Bridgestone Invitational: The Lowdown

Compiled by BRIAN KEOGH

Course: Firestone Country Club, South Course, Akron, Ohio.

Par: 70, 7,400 yards.

Format: Four days, no cut, 72 holes of strokeplay.

Field: 80 players.

Qualification: A player must meet one of the following criteria: be a member of the most recent President’s or Ryder Cup team; be in the top-50 in the world rankings one or two weeks prior to the event; have won an event with a world ranking field strength of 100 points or more in the last calendar year.

Purse: €5.5 million, winner gets €935,000. Last place: €24,000.

Defending champion: Vijay Singh. Tournament record: 259 (Tiger Woods, 2000). 54-hole record: 192 (Woods, 2000). 36-hole record: 125 (Woods, 2000). Low round: 61 (Woods, second round, 2000).

Notes: Tiger Woods (right) will be looking for his seventh victory. Only Sam Snead has more victories in a single tournament, with eight wins in Greensboro. Woods has won 15 WGC events in 29 starts, earning over €14 million.

Did You Know? In 2007 Woods created an European Tour record by wining the tournament for a third consecutive season. He became the first player to win the same event for three consecutive years on two occasions, having won the event in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Defending champion Singh claimed his first WGC victory here. He was 45 years and 163 days, and was the oldest winner on the 2008 European Tour international schedule.

Another record Woods claimed as a result of his 2007 victory saw him become the first player in European Tour history to win two titles six times, having won the WGC – CA for the sixth time in March 2007.

Should Geoff Ogilvy win at Firestone he will become the second player, after Woods, to win all three WGC events, having claimed the Accenture Matchplay in 2006 and 2009 and the 2008 WGC – CA.

Stuart Appleby continues his record of being the only player to play in every WGC event since they began in 1999. The 2009 Bridgestone will be his 32nd consecutive WGC appearance. There are nine European Tour members making their Bridgestone debut: Christian Cévaër, Nathan Green, Anthony Kang, Søren Kjeldsen, Danny Lee, Shane Lowry (above), Rory McIlroy, Alvaro Quiros and Camillo Villegas.

Of those, four will be experiencing a WGC event for the first time: Cévaër, Kang, Lee and Lowry.

Youngest and oldest: Kenny Perry (right), 48, is the eldest of the 13 forty- somethings in the field. Lee, the teenage sensation from New Zealand, will be the youngest to tee it up in a WGC event. Lee is 19 years, one month and seven days old today. Sergio Garcia was 19 years, seven months and 17 days at the 1999 Bridgestone, and McIlroy was 19 years, nine months and 22 days at the 2009 Matchplay.

Weather - Today: partly cloudy (low: 540F; high: 780F; winds: NW 10-15mph). Friday, Partly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms late in the day (low 560F, high 780F; winds: WSW 8-12mph). Saturday: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms (low 620F; high 840F; winds SW8-12mph). Sunday: Partly cloudy, breezy, hot and humid (low 690F; high 910F; winds SW 10-15mph).

Selected tee-times (Irish time): First tee: 13.52 - Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Marc Turnesa; 17.37 - Ben Curtis, Lee Westwood, Shingo Katayama; 17:48 - Stuart Appleby, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez; 18.10 - Tiger Woods, Carl Pettersson, Sergio Garcia; 18.21 - Paul Casey, Zach Johnson, Retief Goosen. 10th tee: 14.14 - Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell, Davis Love; 14.25 - Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh, Rory McIlroy; 14.36 - Phil Mickelson, Camilo Villegas, Ernie Els; 17.26 - Woody Austin, Nick Dougherty, Darren Clarke; 18.10 - Pádraig Harrington, Soren Hansen, Scott Verplank.