munneypicks

2015  Bridgestone Invitational

Last Week: Let’s first look back at last week. Troy Merritt took home the hardware with an extremely impressive showing. He was 250/1 and had missed his last 5 cuts on TOUR so the win was a bit out of nowhere. 2 of our selections finished in the top 5 and we were able to cash an e/w bet on Justin Thomas.

Tournament: The Bridgestone Invitational is a great event every year and one that I truly look forward to. It is a stern test of golf that tests the best players in the world year in and year out. This is a WGC event which means one thing: the stars will be out. All the top players in the world are here with the exception of the injured #1 player in the world Rory McIlroy and as we’ve had some promising young winners capture victories this season, hopefully we can see some drama come Sunday between some of the world’s best. The course is Firestone. A 7,400 yard, par 70 layout. It truly suits long hitters who can keep it in the short stuff. In the last 12 years of the event every winner has been above the PGA TOUR average for driving distance. That says a lot. Another note is that course experience seems to matter. The last 10 winners all posted top 15’s at Firestone before going on to win. Bentgrass greens that many players deem as “perfect” will test some players. That being said, bentgrass is typically the easiest grass for TOUR players to put on because it contains no grain like Bermuda and doesn’t get bumpy in the afternoons like Poa Annua.

Field: World class field. All the top names are here sans Rory. Spieth, Bubba, DJ, Stenson, Kaymer, Fowler, Rose, Sergio, Day, etc.

What to Look For: The main thing to look for at Firestone are good drivers of the golf ball. Not only do players need to be fairly straight this week, but the certainly need to be long. All winners of this tournament have been above average in distance. Strokes Gained tee to green is also a very important stat this week. Only Hunter Mahan has won this event while ranking outside the top 30 in this stat in the season of their victory. The same goes for par 5 average. Only Mahan ranked outside the top 30 in this stat in his year of victory (since 2003.) Even though there are only 2 par 5’s, I think this is a factor of how long some of the par 4’s are on this course.

Picks:

Justin Rose to win: Rosie’s flatstick let him down last week where he finished T4. A small adjustment there could certainly have him in the winners circle this week. He has three consecutive top 20’s in this event and back to back top 10’s this season. 21st in driving distance, 17th in SG: T2G and 7th in Par 5 scoring. Plus he already won in Ohio this year so he may have some good vibes.