WGC Bridgestone Invitational leaderboard https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html
Tiger Woods has won an unprecedented 8 championships on this Firestone south course at the WGC Bridgetone Invitational.
In round one he opened with a -4 66 on the tight tree lined course and still found himself four shots off the lead as Ian Poulter led the cavalry charge with his -8 62. In fact as round two gets under way today there are only 15 players over par in this restricted field and Bryson DeChambeau of all people posted the highest score of +5 75.
The vaunted South Course which was redesigned by Robert Trent Jones in 1959 for the 1960 PGA Championship which Jay Hebert won with a score of 281 +1, nobody broke par, is playing as soft as it ever has and these pros are just taking it apart with 62's 63's and 64's.
Jones added 50 new bunkers, 7 new tees and made the 16th a 625 yard par 5 and to make sure nobody could go for it in 2, he put a pond in front of the green. When Arnold Palmer made a triple bogey at it to knock him out of that 1960 PGA, he called it a monster and that's what it still called today. It now plays 667 yards.
Poulter birdied it, relying on a 3rd shot wedge and single putt. Most players made par, DJ made bogey 6 but he was in the minority. I believe John Daly was the first player to get it over the pond in two into a greenside bunker back in his hey day, but many more could reach with today's technology, it's just not worth the risk.
This is the last year the event will be held here, moving to Memphis next year, and unless it firms up over the weekend we'll see a repeat of Jose Maria Olazabal's 61 in 1990, since matched by Tiger in his last win in 2013, Sergio Garcia when he was 2nd to Rory in 2014 and Hideki Matsuyama when he won last year.
The record low score is Tiger's -21 259 in 2000 when he won by 11. Nobody will win by 11 this weekend, but could match the 259 unless the course firms up.
Bryan Angus
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