by Jeff Skinner
Once again history was made at Firestone Country Club. There is plenty of history at this revered track with past winners that grace the walls of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Today was a bit different though. Today’s historic moment was when a bitter caddy received more attention than the winner of The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Steve Williams may have had his moment after the tournament but Adam Scott was the man of the moment and that moment will last for a long time.
Scott played a flawless final round that allowed him to cruise to a four shot win against a field that rivals any major championship. He started well with a birdie on the second hole and gained momentum as he birdied ten, twelve and fourteen before his clinching birdie on the final hole. Scott may have won this tournament on Thursday as he shot a tournament best 62 to open and held or shared the lead at the end of each round.
This is Scott’s eighth PGA Tour win with significant wins at The Players Championship (2004) and The Tour Championship (2006). That’s quite an impressive resume and Scott has to be thinking that next week’s PGA Championship is within his grasp. “Like I said maybe a couple days ago, I wasn’t feeling 100 percent with the golf swing, and today I felt 100. It felt great in the warm-up, so I was confident going to the course. I just had to kind of control myself a little bit and stay patient and not get ahead of myself. So went out there with a good strategy and played a solid front nine and not much happened, but started hitting some good shots on the back nine, chipping in on 12, all these good things happen when you win.
Ended up playing a really solid round of golf for this golf course. With this win, I mean, I’m really stoked to have won a World Golf Championship and win around this course in nice fashion. The way I closed it out, I was really happy with, too, so overall extremely happy.”
Lost in all the Steve Williams hoopla afterwards was the fact that this was a great golf tournament. Scott was impeccable in the final round and he was being chased by an extraordinary group of golfers.
Rickie Fowler (T2) finally had a Sunday where he moved up the leaderboard and he led the field with only 100 putts for the week. If you play bogey free golf on a course like this as Fowler and Scott did you’ll be in the hunt at the end.
World Number One, Luke Donald (T2) carded a 66 to contend and claim his ninth top ten in thirteen starts on The PGA Tour.
Another Aussie, Jason Day (T3) had a good week but today his putter failed him on his way to a 69. Day is one of the best golfers that the casual fan has never heard of. This is his eighth top ten finish which includes second place finishes at The Masters and The U.S. Open.
Ryo Ishikawa had his best finish on this side of the Pacific as he tied for fourth. Ryo is a very entertaining golfer and this kid can putt. He was second in putts per round and putts in GIR.
The general public and the television execs got what it wanted in the early rounds: Tiger Woods finally playing golf. Real golf aficionados got what they wanted all week: great golf, a close tournament and a deserving champion.
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