In the day after the surprising win by Tiger Woods at the Bridgestone Invitational, the PGA tour will be fining Tiger Woods for speaking out against an officials ruling on Sunday. Although Tiger ultimately won, he realized that Padraig Harrington was rushed and forced to take a couple of shots that he could have used more time to think about. Paddy acknowledged this rushed play as a factor to his horrific triple bogey on the 16th, but accepted the ruling because he thought that the final group should not get preferential treatment. Tiger was more adamant in his response even though he hit a wonderful shot after being warned.
You may be asking yourself, why didn’t Padraig just wait longer than the officials predetermined 40 seconds? The answer is that it would not have helped him at all. After the initial warning, players are subject to a $5,000 fine and a one stroke penalty if the rule is not followed. This would have ended just as poorly for Padraig and may have added extra strokes for him in the end.
This is garbage. The PGA tour needs to lighten up and not allow these rules to overtake the drama of a historical event. Even though the group was about 15 minutes behind pace, it was the final group, coming up on the final three holes, with a one stroke difference between the players. Because of this stupid rule, the fans were robbed of another great end to a tournament, just because they didn’t want to give “preferential treatment” to the leaders. Well obviously these guys were playing better than everyone else, and should be subject to a little more leeway in these type of situations. Bad call for golf and unfortunately nobody wins from this debacle.
Why Paddy, why? After a strong first three rounds, and a promising fourth round, Padraig Harrington slipped up and had a triple bogey on the sixteenth hole giving Tiger Woods the opportunity he needed to win the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club. Paddy was rushed by an official and was not able to continue his smooth play as he had the previous three days. Tiger was going the other way, as he hit a ridiculous 8 iron closer than he even expected and holed out for birdie. This left Harrington, who had a one stoke lead at the start of the 16th, three back of Tiger going into the final two holes. And if that wasn’t an impossible task already, Tiger hit another crazy-good iron shot on 18 to finish with a birdie.
Tiger Woods was able to build on his impressive 65 in the third round with another 65 and eventually overtake Harrington, who played well until his mistake. This allowed Tiger to win his seventh Bridgestone Invitational and the 70th tournament of his career. The most telling stat of how dominant Tiger has been at WGC events is the number he has won. Tiger is currently 16 for 30 in these events. That means that he has won more than half of the WGC events he has taken part in. And with his 70th win on tour, Tiger is only three back of Jack Nicklaus on the all time wins list and twelve behind Sam Snead’s record of 82.
Hopefully Tiger can ride the momentum of two consecutive wins into his first major victory of the season next weekend at the PGA Championship. Tiger’s last major was the memorable 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines, where he played injured and eventually overcame a playoff against Rocco Mediate. If Tiger is able to win at Hazeltine this upcoming week, he would only be three back of Nicklaus’s record for major tournaments of 18.
Back from the abyss of five straight missed cuts, Padraig Harrington (remember him?) shot a six under 64 to hold a two stroke lead after the first round of the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club. When asked how he prepared for this event, he said that after his disappointing year, he had been adjusting his swing but it was not until this week that he was able to come to terms with how he was swinging the club and focused on his game as a whole. So far it looks like it has paid off. However Paddy is the first person to admit that he is not himself quite yet. He knows that it has only been one round of golf and even a brilliant 64 can not erase the last six months or so.
Not far behind is Tiger Woods, who shot a two under 68 and is within striking distance of the top of the leaderboard. Although it was not his best stuff, he was able to shoot under par and keep himself in the hunt. Look for Tiger to come on strong in the coming rounds like he did last week at the Buick Open (where he opened the tournament with a one under par 71, only to come storming back for the comfortable win).
Fan favorite Phil Mickelson shot a respectable even 70 in his first round back since the US Open. Despite not playing for such a long time, he was able to settle in even after a disastrous second hole double bogey. Look for Phil to start getting back into a groove and make a run at Tiger and Paddy.
In a closing note, British Open winner Stewart Cink shot a one under 69. His only problem? Not being announced as the British Open champion when he teed off.
Don’t take my word for it, hear it from the British Open Champ (Stewart Cink) and some of his collegues about how tough a course Firestone Country Club is. Besides the challenge, the tournament has produced a long and rich history of good golf from Jack Nicklaus back in 1976 to 1980 where a 24 year old Jose Maria Olazabel shot a 61 to the most famous 1999 Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson duel to the very next year where Tiger won the tournament in the dark. But like I said before, don’t trust me, watch the video!
As you all probably know, Tiger Woods was able to pull out a fairly easy victory last weekend at the Buick Open. Even though he only won by three strokes (finishing at twenty under) his biggest competition was himself this weekend. In keeping with the theme of looking forward, this looks to be the last Buick Open due to GM’s announcement that this was their last year hosting the tournament. Tiger, who has won this tournament three times, will not have the luxury of defending his title next year. Both of the previous years he had won the Buick he had a strong showing at the PGA Championship, finishing second in 2002 and winning the whole thing in 2006. Will he continue on this trend at the PGA? Who knows but what is for sure is that TW is going to need to find a new warm-up tournament for the last major of the year in 2010.
This weekend Tiger is going to be playing in the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone CC in Ohio, but he is not going to be the main story (for once in his life). This tournament marks the triumphant return of Phil Mickelson, who after spending time with his wife and mother, has decided to gear up and make a run at the PGA. This tournament looks to find Phil in the same form he was at Bethpage Black, feeding off his emotions and looking to continue playing elite golf. Hopefully Phil can muster up enough strength to win this tournament, and hopefully provide us with a preview of a Tiger/Phil battle to come at Hazeltine in a couple weeks.
