 70 course on the whole of the PGA tour. It also has the longest par 4's on the tour and the longest par 5, and longest hole on the whole tour in the 16th. This ridiculous hole stretches to 667 yards and you only get 5 shots to make par. I would need a passport to make it from tee to green if i was to play this hole and the top players dont find it easy either as this hole was ranked the 11th hardest par 5 on the whole tour last year. Average scoring for the 16th last year was 4.99, and ranked the number 1 hardest hole, so not many broke the back of this monster... Did i mention that this course was long... The thing with this tournament, like the Masters, its played at the same venue year after year and this helps when sorting out the potential winners from the maybes. The past four winners have obviously fared better than most, simply because they have played the best golf that week. But... Adam Scott, 2011 winner - Ranked 6th for Driving Distance, 319.0... Ranked 64th for Driving Accuracy, 64%... T4th for GIR, 69%... Hunter Mahan, 2010 winner - Ranked 7th for Driving Distance, 305.6... Ranked 55th for Driving Accuracy, 60%... 5th for GIR, 69% Tiger Woods, 2009 winner - Ranked 2nd for Driving Distance, 312.0... Ranked 185th for Driving Accuracy, 51%... Ranked 2nd for GIR, 70%... Vijay Singh, 2008 winner - Ranked 1st for Driving Distance, 316.2... Ranked 20th for Driving Accuracy, 66%... Ranked 2nd for GIR, 70%... You need big distance off the tee, and obviously accuracy helps, plus good approach shots... With this in mind i have narrowed down who i think can make these stats and hopefully get into contention come Sunday night... Tiger Woods is a obvious start because he has such a great record here, though the only thing that puts me off is his 9/2 price and the fact that his driving this year isnt the best. He will not be able to plot his way around with irons here, you need to get the big gun out here to make an impression... He hits all the stats but im not backing him... Adam Scott is last years winner and that will perk him up when it comes to playing here. His stats for the Open were the best of all the players, apart from 'that' back 9, so he is in great form really. Ranked 18th for Distance, 26th for GIR his profile looks good enough for him to get back to back wins... Lee Westwood has a great following and one day he will repay all the faith that people put in him. Again his stats suggest he can have a big weekend if he gets his game going, but that also means he has to bring his putting up to scratch as they are saying the greens will be up to 13 on the stimp meter... This will be his only weakness if the rest of his game is firing... Hunter Mahan won this title back in 2010 so has many happy memories of this course, coupled with the fact he has a T4th and T10th finish, its a course that seems to suit him. Ranks 8th for Driving Distance, 65th for Accuracy, 3rd in GIR. He struggled a little with his short game last week in Canada, making a few 3 putts, but there is no doubt that he will feature here if he brings his 'A' game... Bubba Watson has had a great season which started off when he won the Masters back in April and can continue to win things with his awesome power and shot making. Probably the best fit for the stats ranking 1st in both Distance and GIR, he can make the hard par 4's easily and this is where you make the shots up on the others... Rickie Fowler has somewhat been off the radar since his first win at Wells Fargo in May but his game is still good and he is another which suits the profile for this course. This is only his 3rd appearance here, which may go against him, but you cant complain with his 2nd place last year shooting -13. A repeat of that form again and he has a great chance of maybe going one better... Bo Van Pelt has become one of the players i seem to following very much this year, more so than the two that i picked at the start of the year with Kuchar and Mahan. Finished T23rd last year but came T3rd in 2010, so is making only his 3rd appearance. His putting wasnt as good as it should have been in Canada last week but he still ranks high in all the putting stats... So this week im going with... Hunter Mahan @ 25/1... Bubba Watson @ 30/1... Rickie Fowler @ 33/1... Bo Van Pelt @ 33/1... PadPow pay 1/4 odds top 5... Good luck to all who have a play...
Blubba hits it a very long way! Some of his approach play is starting to look good too, he is a very talented golfer if he can keep it all together. Justin Rose had a pretty torrid open championship but I think if he can start putting, he is up there on greens in regulation. Both 33s
My fancies this week Are Graeme McDowelling. 25/1 Bo van pelt 33/1 NiCk Watney 40/1. £1 E/W. on them all Good luck to all
Leaderboard after the 1st round... Leader - J. Furyk -7 T3 - B. Watson, -4....... red, Jeff T25 - N. Watney, -1..... Jim T31 - B. Van Pelt, E....... red, Jim T31 - R. Fowler, E......... red T31 - G. McDowell, E..... Jim T31 - J. Rose, E........... Jeff T60 - H. Mahan, +3...... red Good start from Jim Furyk with him hitting birides on the 16th, 17th and 18th to give him the outright lead but Bubba isnt to far behind... Long way to go so lets hope for some improvement from our picks...
Jiminy is gon' be hard to beat over the weekend guy's. Missed a bet this week but i'll have the winner of the uspga next week....
Leaderboard after the 2nd round... Leader - J. Furyk, -11 T12 - G. MacDowell, -3...... Jim T20 - B. Watson, -1.......... red, Jeff T20 - B. Van Pelt, -1......... red, Jim T20 - N. Watney, -1......... Jim T20 - J. Rose, -1............. Jeff T62 - H. Mahan, +6.........red T73 - R. Fowler, +10........ red Well as it seems Rickie n Hunter are having a relaxing weekend playing golf, im hoping that Bubba pulls his driver out his backside and starts scoring low again... Ive had a nightmare with my picks so im hoping to save grace and get looking at next weeks USPGA to try and win something back as i cant see me doing in this one...!!! Bloody awful... As for you Jim, well G-Mac can force his way into the top 6 easily enough but i think Jim has slipped the field and gone...
I'm thinking about laying Furyk at 2.4, he very rarely puts 4 good rounds together these days and i'm thinking the field will catch, Oosthuisen well poised. Rose on the charge -3 through 11 today.
Wondering how much of a pointer this will be for next week it makes a wee change not having a cut what's the view of everybody else.
Leaderboard after the 3rd round... Leader - J. Furyk, -11 T6 - B. Van Pelt, -5...... red T6 - J. Rose, -5........... Jeff T11 - G. Mac, -3......... Jim T31 - B. Watson, +1 .... red, Jeff T31 - N. Watney +1...... Jim T49 - H. Mahan, +5....... red T65 - R. Fowler,+9........ red So Jimmy boy is still top but not by much after a par round to leave him with a 1 shot lead on -11. He dosnt look totally safe up there own his own with Ooost one behind and Keegan Bradley a further 3 behind on -7... Will the belly putter strike again with Keegan, can ole gap tooth Louis get ahead of Jim, or can he see this out and take it from first round to last...??? All im bothered about is if Bo can get top 5...!!! Jim its interesting to see how it will affect the players as the likes of Rickie, who i picked for this, would normally bugger off and lick their wounds after posting two bad rounds. But this tournament is different, as you say, because you have to stay and play all 4 rounds. I certainly wouldn't back Rickie next week as i would imagine he would be feeling bad about his game right now. Lee Westwood is in the bottom 20 players and i thought that this course would suit him, but it hasnt for whatever reason, so would you back him this week...? Well, Lee will be in the top 10 for the betting list next week but coming off a current +11 with one round to go you would have to have good reasons to back him... Thing is Lee is one of those who can bounce back, not so sure about Rickie, so Lee could well be worth a shout... It cant help Jim, so yeah i think you would have to take that into consideration for next week...
So the belly putting Keegan Bradley stole the WGC-Brdigestone title away from Jim Furyk in the most astonishing fashion last night...!!! Jim ended with a double bogey 6 to Keegans par to be beaten on the very last hole of the tournament. As Gary Neville once said UNBELIEVABLE...!!! It was the only time Jim Furyk didnt lead the field since his opening day round of 63, so it was a bad time to lose the lead then...!!! I have to give credit to Bradley for the way he never gave in but you do have to feel that Jim has lost it more than Keegan won it. So thats twice now that the runaway leader has failed to finish the job off recently. Adam Scott and now Jim Furyk... Els and Bradley wont be complaining though... So bring on the USPGA from Kiawah Island this week...
