2016 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational explained

2016 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
Dates:	June 30 – July 3, 2016
Location:	Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Course:	Firestone Country Club South Course
Tour:	PGA Tour
Par:	70
Yardage:	7400yd
Field:	61 players
Cut:	None
Purse:	$9.5 million
Winners Share:	$1.62 million
Champion:	Dustin Johnson
Score:	274 (−6)
Previous:	2015
Next:	2017

The 2016 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational was a professional golf tournament played June 30 – July 3 on the South Course of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. It was the 18th WGC-Bridgestone Invitational tournament, and the third of the World Golf Championships events in 2016.

The event was played more than a month earlier than usual, due to the 2016 Summer Olympics. It was only sanctioned by the PGA Tour, because it ran opposite the Open de France the European Tour did not co-sanction the tournament this year.

Dustin Johnson won his first WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and third WGC overall.^[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 consisted of players drawn primarily from the Official World Golf Ranking and the winners of the worldwide tournaments with the strongest fields.^[3]

1. Playing members of the 2015 United States and International Presidents Cup teams.

Steven Bowditch, Jason Day (2,3,4), Rickie Fowler (2,3,4), Branden Grace (2,3,4), Bill Haas (2,3), J. B. Holmes (2,3), Dustin Johnson (2,3,4), Zach Johnson (2,3), Chris Kirk, Matt Kuchar (2,3), Anirban Lahiri, Danny Lee (2,3), Marc Leishman (2,3,4), Hideki Matsuyama (2,3,4), Phil Mickelson (2,3), Louis Oosthuizen (2,3), Patrick Reed (2,3), Charl Schwartzel (2,3,4), Adam Scott (2,3,4), Jordan Spieth (2,3,4), Jimmy Walker (2,3), Bubba Watson (2,3,4)

• Bae Sang-moon was unable to compete due to a military obligation in South Korea.
• Thongchai Jaidee (4) opted to compete in the Open de France.

2. The top 50 players from the Official World Golf Ranking as of June 20, 2016.

An Byeong-hun (3), Daniel Berger (3,4), Paul Casey (3), Kevin Chappell (3), Harris English, Jim Furyk (3), Emiliano Grillo (3,4), Charley Hoffman (3,4), Kim Kyung-tae (3), Kevin Kisner (3,4), Søren Kjeldsen (3), Russell Knox (3,4), Brooks Koepka (3), David Lingmerth (3), Shane Lowry (3,4), William McGirt (3,4), Kevin Na (3), Scott Piercy (3), Justin Rose (3,4), Brandt Snedeker (3,4), Justin Thomas (3,4)

• Rafa Cabrera-Bello (3), Matt Fitzpatrick (3,4), Rory McIlroy (3,4), Andy Sullivan (3), Lee Westwood (3), Bernd Wiesberger (3), Danny Willett (3,4), and Chris Wood (3,4) opted to compete in the Open de France.
• Sergio García (3,4) and Henrik Stenson (3,4) did not play.

3. The top 50 players from the Official World Golf Ranking as of June 27, 2016.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat

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.^[4]

Jason Dufner, Marcus Fraser, Fabián Gómez, James Hahn, Jim Herman, Billy Hurley III, Andrew Johnston, Matt Jones, Smylie Kaufman, Davis Love III, Song Young-han, Brian Stuard, Vaughn Taylor

• Kristoffer Broberg, Victor Dubuisson, and Thorbjørn Olesen opted to compete in the Open de France.

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

• Asian Tour

Thailand Golf Championship (2015) – Jamie Donaldson (opted to compete in the Open de France)

• PGA Tour of Australasia

Australian PGA Championship (2015)^[5] – Nathan Holman

• Japan Golf Tour

Bridgestone Open (2015) – Michio Matsumura

• Japan Golf Tour

Japan Golf Tour Championship – Yosuke Tsukada

• Sunshine Tour

Dimension Data Pro-Am – George Coetzee

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Place	Player	Score	To par
1		64	−6
T2		67	−3
Emiliano Grillo
Jimmy Walker
T5		68	−2
Charley Hoffman
Anirban Lahiri
Jordan Spieth
T9		69	−1
Branden Grace
Billy Hurley III
Dustin Johnson
Kevin Kisner
Matt Kuchar
Scott Piercy
Justin Rose
Vaughn Taylor

Source^[6]

Second round

Friday, July 1, 2016

Place	Player	Score	To par
1		67-69=136	−4
2		70-67=137	−3
T3		67-71=138	−2
	64-74=138
	69-69=138
T6		69-70=139	−1
	71-68=139
	68-71=139
	70-69=139
T10		71-69=140	E
	70-70=140
	71-69=140
	67-73=140

Source^[6]

Third round

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1		67-69-69=205	−5
	69-69-67=205
3		70-67-69=206	−4
4		71-69-67=207	−3
T5		69-73-66=208	−2
	64-74-70=208
	72-69-67=208
T8		67-71-71=209	−1
	70-69-70=209
T10		71-70-69=210	E
	68-71-71=210

Source^[6]

Final round

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Dustin Johnson	69-73-66-66=274	−6	1,620,000
2		69-69-67-70=275	−5	1,018,000
align=center rowspan=4	T3		71-70-69-67=277	align=center rowspan=4	−3	align=center rowspan=4	449,250
	67-69-69-72=277
	69-72-70-66=277
	68-71-71-67=277
align=center rowspan=3	T7		70-67-69-72=278	align=center rowspan=3	−2	align=center rowspan=3	233,333
	64-74-70-70=278
	72-69-67-70=278
align=center rowspan=4	T10		68-73-72-67=280	align=center rowspan=4	E	align=center rowspan=4	167,750
	69-72-71-68=280
	72-74-69-65=280
	71-68-73-68=280

Source^{[6] [7]}

Scorecard

Final round

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
Johnson	−2	−3	−2	−2	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−6	−6	−6	−7	−6
Piercy	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−5	−6	−5	−6	−6	−5	−4	−5	−4	−4	−4	−5
Chappell	E	−2	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−5	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3
Day	−5	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−7	−7	−7	−7	−7	−6	−4	−4	−3
Kuchar	+1	E	E	E	E	E	E	E	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−2	−3
Spieth	E	E	+1	+1	+1	E	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3
Lingmerth	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−2	−2	−2
McGirt	−2	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−2	−2	−2
Schwartzel	−2	−2	−2	−1	−1	E	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Double Eagle -->

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Triple bogey+ -->

Source^[6]

External links

• Firestone Country Club site

41.008°N -81.508°W

Notes and References

1. News: Dustin Johnson wins the Bridgestone Invitational for 2nd straight victory . ESPN . Associated Press . July 3, 2016.
2. Web site: Courses . Firestone Country Club . 2013 . March 1, 2013.
3. Web site: Inside the Field: WGC-Bridgestone Invitational . PGA Tour . June 29, 2016.
4. The 'Strength of Field Rating' is a loose term for what the Official World Golf Ranking calls the 'Total Rating Value' (see Event ranking).
5. Web site: New sanctioning agreement for 2015 Australian PGA Championship . September 8, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151006020409/http://championship.pga.org.au/european-tour-heads-to-the-australian-pga-championship/ . October 6, 2015 . dead . mdy-all .
6. News: WGC-Bridgestone Invitational . ESPN . July 3, 2016 . July 25, 2017.
7. Web site: World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational . World Golf Championship . July 3, 2016 . July 3, 2016 . August 5, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130805133357/http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/bridgestone-invitational/leaderboard.html . dead .