Scott, Old Guard, fights off
uppity youth at Bridgestone
AKRON, Ohio -- Golf got caught in a time warp at Firestone.The title was the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational – purse, $8.5 million; first prize, $1.4 million. But as golf tournaments go, it could have been a turning point in golf history, a time when rebellious youth took over.
It took a member of the Old Guard, Australia’s Adam Scott, all of 31, to man the barricades. Scott opened with a stunning 62 and led or shared the lead all the way, and just to teach those kids a lesson, after starting the final round leading by a narrow stroke, he ground them to pieces with a bogey-free 65 for a 17-under 263. He won by four over Rickie Fowler and Luke Donald age 33, No. 1 in the world ranking, who both shot 66. The others were so much damaged goods scattered in Scott’s wake.
Order had been restored.
It was also a tournament of grand irony. Scott’s caddie was the newly hired Steve Williams, former guard-dog caddie for Tiger Woods through 13 years and fabulous victories and riches. In fact, Williams caddied for Woods through seven victories and nearly $9.4 million in winnings at Firestone. So Scott won with Williams on the bag, and Woods, newly back from an 11-week injury time-out, tied for 37th.
This one ended with Williams, in an interview after the final round, labeling Woods a liar.
Woods had fired Williams at the AT&T National early in July. Woods said he told Williams it was “time for a break” in person.
“That is incorrect,” Williams said, repeating his statement of moments earlier. “I was told on the phone that we needed to take a break.”
Meanwhile, back at the Bridgestone
Scott started slowly, with a 1-under 34 on the front nine. He got rolling coming in and turned back Fowler, 23, who tied for second; Australia’s Jason Day, 23, and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, 19, who tied for fourth; Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, 22, tied for sixth, and Keegan Bradley, 25, a PGA Tour rookie, who challenged then dropped to a tie for 15th.
“Like I said maybe a couple days ago, I wasn’t feeling 100 percent with the golf swing, and today I felt 100,” said Scott, chalking up his eighth tour win – underachieving, judging from the great expectations of observers when he brought that silky swing to the United States. “I just had to control myself a little bit and stay patient and not get ahead of myself.”
As control goes, he was a fighter pilot. He birdied No. 2, coming out of a greenside bunker to 6 feet. He got the 10th from 6 feet, and the 12th – which had turned him around in the third round --- from 17. At the 14th, it was a ho-hum 27-footer, and at the 18th, a time for a routine par, he hit a 200-yard second to 5 feet and holed the putt before the screaming grandstands.
It was partly a new caddie, partly the new long putter.
“He has such a great knowledge of this course,” Scott said. “He’s seen a guy play incredible golf. He really guided me around the course nicely when he needed to stop in and just make a point.”
Of the long putter: “I was so inconsistent with the short one. I didn’t know what was going to show up on the golf course. The long one has provided me with consistency, and with that more confidence.” He needed just 104 putts, tied for fourth in the field.
For Ishikawa, it was a case of youth springing a leak. He’d made only three bogeys in the first three rounds, then went 23 holes before making his fourth, at No. 4 in the final round. Then with the pressure mounting, he stumbled to three more.
“I think it has to do with my putting and my approach shots, the technical side of that,” he said.
And thus ended a fanciful fiction.
Somebody – CBS included – kept insisting that Ishikawa would have been the second-youngest winner in PGA Tour history, after Johnny McDermott, when he won the 1911 U.S. Open. It merely was a romantic notion. In 1911, there was no PGA Tour. There was not even a PGA of America.
Fowler started three off the lead and was running hot, shooting a bogey-free 66, but just couldn’t close the gap. In fact, he lost a stroke to Scott’s 65. He had arrived at Firestone, he said, an older, wiser golfer than the one who fretted through the final rounds of the AT&T and the British Open. “After those two, I just knew I had to stay a lot more patient and within myself,” he said, “and make sure that I was fully committed t every shot and think everything through.”
For all of the expectations heaped upon McIlroy – a reward for winning the U.S. Open – he shot what had to be the four quietest rounds in the 60s of his young career. He shot tough Firestone in 68-68-67-67 – 270, 10 under, and was hardly noticed. He tied for sixth, and was never really the threat expected of a pre-tournament favorite.
“Yeah, it’s been a very productive week, to shoot four rounds in the 60s,” McIlroy said. “It was a good confidence-builder going into next week [the PGA Championship].”
Jason Day and Scott almost hijacked the Masters before tieing for second. This time, Day was chasing him, and the birdie at No. 1 tightened the screws. Then he bogeyed the par-5 No. 2, everybody’s whipping boy, and from there it was an up-and-down ride to a 69 and a tie for fourth.
“After I bogeyed that hole, I knew I had to just stick around, stick around, just to see what I can do,” Day said. But there was nothing left to do except congratulate his fellow Aussie.
Keegan Bradley, 25, a surprise contender for being just a rookie on the PGA Tour, challenged for the first three rounds, then couldn’t hold it together. He suffered a no-birdie 41 on back nine, shot 74 and slid to a tie for 15th.
The final question was wardrobe. Scott played the last round in a black golf shirt and black trousers, on a hot and muggy day. Was this his gunfighter mode? He grinned.
“No,” he said. “Poor planning.”
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