WGC-Bridgestone Preview: A preview and best bets for this week's event at Firestone CC

The sport's leading professionals have arrived in Akron, Ohio for the third World Golf Championship event of 2014 – and the final tune-up before next week’s USPGA Championship at Valhalla.

Firestone Country Club - originally constructed by entrepreneur Harvey Firestone as a perk for the employees of his automotive tyre company - is once again the location for the prestigious Bridgestone-sponsored event.

The tournament will take place over Firestone's South Course, a brutally-long 7,400 yard par 70 lay-out at which Tiger Woods has triumphed on no fewer than eight occasions – including a seven-stroke victory last year.

The South Course was built in 1928 and underwent an upgrade 32 years later at the hands of famed architect Robert Trent Jones in time for the 1960 USPGA Championship, won by Jay Hebert.

It has played host to this World Golf Championships event since its inception in 1999, previously existing as the World Series of Golf.

The course

Firestone’s pristine South Course can be regarded as a typical American parkland test. A 7,400-yard par 70, it has earned the nickname of the ‘The Monster’ having originally being labelled as such by Arnold Palmer after he made a triple-bogey at the signature par-five 16th. A tough, unrelenting track, the course’s main defences – beyond its length – are its tight fairways and thick rough. Boasting a succession of long par-fours (seven are over 460 yards), most of the holes are straight up and down, although holes eight and 13 offer some variety in the form of dog-legs. Meanwhile, it has larger than average-sized greens, though not masses of water.

Winning Totals

2013: 265 (Tiger Woods)
2012: 267 (Keegan Bradley)
2011: 263 (Adam Scott)
2010: 268 (Hunter Mahan)
2009: 268 (Tiger Woods)

Lowest rounds at Firestone's South Course since 2000 

61: Tiger Woods (2000 & 2013)
62: Fred Funk (2003)
62: Katsumasa Miyamoto (2010)
62: Adam Scott (2011)
63: Eight times

NB: The lowest single round score carded over the South Course prior to 2000 was 61 by Jose Maria Olazabal in 1990. Since 2000, Stewart Cink and Adam Scott have twice fired rounds of 63 or lower at the South Course.

Round 1 tee-times (all times local, Ohio is 5hrs behind UK)
(Starting from the first tee)

0910 Matt Every, Branden Grace
0920 Tim Clark, Angel Cabrera
0930 Tano Goya, Alexander Levy
0940 Matt Jones, Thongchai Jaidee
0950 Francesco Molinari, Seung-Yul Noh
1000 Luke Donald, Webb Simpson
1010 Jimmy Walker, Lee Westwood
1020 Graeme McDowell, Hunter Mahan
1030 Keegan Bradley, Miguel Angel Jimenez
1300 Steven Bowditch, Kevin Stadler
1310 Fabrizio Zanotti, Graham DeLaet
1320 Richard Sterne, Scott Stallings
1330 Mikko Ilonen, Brendon Todd
1340 J.B. Holmes, David Lynn
1350 Jim Furyk, Jason Day
1400 Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler
1410 Bubba Watson, Adam Scott
1420 Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer
1430 Henrik Stenson, Bill Haas

(Starting from the 10th tee)