Bridgestone Invitational preview: Tiger's last stand?
Tiger Woods ventures to the WGC Bridgestone Invitational this week, very likely in quiet desperation. In seven starts this year, the player is yet to win a single tournament.
But at a competition in which he's played with something close to invincibility in the past, surely Woods can salvage something from 2010 at the Akron, Ohio-based event?
Two wins at St Andrews and four wins at Augusta are impressive, but Woods has won the Bridgestone at the Firestone Country Club a mind-boggling seven times. No other player has won at the same course on seven occasions, Sam Snead's eight wins at the Greater Greensboro Open taking place over more than one course. Incidentally, the other three times Woods has played here, he's finished tied for second, fourth, and tied for fourth.
That's a phenomenal history, suggesting this tournament could offer welcome respite to the embattled world No. 1 - but given his past dominance, should Woods' current mediocre form continue here, this week's appearance could also sound something of a death knell for the golfer.
He's still the favourite to win, though his odds are much more generous than in previous years. And Woods has proven capable of playing fine golf this year, isolated flashes of his past brilliance recurring at Augusta and Pebble Beach - the scenes of his best performances this year, with Woods finishing in fourth place at both the Masters and the US Open.
And the promise remains that a win can go a long way to shake off the sniggering negativity, the unseemly rumours and unfortunate associations; that one victory can annihilate acre after acre of damning articles, and quell the sense that the indomitable Tiger of old has taken a permanent leave of absence.
Typically, he's dividing opinion amongst the pundits, some urging their readers to back Woods at decent odds for a tournament he has owned utterly in the past; others practically beseeching followers to steer clear, pointing to the man's terribly erratic play in 2010.
Sticking our neck out in typical, throw-caution-to-the-wind manner, we'd say he could be worth backing to finish top 10, maybe top five at a push (at not especially attractive odds, admittedly). But bizarre as it might sound when discussing a seven-time winner, to back the man outright just doesn't seem the shrewd move right now. As suited as it's been to Woods' game in the past, the course is also one of the more unforgiving on the PGA Tour, and the player is still making uncharacteristic mistakes, on both the fairways and the putting greens.
Should Woods fail to perform well, and either Lee Westwood or Phil Mickelson finish strongly enough, both men are capable of displacing Woods as the world No. 1. That might sound like a heck of an incentive, but Mickelson has had a few other chances to knock Woods from the top spot earlier this year, all of which the Californian has failed to take.
Mickelson's record at this tournament is hugely underwhelming too, the 40-year-old tying for fourth here in 2008 (when Woods was absent with a knee injury), but otherwise failing to finish in the top 45 in the last five years of the event. Last year he finished tied for 58th place, and with a game that's been wavering almost as badly as Woods' this year, the Californian seems an unlikely candidate for a win here.
Lee Westwood's claims are stronger, the Englishman finishing in ninth place last year and tying for second place in 2008 (again, when Woods was absent). Westwood is playing as well as he ever will, and with the added bonus of toppling Woods from his throne a possibility here, expect him to challenge for a top five place.
So who else looks worth a tickle then? Rory McIlroy is too sketchy, as a poor third round at the Irish Open demonstrated last week. He was 68th here last year, too, at his introduction to the tournament. Padraig Harrington was second at the Irish Open, but he found a lot of rough at Killarney; if his play around the fairways is as similarly freewheeling at Firestone, the much thicker rough here won't allow him to get away with such carelessness.
The course seems well suited to the meticulous Luke Donald, even though his last two finishes here weren't impressive (tied 45th in 2009, tied 22nd in '08). Still, Donald has been in consistent form this year, six top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour and a win in Europe. We like him to do well here.
If "Plodder" Donald's selection doesn't fill you with excitement, a slightly more outlandish gamble can be had with Retief Goosen. The South African has seven top-10 finishes this year on the PGA Tour, and tied for fourth place here two years ago. He may be past his best, but Goosen is still capable of challenging on occasion, impressing most recently at St Andrews, where he finished sixth. At odds of 50-1, he's surely worth a modest each-way flutter.
One thing - if Woods claims his eighth victory at the Bridgestone this week, please don't come whining to us. Where that guy's concerned, nobody really knows what the h**l to expect any more.
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