2015 WGC Bridgestone Invitational: Tee times, pairings for Friday’s round at Firestone

As you might expect at a World Golf Championship, the leaderboard of the Bridgestone Invitational is loaded with world-class talent after 18 holes. This is almost always the case at Firestone Country Club, a relatively boring course that the pros have come to love. The South Course was more challenging than normal in Thursday’s first round, with the turf bouncy and hardened out from a lack a rain. There’s not supposed to be any precipitation until Monday, so the scores may stick in the upper 60s throughout the week.

The early pacesetter is Danny Lee, who posted a 5-under 65. Lee has been one of the hotter players on Tour this summer, picking up his first career win at the Greenbrier and then contending several weeks thereafter. He’s an up-and-coming player, but in this field, it’s unlikely he keeps it up over the final 54 holes. He’ll be out with Webb Simpson toward the back end of the morning wave at 10:35 a.m. ET.

Rickie Fowler is the top name near the top of the leaderboard playing in the afternoon. Fowler was the early morning leader on Thursday, posting a 3-under 67. He’s also obviously been one of the hotter players in the world since the month of May, winning twice and consistently popping up on the first page of the leaderboard. Fowler finally broke that one-career-win curse that dogged him for the last three years with his win at The Players. He then added another worldwide win with his Scottish Open title. At this point, Rickie is gunning for a major but a WGC title and all the money and world ranking points that come with it would be the next best thing in what might be a summer that’s a launchpad for many bigger things.

Fowler will play with Jason Day at 2:15 p.m. ET, just a group ahead of Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson. That’s the marquee cluster for the afternoon and they’ll be featured on Golf Channel’s broadcast, which starts at 1:30 p.m. In the morning, Jordan Spieth will go with Zach Johnson at 10:15 a.m. Neither Johnson nor Spieth could get much going in the first round, but they didn’t exactly implode and are still in it at even-par. That 5-under number should keep moving up so they will need a round in the 60s to get in a good spot for the weekend (there’s no cut at the exclusive Bridgestone). Here’s the full tee sheet for Friday’s second round:

★★★

SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. Open champion (2012)