2014 WGC Bridgestone Invitational: Tee times, pairings for Friday's round

Tiger Woods will be out in the morning on Friday at Firestone, while Phil and Rory will anchor things late in the afternoon.

The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational is an entertaining event for several reasons, one of which is the pace of play and the way golfers race around Firestone's South Course. A major reason for golf's decline in popularity is the interminable time commitment it takes both to play and to watch.

But the limited no-cut WGC events have an exclusive and smaller field, allowing the PGA to send the players off split tees in groups of two. The result is a consistent pace of play that delivers rounds usually under four hours. Tiger Woods played his round on Thursday afternoon, late in the day when there would be a back-up if pace was an issue, right around a brisk three hours and 40 minutes. It makes the round much more watchable on TV, and the loaded field of the world's best players prefer it as well. Next week, we'll be back to a jam-packed tee sheet of 156 players, grouped in threesomes off two tees for sun-up to sun-down golf and five-hour rounds at the PGA Championship.

Woods will flip to the morning wave on Friday, but won't be out until later at 10:30 a.m. ET. His playing partner, Martin Kaymer, is not known for being especially quick but the German is so far down the leaderboard that maybe he'll want to get his round over and done with. Tiger is generally on the faster side, so once again, their round should come in right around four hours or less. That puts their last 5 holes or so during the coverage window on Golf Channel, which starts at 1:30 p.m.

A WGC event features a marquee player at almost every tee time. It's really hard to pick out the few clusters that you know everyone will be following. Those top groups are often easy to spot during a regular week on Tour, but a WGC is filled top-to-bottom with world-class talent. In the afternoon, however, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson will undoubtedly take up much of the camera time. They play in the last two tee times of the day, Mickelson with Sergio Garcia, and Rory with Matt Kuchar. So while Tiger may be done during most of the TV coverage, there are still some huge draws playing late in the day.

Here's the full tee sheet for the second round at Firestone:

Morning wave off No. 1:

Tee Time	Players
9:10 AM	Chris Kirk	Marc Leishman
9:20 AM	Kevin Streelman	Daisuke Maruyama
9:30 AM	Stephen Gallacher	Ben Crane
9:40 AM	Russell Henley	Jonas Blixt
9:50 AM	Gary Woodland	Yoshitaka Takeya
10:00 AM	Ernie Els	Jason Dufner
10:10 AM	Zach Johnson	Ian Poulter
10:20 AM	Brendon de Jonge	Kevin Na
10:30 AM	Thomas Bjorn	Steve Stricker

Morning wave off No. 10:

Tee Time	Players
9:10 AM	Steven Bowditch	Kevin Stadler
9:20 AM	Fabrizio Zanotti	Graham DeLaet
9:30 AM	Richard Sterne	Scott Stallings
9:40 AM	Mikko Ilonen	Brendon Todd
9:50 AM	J.B. Holmes	David Lynn
10:00 AM	Jim Furyk	Jason Day
10:10 AM	Justin Rose	Rickie Fowler
10:20 AM	Bubba Watson	Adam Scott
10:30 AM	Tiger Woods	Martin Kaymer
10:40 AM	Henrik Stenson	Bill Haas

Afternoon wave off No. 1:

Tee Time	Players
1:00 PM	Patrick Reed	John Senden
1:10 PM	Harris English	Ryan Moore
1:20 PM	Pablo Larrazabal	Louis Oosthuizen
1:30 PM	Brian Harman	David Howell
1:40 PM	Joost Luiten	Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano
1:50 PM	Charl Schwartzel	Jamie Donaldson
2:00 PM	Jordan Spieth	Victor Dubuisson
2:10 PM	Brandt Snedeker	Hideki Matsuyama
2:20 PM	Sergio Garcia	Phil Mickelson
2:30 PM	Matt Kuchar	Rory McIlroy

Afternoon wave off No. 10:

Tee Time	Players
1:00 PM	Matt Every	Branden Grace
1:10 PM	Tim Clark	Angel Cabrera
1:20 PM	Tano Goya	Alexander Levy
1:30 PM	Matt Jones	Thongchai Jaidee
1:40 PM	Francesco Molinari	Seung-Yul Noh
1:50 PM	Luke Donald	Webb Simpson
2:00 PM	Jimmy Walker	Lee Westwood
2:10 PM	Graeme McDowell	Hunter Mahan
2:20 PM	Keegan Bradley	Miguel A. Jimenez

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