Winners and Losers from the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational is in the books. And from among a throng of the best golfers from across the globe, an Irishman raised the Greek-inspired trophy you see above.
Shane Lowry, beneficiary of the luck of the Irish, fired a final-round, four-under 66 for his maiden PGA Tour victory. Justin Rose and Jim Furyk, who entered the final round tied for the lead, were lacking in luck all together Sunday. The pair finished tied for third.
Who else did the golf gods smile on? Who missed out on their favor?
Read on to find out.
Winner: The Post-Victory Hangover
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Troy Merritt’s no-let-up victory at last week’s Quicken Loans National was unexpected, and it got the Iowa native into the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational field. The win in Virginia came on the heels of five missed cuts and a failure to really put together four rounds since the RBC Heritage in April.
In a sense then, it’s not surprising that Merritt opened with a 12-over 82 and dropped like a stone to the bottom of the leaderboard in Akron.
But hey, at least there’s no cut at the tournament so Merritt could enjoy stress-free weekend rounds with nobody watching and a five-figure paycheck.
Loser: Caution
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Two shots defined Shane Lowry’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational win.
The first: A towering wedge recovery shot over a tree at the 10th hole to three feet for birdie.
The prudent play would have been trying to run a low shot around the green and saving par.
The second (and more reckless): At the 18th hole, with a two-stroke lead needing to get an iron up over a tree from 140 yards out in the rough that would clear a second tree guarding the front edge of the green, the golf gods again smiled on the Irishman. Lowry’s shot cleared the first tree and inexplicably made it through the second, landing like a bird 11 feet from the hole.
He made the putt.
The two shots and resulting birdies accounted for Lowry’s two-stroke victory.
Of course, to attribute his win to two shots does a disservice to the quality of the Irishman’s play: He carded weekend rounds of 67, 66 and didn’t make a bogey during his final round.
Loser: Phil Mickelson
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Lefty looked to be a horse for the course at this week’s Bridgestone Invitational. Instead of playing like a thoroughbred, though, Mickelson was much more of a donkey.
While it’s true Mickelson isn’t having a banner year—with no wins and just three top-10 finishes—his record at Firestone has been solid: five top-10 finishes and a tie for 15th last year.
Mickelson’s six-over opening-round 76, which saw him make just one birdie and hit just eight greens in regulation, set the tone for a disappointing week.
Thus, he’ll enter the PGA Championship without any real momentum—something the notoriously streaky flag hunter relies on.
Mickelson tied for 63rd.
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Winner: Justin Rose's Saturday Surge
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England’s top golfer did some serious leaderboard climbing during his third round.
Justin Rose carded a bogey-free third-round 63. Rose rolled in seven birdies, which totaled nearly 110 feet of putts made. He’s also been a scrambling machine, saving par on 12 of 14 attempts.
The inspired effort, which included a 38-foot birdie at the 18th hole, moved him into a tie for first with Jim Furyk at nine under entering the final round.
Rose ultimately finished tied for third.
Winner: Firestone Country Club
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Last year, Firestone Country Club played as the 18th most difficult track relative to par on the PGA Tour. Players averaged 70.38 strokes at the Akron track, .389 over par.
Through three rounds, the course scoring average was 70.975, .975 strokes over par. Thus, the Robert Trent Jones-redesigned track showed its teeth in dry, summer conditions in Ohio.
Entering the final round, only 16 players were under par among the 77-man field of the game’s best golfers.
Holding fairways was nearly impossible this week as the combination of elevation off the tee, undulating fairways and burnt out conditions saw nearly every tee ball trickling into the primary cut of bluegrass, adding an unwelcome degree of difficulty to already tricky second shots.
In recent years, the winning score to par at Firestone has been 2014: 15, 2013: 15, 2012: 13 and 2011: 17.
This year, Shane Lowry’s winning total: 11 under par.
A losing element at Firestone, however, was the tree Shane Lowry is hugging above, which failed to do its job, allowing his ball to pass through its limbs for to set up a birdie putt.
Loser: The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
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Rory McIlroy used his Instagram account to upstage the on-course drama in Akron this week.
Amid much speculation (and doubt, really) as to whether he’ll be fit enough to tee it up in next week’s PGA Championship, McIlroy posted a video of himself aggressively rehabbing his ankle while balancing on a block. He followed the post with a mashup of two photos of his injured ankle, a gruesome one immediately after the injury and a shot of a much improved ankle.
He continued the social media barrage with an Instagram video of a full swing with the driver and the caption, “Feels good to hit the driver again!”
Next it was a shot of his airborne private jet, seemingly headed for Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, and finally a picture of the world No. 1 on course with a caption indicating he’d played an 18-hole practice round.
With an expectation-building series of big-time hype posts of Instagram and the resulting dissemination via every major golf and sports outlet, McIlroy managed to steal the thunder from this week’s tournament.
Winner: The Grinder Mentality
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The final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational saw Jim Furyk and Justin Rose start the day tied at the top at nine under par.
It’s a platitude at this point: Jim Furyk is the tour’s quintessential grinder. His Saturday 69 was all class and his Sunday 71 featured the same deliberate quality, albeit an inferior result that saw him come up just short, three strokes behind Shane Lowry.
Justin Rose, although powerful and able to play soaring approach shots, for his part, has a bit of the deliberate plodder in him—as his win at psyche-crushing Merion in the 2013 U.S. Open indicated.
While neither player could get anything going Sunday (each firing two-over 72s), neither blew up. The pair finished tied for third.
Loser: Jimmy Walker
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Twice a winner on tour this season, Jimmy Walker has been in something of a slide recently. He hasn’t contended on the weekend since the Byron Nelson, where he finished tied for second. And that finish is Walker’s only top 10 since April.
Walker, who was among the pre-tournament favorites, finished at seven over par, failing to break 70 in any of the four rounds.
Walker tied for 53rd.
Now a member of the short list of best golfers without a major championship, Walker didn’t finish better than 30th in the season’s first three majors. His play this week did little to suggest he’ll contend at Whistling Straits.
All stats via PGATour.com and the PGA Tour Media Guide.
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