2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational: Danny Lee First Round Leader

Danny Lee first round leader at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational

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Danny Lee continued his impressive play on Thursday as he shot a 5-under 65 at Firestone Country Club to lead the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

It wasn’t pretty, but Graeme McDowell was able to scramble, survive and finish up his round at 4-under par. I say it wasn’t pretty because if you look at the stats, G-Mac was very pedestrian striking the ball.

McDowell only hit 42% of fairways and 44% of greens both below average for the round. But, G-Mac was able to scramble and sink those clutch par putts on the green. It’s been a rough year, so it’s good to see G-Mac back near the top of the leaderboard again.

Rickie Fowler continued his hot play as he finished up in a tie for 4th at 3-under.

Justin Rose was striking the ball beautifully all day, but the putter let him down a bit. Rose hit over 70% of fairways and greens, but his Strokes Gained: Putting was about average coming in at 0.181.

Rose shot a 3-under for the round and if his putter gets a little bit hotter Rose will be right in the thick of it come Sunday afternoon.

The mystery man Victor Dubuisson was surprisingly consistent all day long. Dubuisson shot a 2-under par, but only birded three holes. Typically, Dubuisson has a colorful scorecard, but he managed to scramble his way out of trouble and end up saving par most of the day.

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There are a number at golfers that shot a 2-under par as well which includes: Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Robert Streb, Koumei Oda, Webb Simpson, and Henrik Stenson.

Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley, and Jason Day all shot 1-under, but they got there in different ways.

Koepka and Johnson both struggled hitting the fairways all day. Looking at the stats, Koepka was, surprisingly enough, slightly above average. That’s hard to believe, as he hit 57% of fairways. Johnson only hit 27% of fairways.

However, both were able to sink tons of putts. Koepka’s Strokes Gained: Putting was 2.530. Johnson’s was 1.266.

On the flip side, Bradley and Day were striping the ball down the fairway and hitting greens. But, they couldn’t make a putt. Bradley not making putts isn’t a surprise, but for Day it is. Day is typically a rock solid putter, but not today.

Day’s Strokes Gained: Putting was -0.019 while Bradley was -0.304.

Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson played together and both shot even for the day.

Other notes and random thoughts:

Patrick Reed’s putter saved his round. Reed shot a 1-over 71, but if his Strokes Gained: Putting isn’t 1.813. Yikes.

Adam Scott shot a 2-over par, but I’m surprised his Strokes Gained: Putting was only -0.582. From what I saw, Scott was really atrocious with his putter. Everytime I looked up, it seemed as though he had a five foot putt and he would miss it.

Surprisingly enough, statistically, Matt Kuchar was much, much worse. Kuchar Strokes Gained: Putting was a -2.813 as he shot his way to a 2-over par.

Jimmy Walker had a terrible day all the way around. His putter was below average and his ball-striking was all over the place. Walker only hit 35% of fairways and 44% of greens on route to a 4-over round. And finally, one final note, Phil Mickelson ended up in 71st place as he shot a 6-over par.

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