This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
This week is the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the Barracuda Championship. With the unfortunate cancelation of the Greenbrier Classic, these are the last two PGA Tour events to qualify for The Open Championship and, for anyone playing on the PGA Tour and not in next week's Scottish Open or some other worldwide event, the last opportunity to try to qualify for the Olympics. The 60-player field will be determined by the Official World Golf Rankings as of July 11.
Who is Not Playing
Rory McIlroy leads a contingent, including Graeme McDowell, Danny Willett, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan, Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood, who have chosen to play the French Open – and the fact that it's counting for double Ryder Cup points and as two starts this season on the European Tour – instead of the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.
Who is Playing in Akron
Billy Hurley III, Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, defending champion Shane Lowry, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Anirban Lahiri and more are in Ohio this week.
Jim Furyk, who finished T2 at the U.S. Open, loves this event, having nearly won it on several occasions – including losing to Tiger Woods in an epic playoff. We spoke last week about how at Oakmont he hit 66 percent of his fairways, 71 percent of his greens and averaged 1.68 putts per green, all better than average (especially GIR
This week is the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the Barracuda Championship. With the unfortunate cancelation of the Greenbrier Classic, these are the last two PGA Tour events to qualify for The Open Championship and, for anyone playing on the PGA Tour and not in next week's Scottish Open or some other worldwide event, the last opportunity to try to qualify for the Olympics. The 60-player field will be determined by the Official World Golf Rankings as of July 11.
Who is Not Playing
Rory McIlroy leads a contingent, including Graeme McDowell, Danny Willett, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan, Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood, who have chosen to play the French Open – and the fact that it's counting for double Ryder Cup points and as two starts this season on the European Tour – instead of the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.
Who is Playing in Akron
Billy Hurley III, Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, defending champion Shane Lowry, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Anirban Lahiri and more are in Ohio this week.
Jim Furyk, who finished T2 at the U.S. Open, loves this event, having nearly won it on several occasions – including losing to Tiger Woods in an epic playoff. We spoke last week about how at Oakmont he hit 66 percent of his fairways, 71 percent of his greens and averaged 1.68 putts per green, all better than average (especially GIR – he was 13 points over the average). At Congressional he tied for 21st and for the week on another tight, ball-strikers golf course finished T11 in driving accuracy and T20 in strokes gained-around the green. Those numbers make him another good pick this week.
Hurley's win last week was most certainly the feel good story of the year on the PGA Tour, and it got him into Firestone. For the week he was first in strokes gained-approach to the green and eighth in strokes gained-around the green, aided by that epic chip in on 15 on Sunday. Winning the week after your first win is a tough task but if Hurley can keep up his good play this week I most certainly believe he can contend.
Phil Mickelson is in an interesting position this week and next at the Scottish Open. The maximum number of players a each country can field in the Olympics is four, if all four are in the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings. The U.S. has four in the top 15. Mickelson said he would 100 percent go, but he's currently 20th, on the outside looking in. However, of the four golfers currently qualified, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson have, at various times this year, expressed reservations about going to Rio. Only Bubba Watson is 100 percent commited. Now granted, there are five OTHER Americans ahead of Mickelson in the OWGR, and OWGR math isn't my strong suit, but two wins or one win and a strong finish could be enough to catapult Mickelson into the top 15 or into the first spot should someone bow out. So there's a lot for Phil to be playing for.
I'd stay away from Fowler and Spieth – Rickie's been so incredibly inconsistent and Spieth is peaking more for two weeks from now – and look more toward, as a complete flier, Lowry. Lowry, of course, lost the U.S. Open in heartbreaking fashion but don't overlook his stats prowess. For the week at Oakmont he was second in strokes gained-around the green and sixth in strokes gained-putting. If he's got a clear head, he could contend this week. He is of course the defending champion here, so he's got good vibes at Firestone.
The Barracuda Championship
The Barracuda Championship and the use of the modified stableford scoring system return this week in Reno, a format that rewards low scores. The first player in the top 5 not already qualified for The Open Championship gets a ticket to Royal Troon. In this field – an opposite-field event against a WGC is always weak – only Rod Pampling and Ben Curtis have punched their tickets to the third major of the season, so an opportunity of a lifetime potentially awaits.
The field is led by Patton Kizzire, Gary Woodland, Geoff Ogilvy, John Rahm, John Daly and Lee McCoy.
If your league includes this event, my recommendations are Kizzire and Rahm. Kizzire has had a pretty solid rookie campaign, ranking 46th in strokes gained-approach to the green and 11th in strokes gained-putting, 43rd in birdie average and 55th in scoring average. He has five top-10s and seven top-25s in 21 starts and is 40th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Rahm nearly won the Quicken Loans National last week in his first PGA Tour start as a professional, ranking 13th in strokes gained-off the tee, 16th in strokes gained-around the green and sixth in strokes gained-putting en route to his T3 finish. He's a strong pick this week, especially as a guy who plays with no fear.
The Weather x 2
Bridgestone Invitational weather looks sunny except for Friday (where there's a thunderstorm chance), with temperatures in the 70s and 80s and fairly light winds.
In Reno, it'll be extremely hot with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-to-high 90s every day. It will be fairly breezy – 10-20 mph – every day.
