What To Look For: 2018 WGC - Bridgestone

The Tour comes to Firestone Country Club for the last time for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.



The original tournament at Firestone was the NEC World Series of Golf which was originally a 4-man event, taking each of the 4 major championship winners to play in the event. Eventually in 1999 it turned into a WGC event.

The south course was originally designed by Bert Way in 1929 and then re-designed in 1960 by Robert Trent Jones. Jones was once the premier designer, particularly for major championship courses, on Tour. Having grown up playing numerous RT Jones designs (he was a graduate of nearby Cornell University) his courses are very long and fairly wide open. But, he does stress quality driving…it just tends to be more distance biased than accuracy biased.

To my knowledge, Firestone – South is the only RT Jones design left on Tour. Most of the current Tour courses have more dogleg that have sharper bends to them. If the rough is short and the conditions are soft, it generally gives an enormous advantage to the long hitters. If the rough is long and the course is firm, it favors short, but accurate hitters off the tee. With RT Jones designs, it should favor longer hitters, year after year.

Watch out for some big drives here as last year Rory McIlroy was hitting speed rams and routinely pumping 370+ yard drives. But, this should mostly come down to longer approach shot plays and who can make some mid-length putts.

PROJECTED WINNING SCORE: -13

3JACK’S FAVORITES

Dustin Johnson +700
Rory McIlroy +1,000
Justin Rose +1,200
Jordan Spieth +2,000
Jon Rahm +2,000


3JACK’S DARK HORSE PICKS

Henrik Stenson +4,000
Patrick Cantlay +6,600
Bryson DeChambeau +6,600
Kyle Stanley +12,500
Gary Woodland +20,000





Rich