TOUR Insider: Let the Monster Mash begin

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If you think that a major championship isn't quite the same without No. 1 Tiger Woods in the field, then you'd also have to acknowledge the significance of his absence this week at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.

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Firestone Country Club was the fourth hardest on the PGA TOUR last season.

FIRESTONE C.C.

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Woods has won the tournament six times at Firestone Country Club's South Course in Akron, Ohio, including the last three. His victory earlier this year in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship gives him 15 titles overall in the series begun in 1999 that some have referred to, not without cause, as the Woods Golf Championships.

Other than Torrey Pines, where earlier this year he won the U.S. Open and before that his fourth straight Buick Invitational, no venue has been more accommodating to Woods than Firestone's storied South Course, which has hosted professional golf events since 1954.

So you have to say that prospects are brighter for the 81 men in attendance when the $8 million event begins Thursday on what is one of the most difficult layouts on the PGA TOUR.

Last year, the 7,400-yard South Course ranked the fourth hardest on TOUR, trailing only three major championship layouts. The field averaged 2.787 strokes over par 70. Only Woods, at 8-under-par 272 broke par. What's more, the South's par-4 holes collectively were the third most arduous, yielding a scoring average of 4.22. Only Oakmont Country Club was tougher among par-70 tracks at 4.34. Augusta, par-72 and with 10 par-4 holes, was second overall at 4.32.

Last year's difficulty could be traced primarily to the 70 acres of bluegrass rough that exceeded five inches and smothered red numbers on scorecards. A particularly wet summer has made the South Course lush again, but the rough has been scaled back to the 3- to 4-inch range.

These next two weeks could be relatively perplexing for players who covet birdies and merely tolerate pars. Firestone South is often referred to as "The Monster," thanks to the comments of Arnold Palmer after the 1960 PGA Championship. Next week, the PGA heads to suburban Detroit and Oakland Hills Country Club, which is hosting its ninth major championship on its South Course. Ben Hogan, after the 1951 U.S. Open, called it "this monster."

Two monsters. Two weeks on South Courses where scores might go north. Let the Monster Mash commence.

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

• Playing for the fifth time in six weeks, Jim Furyk enters the Bridgestone Invitational with the most consistent record in the field with five top-10 finishes, including second in 2001 and third in 2006. Furyk, 14th or better in his last three starts, has the second best scoring average at Firestone South behind Tiger Woods at 68.81. Helping his cause at the long South Course could be the new Titleist 909D2 driver he put in his bag at the British Open. He also has been using a new Scotty Cameron putter.

• Only one player has won each of the three World Golf Championship events: Woods. Geoff Ogilvy, who won the CA Championship in March, will be attempting to join him. He'll have his work cut out for him; in three starts at Firestone he has never finished better than joint 36th, and his best score on the South Course is a 1-under 69. He is a combined 25 over par in 12 rounds.

• There are three players in the field who have won a PGA TOUR event at Firestone. Stewart Cink won the 2004 Bridgestone Invitational one year after Darren Clarke. The third man in the equation is Phil Mickelson, who triumphed in 1996 at the NEC World Series of Golf.

• Only one player has a chance to finish in the top 10 in all three of this year's World Golf Championship events. Vijay Singh tied for second at the CA Championship and tied for fifth as a quarterfinalist in the Accenture Match Play Championship. His best finish at the Bridgestone Invitational is a tie for third in 2005, and he still might not be 100 percent with that strained oblique muscle.

• It looks like Luke Donald's Ryder Cup participation is in doubt. The talented Brit, who has played for Europe in the last two Ryder Cups, has withdrawn from the Bridgestone Invitational and next week's PGA Championship because of a wrist injury he suffered at the U.S. Open. He also missed the British Open.

• Donald is one of four players who qualified for a trip to Akron but are taking a pass. Woods, of course, has that dodgy knee. Jose Maria Olazabal is dealing with another back issue. And Canadian Mike Weir is simply taking a week off after playing in his home country's national open.

• Each of the last two years, a player has won the week before a winning major championship. Woods did it in 2007 at the Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship. In 2006, it was Mickelson at the AT&T Classic in Atlanta followed by a trip down I-20 and into victory lane at the Masters. Prior to that, Sandy Lyle in 1988 had been the last of 10 men to turn the double play.

• There are 18 players making their debut this week in the Bridgestone Invitational, and of those, eight men are making their first start in a World Golf Championship event. One name sticks out more than any other: Anthony Kim, who has won twice this on the PGA TOUR and played in the final pairing at the RBC Canadian Open before falling to ninth place.

• Another first-time Bridgestone Invitational player to watch is Mercedes-Benz Championship winner Daniel Chopra. He put new Ping S57 irons in his bag at the Buick Open and led after three rounds. As he gets more used to them, he could be even tougher.

• While about 85 players tee it up in Ohio, there are 132 players headed to Nevada for the 10th Legends Reno-Tahoe Open at Montreux Golf & Country Club. The event, which offers a $3 million purse and 12,500 FedExCup points, features four former winners in Notah Begay (1999), Chris Riley (2002), Kirk Triplett (2003) and Will MacKenzie (2006).

• Montreux Golf & Country Club is a par-72 layout that measures 7,472 yards, but it plays shorter because it is situated 4,500 feet above sea level in a desert area known as the High Meadows, which allows the ball to travel about 10 percent farther. The nine winners in tournament history have all shot double digits under par, with Vaughn Taylor's 10-under 278 total in 2004 the highest score. Taylor also holds the tournament record of 267 in '05.

• Michelle Wie, whose last tournament resulted in a disqualification on the LPGA Tour after forgetting to sign her scorecard, has accepted a sponsor's exemption into the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, her first PGA TOUR start since last year's Sony Open in Hawaii. Wie hasn't made the cut in her previous seven appearances on the TOUR, and only once has she cashed a check in a men's event, at the 2006 SK Telecom Open on the Asian Tour.