Several top players to make their Bridgestone Invitational debut

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AKRON, Ohio -- With the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, set to begin in three weeks, several players, including teen phenom Matteo Manassero and PGA TOUR winners Jhonattan Vegas, Gary Woodland and Keegan Bradley, will be making their tournament debut at this year's event.

A total of 10 players have qualified and will be making their first appearance at Firestone Country Club, August 3-7, for the Bridgestone Invitational. Of those 10, six will be playing in their first-ever World Golf Championships event. Below are the 10 first-timers and how they qualified:

Vegas, Woodland, Steele, Points, Frazar and Bradley have all won their first-career PGA TOUR events this year, and Vegas, Bradley and Steele are 2011 PGA TOUR rookies. Woodland has risen to No. 42 in the Official World Golf Ranking and will be playing in his first-ever World Golf Championships event. The former college basketball player has five top-10 finishes this year including his victory at the Transitions Championship as well as a playoff loss to Vegas at the Bob Hope Classic.

Manassero, now 18 years old, became the youngest winner in European Tour history when he captured the Castello Masters Costa Azahar in 2010 at 17 years and 188 days. His four-stroke victory made him the second-youngest European Tour Member in history after the legendary Seve Ballesteros and also helped him to Rookie of the Year honors in 2010. The young Italian claimed his second win at the Maybank Malaysian Open in April of this year, holding off Grégory Bourdy, Alex Noren and Rory McIlroy to win by one. All of this after he became the youngest winner of the Silver Medal awarded to the leading amateur in The Open Championship at Turnberry. He later broke another record in April 2010 when he became the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters Tournament, where he finished T36.

With the exception of 1999, the year that the World Golf Championships events debuted, only Geoff Ogilvy has won a World Golf Championships event in his first start at the tournament when he was victorious at the 2006 Accenture Match Play Championship. Jeff Maggert is the only player ever to win in his first-ever World Golf Championships start and that was at the inaugural event in 1999.

Qualifying criteria for the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational include playing members of the 2010 U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams; the top 50 players, including any tied for 50th place, from the OWGR as of Monday, July 25, and Monday, August 1; tournament winners, whose victories are considered official, of tournaments from the Federation Tours since the prior year's Bridgestone Invitational with an OWGR Strength of Field Rating of 115 points or more; and the winners of the following tournaments:

Tickets to the Bridgestone Invitational can be purchased by visiting http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/ or calling 330-644-2299.