Bridgestone Thread

[enduro]

I figured I would make a thread for discussion about the Bridgestone tournament.

This is the first time in awhile I feel like we've had a very strong field participating in an event that isn't a major. 26 of the 30 top 30 are going to be playing so it should be a good one.

Woods opens with a late tee time on the opening day and he hasn't done well in those lately. So can we expect another slow start? He has seemed guarded in opening rounds lately for some reason. He's playing with Sergio Garcia I believe so this is heaven for some fans and hell for others. I love watching Woods but hate Sergio. Maybe he'll miss some easy putts for me to enjoy. Regardless, this is far and away the premiere grouping for the first 2 days.

Singh/Kelley/Clark looks to be a fun threesome to watch. Especially for Cleveland fans. Kelley has been money this year cashing almost every event and Singh is always a big draw. He's definitely over the hill at this point. It's too bad he took so long to really bloom as a player as his best days were here (first palce ahead of Tiger at 1 point) and gone before we knew it. The PGA Championship he won a few years ago was probably the peak of his career.

The final "premiere" group looks to be the final one out on Thursday, putting together Goosen/Zach Johnson/Paul Casey. They are directly after the Woods/Garcia group but I'm not sure at all if they are on the same side.

[iacas]

Was there today. The weather should be great. The rough wasn't as long as it's gotten in recent years, but Firestone remains one of the narrower courses on the PGA Tour - average fairways hit percentage is about 17%, everyone jokes.

I spent 90% of my time in the Tour vans today, and on the range, so I only saw a few holes.

[enduro]

  iacas said:

Was there today. The weather should be great. The rough wasn't as long as it's gotten in recent years, but Firestone remains one of the narrower courses on the PGA Tour - average fairways hit percentage is about 17%, everyone jokes.

Can you bring your own clubs down there and have the company trucks and whatnot make adjustments, etc? Do they have demo's going on and stuff? I've never gone down on a Wednesday. Figured it was just pro-am's and practice, etc.

[BASHERBAKER69]

Mickelson starts with a to putt par. Although he's been away from the tour, no doubt he has been practising a little bit.

[Chilli Dipper]

Firestone may be the most boring-looking golf course in the world from above. Every hole is long, narrow, and parallel to the next. Conventionally, it would seem as though straight driving is pivotal to win this tournament, but Tiger has claimed victory here in the past while hitting half his approaches from adjacent fairways.

[Zeph]

And it's on again. All the top players are playing, it's a difficult course. Phil posting even par with an early double he had to make up for. Tiger will play for his 7th win on this tournament, which would be first in the history.

The course is very straight ahead, that's true. Tiger showed last week that you can play well hitting on the wrong fairway. The course is 7400 yards long, impressive by Tim Clark, posting -4 on this first day, being a short hitter.
The rough looks diabolical.

What's with the camera on the ground by the way? The one shooting the approach shots and some putts. The colors are messed up, a blue blur and too bright.

Some guy getting knocked down with a stray drive from Sergio, taking it in the head. That looked painful.

Erik: Do you know what the average GIR and fairways hit is on this course?

[plark]

a lot of known names are sitting at even right now

[Zeph]

Anyone else saw the incident with Appleby on the green? He hit a bad putt from a few feet and quickly went on to tap it in. So quickly that he was ready before the ball had stopped. As far as I could tell, he had grounded the club before the ball stopped rolling, but pointed out that he had not taken his stance, which the commentators said he really had.

A judge was asked he said it was OK. I remember the situation with Harrington at Augusta where he was putting in heavy wind. He grounded his putter, the ball started moving because of the wind and he was penalised.

Was Appleby not penalized because the ball was still moving from the prevoius shot?

[plark]

I'm pretty sure thats why, I don't see any other reason

[Range King]

Paddie Harrington is putting like a madman. Two amazing birides in a row.

[Zeph]

About time Paddy is showing some good golf again. Tiger just can't hit his driver, it's amazing how so many of them veer off to the left.

[Titleist]

paddy putted like a champ, going to be tough to beat this week if he can keep it up.

iacas can you explain a bit about what happens in the touring vans?

[drewdown]

Did you see that spectator get hit in the head from Sergio's drive?! Man that must have hurt!

[Jell0b0y]

The Drive that Garcia hit that bounced off a spectators head sound pretty rough . Glad he was alright but the sound of that made me cringe.

[enduro]

  Zeph said:

About time Paddy is showing some good golf again. Tiger just can't hit his driver, it's amazing how so many of them veer off to the left.

I thought everything he missed went right in a push?...

[Zeph]

Ya, that's my bad. Was mixing up left and right there.

[enduro]

  Zeph said:

Ya, that's my bad. Was mixing up left and right there.

Thought so or else I'd be in trouble. I like to tell myself after I miss and push my shot that it's just like Tiger does.

Amazing how often he does it though. I'm sure he's like us and just nails it on the range and then gets on the course and has trouble releasing or whatever the reason is he's keeping that clubface open.

[whip_it_out]

  enduro said:

Thought so or else I'd be in trouble. I like to tell myself after I miss and push my shot that it's just like Tiger does.

I've seen him on the range. The swing is so smooth. If he could just take his range swing to the course he would never have a problem.

But that goes for just about everyone...