Special Places - Firestone CC

The WGC Bridgestone Invitational, one of four World Golf Championship events sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours, is being contested this week at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Harvey Firestone, the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, built the club as a recreational facility for employees in 1929. Bert Way designed the first golf course, the South Course, which opened for play in August 1929. A major redesign was completed in 1960 by Robert Trent Jones, incorporating two new ponds and more than 50 new bunkers, turning the course into the monster that we recognise today.

Trent Jones later designed the North Course in 1969, and The West Course completed the triumvirate in 1989. The West Course, originally conceived by Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva, received a dramatic makeover by Tom Fazio in 2002. All three courses have hosted PGA Tour events, and since 1962, Firestone – usually the South Course – has been home to The World Series of Golf, which later became the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

Firestone’s South Course, dubbed “the Monster” by Arnold, has seen Tiger Woods, the defending champion; win seven of the last eleven WGC Invitationals. The layout is a 6700metres parkland design that plays to a par of 70. Long and difficult par fours with narrow tree-lined fairways are a trademark of this extremely demanding course, most notably the 430m 4th hole that is played to an elevated green, and the 428m dogleg 6th which is usually the toughest hole on the course. The signature hole is the ultra-long par 5 16th. A 260m carry off the tee, is required to fly the fairway bunkers and the approach shot must avoid the creek running down the right side that feeds into the pond guarding the front of the small green. Go long and you will be faced with a daunting shot from the rough or a bunker, back across a green sloping towards the water, as Padraig Harrington found to his dismay in last year’s final round after he made a triple-bogey here when leading Tiger Woods by a single stroke.

The elite 80-strong field includes the top 50 on the world rankings for this no-cut event, and Firestone, which is acknowledged by many as one of the very best courses they play on all season, will be a challenging but fair test.