With the 142nd Open Championship a distinct memory, the leading players in the world gathered in Akron, Ohio to revisit one of the most revered golfing venues in the United States. Since 1954, the PGA Tour has contested events on the three courses of Firestone Country Club, with the South Course notably hosting three PGA Championships, in addition to the World Series of Golf since 1974, and its successor the WGC Bridgestone Invitational since 1999. It is a course that has consistently identified the leading players of any period, and with the 95th PGA Championship a matter of days away, the leaderboard at the end of Thursday is inundated with major championship quality.
Webb Simpson, making his debut at Firestone, opened with an impressive 64, despite a closing bogey at the 9th. Starting at the 10th, last year’s U.S. Open champion would make birdies at the 13th, 15th, 17th and 18th to complete his front-nine in 31, before making four birdies and two bogeys on his second-nine.
Simpson missed out on making his debut last year, as he decided to stay at home to await the birth of his second child. However, he was pleased to be here this year, and he was particularly with this start given his inconsistent season thus far.
"I feel like I've let a couple tournaments go that maybe I should have closed out or at least I should have contended more," Simpson said. "The Open Championship I was 11th going into the weekend and played terrible on the weekend. So there have been a few tournaments that looked like they were going well and I just didn't close well or a couple other tournaments I didn't start out well and then I finished well. So I'm not really putting four rounds together as well as I have in the past.
With the rewards on offer this week, before the year’s final major at Oak Hill approaching, in addition to the upcoming FedEx Cup Playoffs; it’s a profitable time of the year to find some consistent form. That is something Simpson is well aware of.
"But you guys have heard me say it so many times: If I'm getting better, I'm happy. And I do feel like I'm getting better, I just don't have the results this year to show it. Fortunately we've got five events left for the season, or I do."
At the end of Thursday, it is Henrik Stenson who is Simpson’s nearest challenger. The Swede, who finished 2nd to Phil Mickelson at The Open Championship, is continuing the form that has seen him rise from 230th to 20th in the World Rankings in the space of 18 months. The popular 37-year-old compiled a flawless opening round of 65 at Firestone, and he finds himself just one shot off the lead.
Stenson reflected: “It's not the worst way to start a round at Akron. On the first, I was in the left rough, but played a really nice lob wedge to five feet, a high hooky one to take a bit of spin off and get the extra yardage I needed, and knocked it in from five feet.
“And then I hit a three wood and a three iron off the back of the green on the second. It was a really slick putt and it was going in with some pace, so I think I would have been a nice ten footer coming back up if it didn't hit the back of the cup. That was a lovely start.
“Then I played nicely most of the way around, had some chances, missed a few here and there, but I was in decent position to get back into play. A five under bogey-free around here is not something you do every day, I guess, so I'm very pleased with the start of the tournament.”
Stenson, who won the Players Championship in 2009, was ranked number fourth in the world before a slump in form that saw him to descend to the fringes of the highest levels of the game. However, he has enjoyed a positive upswing for some time now, and it shows no sign of slowing down. At his best, Stenson is certainly among the very best in the game, and he reflected on the changes that have helped make his resurgence possible:
"We all go through ups and downs out here, and I've been through two slumps, one in '01-'02, and then 2011 was a poor season," Stenson said. "But it's been some hard work and a couple of changes. I went back to my old sports psychologist last summer and put a bit more of a long-term plan in place for all the different areas of the game, and it's been some good work there that's starting to pay off big-time.”
It is paying off for Stenson, and Thursday at Firestone was also a good day for Tiger Woods, who has won this event on an incredible seven occasions, including a record-11-shot win in 2000. The world number one shot an opening round of 66, and finds himself leading the field in greens hit in regulation. After taking advantage of the receptive surfaces, Woods was highly content with an opening score that is his lowest first round at Firestone since 2005.
"I feel very good about what I'm doing with basically my whole swing. I hit a lot of good shots. I had a really good feel for the distance today, and Joey and I really read the wind right today. It was good."
Woods would also hit 71% of the fairways, which will be highly encouraging with the PGA Championship upcoming. However, despite his immense success at Firestone, in more recent years it hasn’t always provided him with the positive of weeks. But Woods is a much different player to what he was back in 2010, when he finished 79th of 80 in the field, and he feels very comfortable at a course that has always suited his eye.
"It's one of those things where you've still got to play well, but I still felt comfortable with what I was seeing out there in 2010 and 2011, even though I didn't play well," Woods said. "It's one of those it's hard to explain, but I just feel comfortable seeing the shots here. Still have to execute, obviously, and over the course of my career here, I've done all right at doing that."
Woods finished the day at 4-under, alongside Ryan Moore, Chris Wood and defending champion Keegan Bradley. They are all within two shots of the lead, after a day that saw a total of 18 under-par rounds on a South Course that had been softened by overnight rain.
However, the course will only become firmer and faster from here, and as the difficulty of this revered layout increases, expect the quality to rise to the challenge in Akron.