Red-hot Day leads six Aussies to the WGC Bridgestone Invitational

We preview the six Australians in the field for this week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

Jason Day leads the six Australians in the field for this week’s lucrative WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Ohio. Day is in red-hot form coming into the event after a superb, but ultimately heart-breaking finish at The Open Championship at St.Andrews and a wonderful bounce-back victory at last week’s RBC Canadian Open.

It’s clear now that a healthy Jason Day can win any event he enters, and last week’s clutch victory may just be the confidence boost that Day requires to believe it himself. A string of injuries over the past few years have thwarted Day’s attempt to be fully prepared and yet the 27-year-old Queenslander continues to fight his way into winning positions.

Day looks healthy after over-coming his much publicised battle with vertigo to be one of the favourites to win this week at Firestone. Day’s best performance at the event was a tie for fourth place back in 2011. Expect to see him better that result this week.

Despite his lack of ultimate success, Adam Scott is in great form with two top-10 finishes in his last two starts at the US Open and The Open Championship. But Scott isn’t interested in good form, he wants victories and the question is, can Scott close one out? In particular, can Scotty win this week?

The answer is yes. Scott won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in 2011 and has had good results in the past couple of years. It’s a familiar, confidence boosting environment for Scott and we’d be surprised if he is not on contention come Monday morning.

Marc Leishman and Steven Bowditch are both in great form and will be looking to etch their name into a trophy. Leishman returns to tournament golf after his great showing at The Open at St.Andrews. Leishman finished third at Firestone last year and looks set to jostle for top spot this weekend.

It’s hard to know what to make of Steven Bowditch’s final round implosion last weekend at the RBC Canadian Open but we’re going to file it under ‘outlier’. Bowditch earned himself a big confidence boost at St.Andrews on the back of some great performances this year including his victory at the AT&T Byron Nelson.

Nick Cullen takes his place in the field at Firestone courtesy of his remarkable Australian Masters victory at Metropolitan Golf Club last November. Cullen’s clutch golf over the closing holes culminated in a superb bunker shot to close out the tournament. To say Cullen is a little under done would be an understatement. Cullen has had an on-going hand injury after hitting too many golf balls on artificial turf mats earlier in the year but the Croweater is hungry for success and will be looking to make an impact this week on one of golf’s biggest stages.

Andrew Dodt‘s victory at the True Thailand Classic in February earned him a spot on the field for his first WGC tournament but his recent form has been patchy. A number of missed-cuts have been interspersed with some decent rounds on the European Tour. Dodt may have turned the corner after some good golf at the recent European Masters and last week’s Paul Lawrie MatchPlay and will be looking to string a few good rounds together this weekend.

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