This week the PGA Tour heads to Firestone Country Club’s South Course in Akron, Ohio for the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational. GCSAA Class A member Larry Napora, director of golf course operations at Firestone and John DiMascio, GCSAA certified golf course superintendent at Firestone South, have had perfect growing conditions with a cool summer and on-and-off rain the past two weeks, making a very thick stand of 2-3-inch Kentucky bluegrass/perennial ryegrass rough.
A bunker renovation was completed on the South Course following last year’s event that replaced drainage, liners, sand and sod on all 80 bunkers and added two new bunkers on holes 1 and 10.
Firestone Country Club, which has 63 holes, is a member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program and at least 200 of its 600 acres are unmanaged rough or wetlands that provide wildlife habitat and saves resources and maintenance costs. No. 16 is the unofficial signature hole at Firestone South after Arnold Palmer proclaimed it the Monster Hole years ago. The 667-yard par 5 has a pond in front of the green.
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Weather: Temperatures in the low 80s all week, with a chance of thunderstorms over the weekend. | |
Yardage: 7,400 yards, par 70 | |
Fun fact: In 1973 Firestone Country Club became the first course in the world to hold three televised golf events in one calendar year (The American Golf Classic, The CBS Golf Classic, and The World Series of Golf.) |
