Bridgestone Invitational: Adam Scott, Famous Caddy Win By Four Strokes

The final groups are making the turn at the 2011 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, and Adam Scott and Ryo Ishikawa look destined for a back nine duel for the title.

The two golfers, both in the final group, sit in the same order — Scott leading, Ishikawa one stroke back — as they were at the beginning of the day. Scott is 14-under par after a birdie on the 10th hole, and Ishikawa’s 13-under par for the tournament after a topsy-turvy front nine in Sunday’s final round at Firestone.

The leading two groups don’t start their final rounds in the 2011 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational until 1:50 pm ET, but most of the golfers have already started their fourth rounds. Tiger Woods is, just like his other days, having a relatively average and uneventful Sunday. When he thinks about it he’ll probably be pleased that he’s playing golf at a reasonably high level in his first tournament back, but he’s nowhere near contention at the moment, as he sits at one-over for the day and two-over for the tournament.

None of the golfers in the middle of the pack are surging up the leaderboard, so the final round should be a fight between the guys who finished on top after Saturday. Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer and Geoff Ogilvy are all shooting three-under on the day, but none of them are anywhere near the leaders. Here’s the entire leaderboad from PGATour.com.

The final round of the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational gets underway on Sunday morning, and though Tiger Woods is out of contention, his former caddy is not. Adam Scott, who now employs Woods’ ex-mate Steve Williams, has a one-shot advantage over the field after working his way to 12-under after three rounds. He’s being chased by Ryo Ishikawa and Jason Day, who each sit one-shot back at 11-under for the tournament.

Woods’ comeback has been less than perfect, with different deficiencies showing in each round, from his drives to his putting. The result is a score of 1-over for the tournament, putting him in a tie for 38th. Sadly, Woods and Phil Mickelson, who is also at 1-over, will not be paired together on Sunday, and instead will tee-off 10 minutes apart, with Woods assigned the later of the two tee times.

Adam Scott finished his third consecutive round at the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational with the lead on Saturday afternoon. The Australian is probably happy that, for a change, first place is in his sole possession after finishing the first two rounds in a tie atop the leaderboard.

Scott finished his third round of the weekend at the Firestone Country Club’s golf course by hitting a four-under 66 after finishing even-par at 70 on Friday. Scott’s best stretch on Saturday came from Holes 12 to 16 as he birdied three of the four after finishing just one-under through the front-nine on Saturday morning.

Tiger Woods has a huge obstacle standing in his way if he hopes to win his eighth Bridgestone Invitational Tournament: a seven-stroke gap behind the four leaders. Entering Round 3, Woods sits at 1-under while the leaders are at 8-under.

But Woods does have a solid history in the third round of this tournament. The first year he won the tournament (1999), Woods fired off an 8-under on the par-70 course. In his victories at the Invitational, Woods has only shot over-par once in the third round, and that was a 1-over in 2006.

Adam Scott came into Friday play at the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational with the lead. He leaves it the same way, albeit with a little more company this time.

Four player are tied for the tournament lead after Day 2. Scott, Ryan Moore, Rickie Fowler and Keegan Bradley all ended the day 8-under.

Tiger Woods does not look likely to win the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, but sitting at 1-under through two rounds, it does appear he’s well on his way back from an injury that had kept him from playing competitive golf since May 12. After a second-round score of 1-over 71 at Firestone Country Club, the noted golf enthusiast finds himself around the middle of the pack and currently seven strokes off the lead, currently a four-way tie with Australian Jason Day still on the course.

Woods’ second round was a bit of a roller-coaster. His day featured four birdies, three bogeys a double-bogey 6 on No. 6. It was a far cry from his first-round, which featured pars across the front 9 and just one bogey. The good news is that Woods appears to be striking the ball well, currently averaging more than 310 yards off the tee, a marked improvement over his 290-yard average so far this year. He was a little more accurate off the tee in Round 2, oddly enough, hitting 57.4 percent of his fairways, a day after hitting just five.

The 2011 Bridgestone Invitational gets back underway on Friday after Adam Scott fired a blistering round to take the lead. Scott, playing with Tiger Woods’ former caddy, Steve Williams, bested the mark put up by Jason Day earlier in the day, carding an 8-under 62 to take the lead. Tiger Woods said he felt healthy and happy, but errant drives and missed fairways led to just a 2-under 68 to open the tournament.

Leader Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson begin at tee No. 10 at 10:10 AM. Jason Day, who trails Scott by one stroke, starts at 1:50 PM with Phil Mickelson at tee No. 1. Nick Watney, who is three strokes behind, starts at 9:40 AM on tee No. 10. Tiger Woods, who is tied for 18th after shooting two under par in his return on Thursday, will start 10 minutes after Watney, and he continues to be paired with Darren Clarke.

For most of the day at the 2011 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, Jason Day was atop the leaderboard. Day shot a 7-under 63 and no other golf seemed able to get within two shots of him after he entered the clubhouse.

That is, until Adam Scott made his late charge and overtook Day to end the day in the top spot with an 8-under 62.

Almost everyone is in the clubhouse after Thursday’s first round at the 2011 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Tiger Woods’ return to golf went out fairly-smooth as he finished the day 2-under tied for 18th place, shooting a 68.

Woods made par on fourteen holes, including the first nine. He birdied 10,11 and 16 and his only bogey on the day was at 14.

Two-thirds of the field are in the clubhouse and Jason Day’s 7-under round remains atop the leaderboard by two stokes at the 2011 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

Martain Laird is along in 2nd at 5-under on the 17th hole with a chance to draw even closer. Ten golfers are right behind him a 4-under including Rory Sabbatini, Stewart Cink and Thomas Bjorn.

With more than half of the field in the clubhouse, Jason Day’s 7-under round has him atop the current leader of the 2011 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

Day birdied three holes to shoot a 32 on the front nine before adding four more birdies on the back nine. South Africa’s Rory Sabbatini, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn and Americans D.A. Point, Stewart Cink, and Brandt Snedeker are all in the clubhouse at 4-under, three shots off the current lead.

The golfers who started the 2011 WCG-Bridgestone Invitational with early morning tee times are right at the turn, and D.A. Points is the early leader at five-under par through eight holes. He has a two shot lead on the two men tied for second, Jonathan Byrd and Rory Sabbatini, who both sit at three-under par.

Rory McIlroy isn’t off to the strongest start, already scoring one bogey. He’s one-over through three holes. Phil Mickelson and Luke Donald are both off to slow but steady starts, as both sit at one-under par. Mickelson has finished three holes, while Donald has finished six. Graeme McDowell, Jason Day and Y.E. Yang are among the other big names in the early groups who are under par so far on the day.

Tiger Woods is set to return to golf for this weekend’s Bridgestone Invitational, but he has some work to do to make the PGA Tour’s version of the playoffs, the FedEx Cup. SB Nation’s golf blog, Waggle Room, looked at what Tiger Woods would need to do beginning with this week’s Bridgestone Invitational to dig out of the hole his injury left him in. Woods’ road to the FedEx Cup is a difficult one, but he can help his case by returning to form, and fast.

Strong results in the next couple of weeks should get Woods into the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston on Labor Day Weekend. He’ll then need to keep performing well through September, eventually making his way into the top 30.

Tiger Woods played a practice nine on Tuesday at Firestone Country Club in preparation for the former World No. 1’s first tournament since May, and said his surgically repaired knee is feeling better than it has in years.

Woods is now ranked 28th in the world, the lowest he’s been since his first full season. He had previously said, after withdrawing from TPC Sawgrass before the end of the second round in his most recent tournament, that he wouldn’t return until he was fully healthy.

Tiger Woods’ return to competitive golf continues apace ahead of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitation, which begins Thursday. A practice round at the Firestone Country Club course that hosts the event had Woods feeling very good both about his health and his chances when he talked to media members on Tuesday:

Woods hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since The Players Championship in May, where he played nine holes before withdrawing due to injury. He has since retooled his swing — though new swing coach Sean Foley told reporters on Monday that he hadn’t worked with Woods since the Players — and fired caddie Stevie Williams, replacing him with longtime friend Bryon Bell on an interim basis.