Tiger Wins #79
Dr. Gregory D. Jones
AKRON, Ohio – Each golf season there are four major championships, the Masters, the United States Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship. Additionally, there has always been discussions on whether or not to include the Players Championship as the fifth major, primarily because it has one of the deepest fields of the year and the tract is so brutally challenging.
With that said, I submit the World Golf Championships should be included in those discussions primarily because of the same arguments espoused concerning the Players. This quad group of annual events for professional golfers was created by the International Federation of PGA Tours with three of the four events considered tour events with prize monies exceeding the majors. The Bridgestone Invitational invites only 75 players, 50 of them sit atop the world rankings. Combine this incredibly deep field with the major championship-like venue of a Firestone Country Club and something truly spectacular awaits the golfing fans.
Both, Keegan Bradley and Henrik Stenson, each finished the tournament tied at -8 under par. Zac Johnson, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Auburn University Golfer, Jason Dufner all tied at -6 under par. The entire weekend, all five fought tooth and nail trying to best the others so that they could claim second place. That’s right, they fought for second, because the world’s number one player, Tiger Woods shot a record tying 61 on Friday and put the tournament out of reach. He followed that up Saturday by shooting a 68 and shot even par Sunday to beat the field by seven strokes. He finished the tournament at -15 under par. It was like a walk in the park for Tiger who never felt the slightest bit of pressure from his competitors. It was the field who were hard pressed to force shots, take risks and try and make up ground.
This gave Tiger his fifth win this season, his eighth WGC Bridgestone victory, his 79th win overall and $1.5 million to boot. If he remotely duplicates this form at Oak Hill, in Rochester, N.Y. site of the PGA Championship, number 15 will be on the mantle.
