Scott bounces back into Bridgestone lead
AKRON, Ohio – Reports of Adam Scott’s marriage have been grossly exaggerated. Likewise the reports of his fold in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.In the opening round Thursday, Scott took the exclusive-field, $8.5 million tournament by storm with a 62, then looked as though he was faltering under the pressure of the youth movement. That par-70 in the second round was hardly a grievous wound, but that eight-shot jump seemed like big trouble was waiting just ahead.
Scott, himself a near-outsider at 31, was only trudging along in the third round Saturday until he finally gave up on his normal right-to-left draw, which insisted on hanging out to the right, and surrendered to the alien left-to-right fade that had cropped up in his game. Once he made his peace with the intruder, he was on his way. He birdied four of his last seven holes to break out of a jammed leader board for a 4-under 66, which gave him a 12-under 198 total and a one-shot lead on fellow Aussie Jason Day (66) and Japanese whiz kid Ryo Ishakawa, 19 (he’ll turn 20 in September), who shot 64. Scott and Ishikawa will be the final grouping in the final round Sunday.
And what with the leaderboard already crowded with Australian Jason Day, 24; PGA Tour rookie Keegan Bradley, 25; many-colored Rickie Fowler, 22; Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, 22, and Korea’s Kyung-tae Kim, Scott might look out of place at 31.
“No, I don’t feel old,” Scott said. “I still act like a teenager sometimes.”
Stories of his “marriage,” by the way, were all the rage back home in the Australian newspapers. A Scot got married, all right, but it was Martin Laird, Scottish pro. Someone at the papers confused the name with the country. It made for some chuckles. Laird himself is in the Bridgestone hunt, shooting a 67 Saturday, one of eight players within four shots of Scott. What looks like a shootout finish will not include seven-time winner Tiger Woods for the second straight year. Woods, in his first outing after 11 weeks of recuperation for injuries to his left leg, continued his slide with a 2-over 72 that stranded him 13 shots off the lead.
Ishikawa, a powerhouse on the Japan Tour with 11 victories already, is drawing a bead on his first win on the PGA Tour. “I think it’s a little too early to think about winning this whole thing,” he said, through an interpreter. He meant with a round to go, 18 grinding holes at Firestone South. But every authority in golf believes it isn’t too early for him, with his game, to win on the PGA Tour, golf’s big show.
“I first saw him in Japan when he was 15,” Scott was saying, “and he had already won an event over there.”
Ishikawa is mature beyond his years in another way. He said he would contribute his golf winnings this year to relief for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last March. First prize here is $1.4 million.
“Japan is still in a devastating situation,” he said. “There are people that have no homes.”
Scott’s second-round 70 was largely the product of the mysterious draw and wouldn’t draw. “I’d start it out to the right, and it would hang right out there and end up in the rough,” he said. He was still fighting it on the front nine Saturday in a one-under 34.
First came the birdie at the all-water, par-3 12th, his key hole. “Because I had bogeyed 6 and 10, and 12 got me going back in the right direction,” he said.
Then he shrugged and told his driver, OK, hit a fade if you want. And there followed three straight birdies from the 14th. He escaped with a crucial save at the par-4 17th, with a deceptively punishing chip out of a nasty lie to 5 feet. He parred the 18th for his 66 to crash out of a jam that had as many as six guys tied for the lead at one point.
Scott has sprinkled seven wins across his eight years on the PGA Tour – healthy but well below predictions when he arrived with his silky swing.
Jason Day has threatened so often he feels like a winner – second in the Masters and the U.S. Open and top-10 five other times. He did it this time with an eagle at the par-five No. 2 and three birdies over the last four holes for his 68. Patience, he says.
“I think it’s only a matter of time,” Day said, “but I don’t want to rush it and I don’t want to force things. I’d much rather keep myself around the lead rather than go out there and try and force the issue, and be five shots back coming down 18.”
Fowler was on the brink of greatness or catastrophe, he didn’t know which. So he settled for a 1-under 69. He had four bogeys, three birdies and an eagle.
Bradley, newly up from the Nationwide Tour, stamped himself a real scrambler, getting out of a variety of messes for a 68. “It’s a good stat,” he said, “to get it up-and-down seven out of eight times.”
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