Thomas, Fleetwood and Poulter share lead at Bridgestone
AKRON, OHIO — Another day of soft conditions at Firestone wasn’t enough for Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy or anyone else to catch a trio of leaders going into the weekend at the Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament.
PGA champion Justin Thomas (64) and the English duo of Tommy Fleetwood (63) and Ian Poulter (67) set the pace to share the lead at 11-under 129, with no indication Firestone is going to get much tougher.
McIlroy hit a tee shot from the 17th tee that landed closer to the 16th fairway. He hit into a bunker and holed out for the start of a birdie-birdie finish and a 67 that left him three behind.
Woods stuffed a tee shot to two feet on the 12th hole to get within four shots, and then played the last six holes in 1 over for a 68. He was five behind.
Fleetwood is playing pretty well in it, too. The 27-year-old from England capped off a clean round Friday with a 6-iron into three feet on the par-5 fifth hole, a 25-foot birdie putt two holes later and a 7-under 63 that gave him a share of the early lead with PGA champion Thomas and Poulter.
The South course at Firestone has had two good days for scoring. Poulter opened with a career-best 62 in PGA Tour-sanctioned events on a day when the scoring average (68.37) was the lowest for a first round at Firestone in the 19 years of this World Golf Championship. He followed with a 67 that featured two bogeys but no big complaints.
Joining them at 11-under 129 was Thomas, one week before he defends his title in the final major of the year. Thomas has been working on his putting, felt it getting close after the first round and then saw plenty fall in his round of 64. He hasn’t won since the Honda Classic five months ago, though he has never seemed to be too far off his game.
Dustin Johnson, coming off a victory at the Canadian Open for his third PGA Tour title this season, shot a 71 and was 11 back.