2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational explained

2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
Dates:	July 31 – August 3, 2014
Location:	Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Course:	Firestone Country Club South Course
Tour:	PGA Tour European Tour
Par:	70
Yardage:	7400yd
Field:	76 players
Cut:	None
Purse:	$9,000,000 €6,703,418
Winners Share:	$1,530,000 €1,139,580
Champion:	Rory McIlroy
Score:	265 (−15)
Previous:	2013
Next:	2015

The 2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational was a professional golf tournament held July 31 – August 3 on the South Course of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. It was the 16th WGC-Bridgestone Invitational tournament, and the third of the World Golf Championships events in 2014. Rory McIlroy won the tournament.^[1]

Venue

See main article: Firestone Country Club.

Course layout

The South Course was designed by Bert Way and redesigned by Robert Trent Jones in 1960.^[2]

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Yards	399	526	442	471	200	469	219	482	494	3702	410	418	180	471	467	221	667	400	464	3698	7400
Par	4	5	4	4	3	4	3	4	4	35	4	4	3	4	4	3	5	4	4	35	70

Field

The field consists of players drawn primarily from the Official World Golf Ranking and the winners of the world-wide tournaments with the strongest fields.^[3]

1. Playing members of the 2013 United States and International Presidents Cup teams.

Keegan Bradley (2,3), Ángel Cabrera (4), Jason Day (2,3), Brendon de Jonge, Graham DeLaet (2,3), Jason Dufner (2,3,4), Ernie Els, Branden Grace, Bill Haas (2,3), Zach Johnson (2,3,4), Matt Kuchar (2,3,4), Marc Leishman, Hunter Mahan (2,3), Hideki Matsuyama (2,3), Phil Mickelson (2,3), Louis Oosthuizen (4), Charl Schwartzel (2,3), Adam Scott (2,3,4,5), Webb Simpson (2,3,4), Brandt Snedeker (2,3), Jordan Spieth (2,3), Richard Sterne, Steve Stricker (2,3), Tiger Woods (2,3)

2. The top 50 players from the Official World Golf Ranking as of July 21, 2014.

Thomas Bjørn (3,4), Jonas Blixt (3), Luke Donald (3,4), Jamie Donaldson (3), Victor Dubuisson (3,4), Harris English (3), Matt Every (3,4), Rickie Fowler (3), Jim Furyk (3), Stephen Gallacher (3,4), Sergio García (3,4,5), Mikko Ilonen (3,4), Thongchai Jaidee (3,4), Miguel Ángel Jiménez (3,4), Martin Kaymer (3,4), Chris Kirk (3,4), Joost Luiten (3), Graeme McDowell (3,4), Rory McIlroy (3,4), Francesco Molinari (3), Ryan Moore (3,4), Kevin Na (3), Ian Poulter (3), Patrick Reed (3,4), Justin Rose (3,4), Henrik Stenson (3,4), Kevin Streelman (3,4), Brendon Todd (3,4), Jimmy Walker (3,4), Bubba Watson (3,4), Lee Westwood (3,4), Gary Woodland (3)

Dustin Johnson (3,4) withdrew prior to the tournament^[4]

3. The top 50 players from the Official World Golf Ranking as of July 28, 2014.

4. Tournament winners, whose victories are considered official, of tournaments from the Federation Tours since the prior season's Bridgestone Invitational with an Official World Golf Ranking Strength of Field Rating of 115 points or more.^[5]

Steven Bowditch, Tim Clark, Ben Crane, Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, J. B. Holmes, David Howell, Matt Jones, Pablo Larrazábal, Alexander Lévy, David Lynn, Noh Seung-yul, John Senden, Kevin Stadler, Scott Stallings, Fabrizio Zanotti

5. The winner of selected tournaments from each of the following tours:

Asian Tour

Thailand Golf Championship (2013) – Sergio García (already qualified under categories 2 and 4)

PGA Tour of Australasia

Australian PGA Championship (2013) – Adam Scott (already qualified under categories 1, 2 and 4)

Japan Golf Tour

Bridgestone Open (2013) – Daisuke Maruyama

Japan Golf Tour

Japan Golf Tour Championship – Yoshitaka Takeya

Sunshine Tour

Dimension Data Pro-Am – Estanislao Goya

Nine players were appearing in their first WGC event: Steven Bowditch, Matt Every, Estanislao Goya, Brian Harman, Matt Jones, Alexander Lévy, Yoshitaka Takeya, Brendon Todd and Fabrizio Zanotti.

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Marc Leishman	64	−6
align=center rowspan=3	T2	Ryan Moore	align=center rowspan=3	65	align=center rowspan=3	−5
Justin Rose
Charl Schwartzel
align=center rowspan=4	T5	Graham DeLaet	align=center rowspan=4	67	align=center rowspan=4	−3
Rickie Fowler
Francesco Molinari
Patrick Reed
align=center rowspan=5	T9	Keegan Bradley	align=center rowspan=5	68	align=center rowspan=5	−2
Jamie Donaldson
Sergio García
Brandt Snedeker
Tiger Woods

Source:^[6]

Second round

Friday, August 1, 2014

Sergio García birdied his last seven holes, tying the course record of 61 (−9), which included a new course record of 27 (−8) on the back nine.^[6] ^[7]

Place	Player	Score	To par
1		68-61=129	−11
2		65-67=132	−8
align=center rowspan=2	T3		64-69=133	align=center rowspan=2	−7
	69-64=133
align=center rowspan=2	T5		67-67=134	align=center rowspan=2	−6
	65-69=134
align=center rowspan=2	T7		68-67=135	align=center rowspan=2	−5
	67-68=135
align=center rowspan=3	T9		67-69=136	align=center rowspan=3	−4
	71-65=136
	68-68=136

Source:^[6]

Third round

Saturday, August 2, 2014

With threatening weather in the forecast, the field went off early in the morning from split tees in threesomes. A weather delay in the early afternoon affected the final several groups, but all rounds were finished.

Place	Player	Score	To par
1		68-61-67=196	−14
2		69-64-66=199	−11
3		64-69-68=201	−9
align=center rowspan=3	T4		68-67-67=202	align=center rowspan=3	−8
	65-67-70=202
	69-68-65=202
7		68-68-68=204	−6
align=center rowspan=2	T8		69-69-67=205	align=center rowspan=2	−5
	71-66-68=205
align=center rowspan=8	T10		69-68-69=206	align=center rowspan=8	−4
	69-69-68=206
	67-67-72=206
	69-68-69=206
	70-71-65=206
	65-73-68=206
	67-68-71=206
	70-68-68=206

Source:^[6]

Final round

Sunday, August 3, 2014

The field went off the first tee in conventional pairs on Sunday, but a midday weather delay of over an hour was incurred before half the field teed off.

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Rory McIlroy	69-64-66-66=265	−15	1,530,000
2		68-61-67-71=267	−13	900,000
3		64-69-68-67=268	−12	522,000
align=center rowspan=4	T4		68-67-67-69=271	align=center rowspan=4	−9	align=center rowspan=4	308,000
	67-68-71-65=271
	65-67-70-69=271
	65-69-73-64=271
align=center rowspan=4	T8		67-67-72-67=273	align=center rowspan=4	−7	align=center rowspan=4	170,000
	71-70-66-66=273
	65-73-68-67=273
	69-68-65-71=273

Source:^[6] ^[8]

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	5		4		4		3		4		3		4		4		4	4	3	4	4	3	5	4	4
McIlroy	−12	−13	−14	−14	−15	−15	−15	−14	−14	−14	−15	−15	−15	−15	−15	−15	−15	−15
García	−14	−14	−13	−13	−13	−13	−13	−13	−14	−14	−14	−14	−14	−14	−13	−13	−13	−13
Leishman	−9	−10	−11	−10	−10	−9	−10	−11	−11	−11	−11	−12	−12	−11	−11	−12	−12	−12
Bradley	−9	−9	−9	−10	−10	−10	−11	−11	−11	−11	−12	−11	−11	−10	−10	−9	−9	−9
Rose	−8	−10	−10	−10	−9	−8	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9	−10	−10	−10	−9	−9	−9	−9
Scott	−8	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9	−9	−10	−10	−10	−10	−9	−8	−7	−7	−7

	Eagle		Birdie		Bogey

Source:^[6] ^[8]

External links

41.008°N -81.508°W

Notes and References

News: Rory McIlroy wins WGC Bridgestone Invitational and marches back to world No 1 spot in form of his life . August 4, 2014 . Daily Telegraph.
Web site: Courses . Firestone Country Club . 2013 . March 1, 2013.
Web site: How players qualify . March 1, 2013.
News: Dustin Johnson withdraws, leaves field at 76 . Akron Beacon Journal . Marla . Ridenour . July 29, 2014.
The 'Strength of Field Rating' is a loose term for what the Official World Golf Ranking calls the 'Total Rating Value' (see Event ranking).
News: WGC-Bridgestone Invitational . ESPN . August 3, 2014 . July 25, 2017.
Web site: Ferguson . Doug . Sergio Garcia shoots 61 to take Firestone lead . Yahoo! Sports . Associated Press . August 1, 2014.
Web site: Leaderboard: WGC-Bridgestone Invitational . Yahoo! Sports . August 3, 2014 . August 4, 2014.