When he looks at the next two weeks at Firestone and then at Kiawah Island, Miceli said while you do not want to underestimate this week, the players are thinking about Kiawah Island more than they are thinking about Firestone. So many players in the field know the course in Akron very well so there is not as much need for intense preparation. As a result, players are paying more attention to next week and some players have already made a trip to Kiawah Island to see the course.
Tiger Woods has to be the favorite in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational because of his success at Firestone just as he would be the favorite at Bay Hill or Muirfield Village. However, he would not say that Tiger is the favorite next week because he has never played a tournament at Kiawah Island. Since most people have not competed at Kiawah Island, it is very difficult if not impossible to pick a favorite.
We have not seen Adam Scott since the final round of The Open Championship and while he seemed to have handled the loss well, no one knows how time has impacted the way Scott feels about what happened at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. The fact that he is the defending champion makes the focus on Scott even more intense and Miceli is interested to see what he does this week.
The debate over anchoring the putter is heating up a bit more and the players as well as the equipment manufacturers expect that anchoring will be outlawed by the USGA and R&A starting in 2016. 25-35% of the players use a long putter and many of them anchor the club to their bodies and those numbers suggest that the PGA TOUR Policy Board will at least seriously consider going against the ruling bodies if anchoring is indeed outlawed.
