Bridgestone Invitational

This week the US PGA Tour has two events taking place: 1) The Bridgestone Invitational, and 2) The Reno-Tahoe Open.  This post is for the Bridgestone Invitational, which is taking place in Akron, Ohio and is played on the Firestone Country Club.

[ View the Reno-Tahoe Open post ]

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Bridgestone Invitational.

#	Player	CLi
1	Steve Stricker	8.35
2	Zach Johnson	11.25
3	Phil Mickelson	13.20
4	Keegan Bradley	15.70
5	Jason Dufner	16.00
6	Bubba Watson	17.20
7	Paul Casey	17.35
8	Justin Rose	18.05
9	Angel Cabrera	18.20
10	Tiger Woods	18.75
11	Matt Kuchar	19.90
12	Bill Haas	19.95
13	Jason Day	20.20
14	Ryan Moore	20.90
15	Adam Scott	21.50

I am going to stick with the top 5 in the Golf CLi rankings.

Stricker (analysis) finished 2nd last year in this event, and has finished no worse than 14th since 2009.  Playing a limited schedule this year (has only played 8 tournaments since the beginning of the year), he has not missed a cut and has finished in the top-10 five times with two second place finishes (Cadillac Championship and Hyundai Tournament of Champions).

Johnson (analysis) has finished in the top-16 of this tournament five times since 2004, with an average ranking of 20.9.  In his last two tournaments he has finished 6th (British Open) and 2nd (John Deere Classic --- losing in a playoff to Jordan Speith).

Mickelson (analysis) doesn't necessary play well at this tournament, having an average rank of 41.6 since 2003 with a low finish of 4th.  However, prior to 2003 he finished 9th (2002), 8th (2001), and 4th (2000).  He is playing well leading up to the tournament (2 wins in his last two outings -- the British Open and the Scottish Open), which could lead to a good finish this week at Firestone.

Bradley (analysis) won this event last year and placed 15th in 2011 (he has only played the event twice).  With a strong finish at the British Open several weeks ago (placed 15th) and an 18th placed finish at the Travelers Championship in mid-June, he could be riding a wave of confidence this week.

Dufner (analysis) finished 7th in this event last year, and had a 26th and 4th place finishes in the British Open and the U.S. Open this summer.  Although these are great finishes, they are definitely solid finishes in tough tournaments.  This could be a sign that he will play well this week at Firestone.

Below are my 5 picks for the Bridgestone Invitational:

#	Player	CLi
1	Steve Stricker	8.35
2	Zach Johnson	11.25
3	Phil Mickelson	13.20
4	Keegan Bradley	15.70
5	Jason Dufner	16.00

Below are the top 5 players in the Power Rankings from Rob Bolton:

1. Tiger Woods
2. Adam Scott
3. Henrik Stenson
4. Bill Haas
5. Lee Westwood

Here is a link to Bolton's Power Rankings so that you can read more about his thoughts on his top players in this week's Power Rankings:

Bolton's Power Rankings: Bridgestone Invitational

We have 0 players in common in this tournament.

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Bridgestone Invitational:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA1)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
5	25%	25%
Number of Days Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA2)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
30	5%	5%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA3)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
4	20%	20%

If you don't like the configuration of my CLi calculation, feel free to run your own CLi calculation with your own desired settings by going to golfcli.com.