Tiger Woods Bridgestone Invitational: Can He Come Back?

It has been a tough year for Tiger Woods, both personally and professionally. After suffering embarrassing displays at both Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, Tiger can now play at one of his favorite courses, Firestone.

We all expected Tiger to step up his game at this difficult course, but after the first round, Woods finds himself ahead of only eight players from the starting field of 81. He struggled all day yesterday, bogeying the first two holes.

This is not the Tiger Woods that we're used to, and unless he drastically improves he could be in big trouble.

Let's take a look at Tiger's first round and his chances of getting back on top.

Tiger at Firestone

Tiger Woods has won seven times (out of 10) at Firestone, and he has never finished lower than fifth place here.

Firestone is known as one of Woods' favorite courses, and even after all of his struggles this year he was expected by many to make a bit of a comeback in Ohio.

But after the first round this has not been the case, and when asked about his first day at Firestone, Woods said publicly, "Just because I like the golf course doesn't mean I'm going to play well on it."

Round One

From the beginning of the first round, it appeared that Thursday would be an uphill battle for Tiger Woods. He bogeyed the first hole (something that he had never done before), and Tiger has definitely dug himself into a hole that may be hard to climb out of.

While Woods still has three rounds left to improve his score, he has never come back to win from more than eight shots down after the first round.

Tiger Couldn't Catch a Break

Woods' performance on the first hole was an unfortunate indication of how he would play all day. He hit only five fairways and missed seven greens in the round. Again, nowhere near the caliber of play that we're used to seeing from Tiger.

His short game was awful as well as he missed three putts for par that were inside four feet.

Come on, Tiger. I could have made those!

And the Course Won't Help

All variables seemed to be in Woods' favor before he teed off:

This was one of his favorite courses.

He had won seven out of 10 times.

And the overnight rains made for a soft course.

The perfect stage had been set for Tiger, and he blew the first round.

With the high temperatures and lack of rain projected for the next few days, this course will only get more difficult.

Others Can Take Advantage

Even though Tiger struggled in his first round, others thrived, with 25 players shooting in the 60s and nine matching par.

Only eight players did worse than Tiger Woods did yesterday.

How's that for an ego boost?

"Yeah, I might be three-over...but I'm beating Tiger Woods."

Phil Mickelson

Lefty has a shot at replacing Tiger as the No. 1 golfer in the world, and his performance at Firestone is greatly helping his case. If Mickelson wins the Bridgestone invitational, he will take over the No. 1 spot.

Even if Phil finishes fourth, he can still beat out Tiger if Woods finishes worse than 37th.

This seems like a long shot, but with the way Tiger has been playing, it is not impossible.

Bubba Watson

Tiger's loss has definitely been Bubba Watson's gain in this Bridgestone Invitational. All seemed to be going in Watson's favor yesterday, as he was able to birdie five of his last eight holes and finish with a six-under 64.

You'd think that Woods would be playing better at Firestone than Watson is (Bubba had never seen the course until this week), but that is definitely not the case.

Lee Westwood

Tiger's playing partner sympathized with Woods yesterday because Westwood himself only made seven fairways and nine greens.

Although Westwood managed to do better than Woods did, Westwood publicly admitted, "It's a difficult course if you're not on your game."

We'll see if these two can flip the switch from "off" to "on."

Ryder Cup in the Future?

As of now, Woods has not qualified for the Ryder Cup, but it seems like he is planning on doing so. Even if he does not qualify, he could still play by receiving a captain's invite.

When asked at a televised  press conference before the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational if he would accept a captain's invite, Woods repeated, "I'm planning on playing my way into the team."

Ok, Tiger. We believe you for now. But you need to step it up.

We'll See What Happens

While it seems that Tiger is improving with his second round, he still ended at two-over 72 today.