Mahan wins Bridgestone Invitational
Hunter Mahan shot a bogey-free final-round 64 to win the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational by two strokes after trailing by three entering the final round for his third career PGA TOUR victory. The three-stroke comeback victory equals the largest come-from-behind win in the tournament’s 12-year history (Tiger Woods, 2009). All three of Mahan’s PGA TOUR wins have occurred when trailing after three rounds.
Mahan collects 550 FedExCup points with his victory to move in to the top 10 in the standings with just two weeks remaining for players to earn their place in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
Mahan began the back nine of Saturday’s third round at 2-under-par for the tournament. A back-nine 31 on
Saturday, combined with a front-nine 30 for Sunday’s final round moved the Oklahoma State University graduate up the leaderboard.
The 64 by Mahan is the lowest final-round score by a winner in tournament history.
With the win, Mahan becomes just the third American to win the Bridgestone Invitational, joining Tiger Woods (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009) and Stewart Cink (2004), and first to claim a World Golf Championships event in 2010. Mahan is 28 years, two months and 22 days old.
Ryan Palmer shot a 10-under 270 to finish 2nd. Palmer has struggled coming into this week, missing the cut in 10 out of the last 12 events he’s played. He missed five cuts, finished T9 at the Valero Texas Open, then missed five additional cuts before finishing T24 at the RBC Canadian Open, his most recent PGA TOUR start.
Palmer moves into the top 25 in the FedExCup standings. Palmer is trying to qualify for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola for the first time in his PGA TOUR career.
With the second-place earnings of $840,000, Palmer has earned more than $2 million this year for his first $2 million season on the PGA TOUR.
Bo Van Pelt finished T3 for his sixth top-10 finishes in 2010, matching his 2005 season for the the most top-10s he has recorded in one year on TOUR. Van Pelt, who qualified for the tournament via his spot inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, finished T3 at the Memorial Tournament earlier this year here in Ohio. Van Pelt has earned more than $2 million this year for the first time in his nine-year PGA TOUR career.
Van Pelt, who is projected to move to No. 12 in the FedExCup, is looking to reach THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola for the first time in his PGA TOUR career.
This was Van Pelt’s first time playing at the Bridgestone Invitational. His T3 finish makes him the eighth player to finish inside the top five in their inaugural Bridgestone Invitational. The best finish by a first-time participant (outside of 1999) at the Bridgestone Invitational is 2nd by Jonathan Kaye in 2003. Phillip Price (2000) and Fred Funk (2002) finished T2 in their first appearances.
Tiger Woods shot a final-round 77 to finish at 18-over par. His score of 18-over-par sets a new mark for his highest 72-hole score in relation to par. Woods had twice previously finished with a score of 10-over-par through 54 holes.
His total of 298 is also his highest score through four rounds of his PGA TOUR career.
Tiger Woods failed to shoot par or better in any of the four rounds of this week’s Bridgestone Invitational. This is the fourth time in Woods’ career that he failed to record a round of par or better over the course of 72 holes.
Tiger Woods shot scores higher than par on 25 holes this week at the Bridgestone Invitational, which is the most in any tournament of his PGA TOUR career (pro or amateur).
Tiger Woods held his spot at No. 1 in the world for the 270th consecutive week and a record total weeks at No. 1 of 611 weeks. Mickelson, who had a chance to move to No. 1 in the world with a top-4 finish, shot 79 on Sunday and will hold the No. 2 spot in the World Ranking for the 258th week of his career. In his career, Mickelson has held the No. 2 position for a total of 258 weeks, nearly twice as many as Nick Faldo who is next on the list with 130.
