Forget Goodyear. Golf balls were flying on wings of their own Thursday at Firestone.

The first round featured three drives over 400 yards, and a ridiculous 58 over 350, according to Randall Mell of the GolfChannel.com. That number was no doubt helped by Bubba Watson, who paced the field with a comical average of 351.5. That's nearly 40 yards longer than his tour-leading season average of 313.7. And jumps like that were seen accross the board. Even light-hitting Jim Furyk averaged 309 yards a pop en route to a first-round 63, a mere 30 yard uptick over his season average.

Of course, no one does it quite like Bubba:

Watson hit his driver 11 times in the first round.

How many fairways did he hit?

“I don’t know,” Watson said. “I shot 4 under. That’s all I know.”

Yes you did, Bubba. Fire away.

Phil Mickelson's been conspicuously and quite publically off his game of late. But, apparently, he's in full control of his mystic powers.

As Jason Sobel reports at GolfChannel.com, Mickelson played a practice round with Ben Crane before the Bridgestone Invitational and was a big part of Crane's opening round 66. How did he help? Well, let's go to the quote:

“It was a super fun group,” Crane said. “Phil has helped me. I spent some time with him a few weeks ago, and we spent some time together, and he's helped me and encouraged me. He was calling himself the golf whisperer out there, helping me some with some shots and stuff.”

It's a little buried in there, but yes, Mickelson was calling himself "the golf whisperer." Move over, Bagger Vance. Now, if Lefty could only see "the field" himself. Where's Will Smith when you need him?

A confident-sounding Tiger Woods put to rest any doubts that he wants to play for Team USA at the Ryder Cup in Wales in October. However, Woods is intent on making the team on his merits, not on his reputation. At a press conference at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Wednesday, he refused to speculate on whether he’d play as a captain’s pick.

“I’m planning on playing my way onto the team,” Woods said when asked if he would accept a captain’s pick to join the team. Woods is currently ninth in the American Ryder Cup standings; the top eight are automatically on the team. The reporter tried to follow up on his original question, and Woods repeated his answer. When the reporter tried again, saying Woods's answer was an “equivocation,” an equivocal Tiger gave him more of the same.

“I’m planning on playing my way onto the team.” 

His confident manner was a change from his last public comments, in which a bemused Woods said that his putting woes ruined a great driving week at the British Open in St. Andrews. Woods said he has had some good practice sessions in Orlando, and he believes the problem with his putting is his speed.

“My speed has been off all year,” Woods said. “I three-putted quite a few times, which I don’t do normally. I didn’t work on my putting as much as I should have.”

Woods said the distraction caused by his personal scandals has made 2010 a difficult year for him, but that things were starting to return to normal. Woods added that his personal scandals weren’t the only reason he hasn’t spent as much time practicing as in the past.

“I haven’t practiced as much as I used to, nor should I,” Woods said. “With the kids, life has changed.”

Woods has a ridiculously successful record in August -- he’s won the Bridgestone event seven times along with four PGA Championships. He said that he doesn’t know why that is, except that some of the post-British Open venues fit his eye. With the pieces of his game starting to come together, Woods knows that a successful August will fix his Ryder Cup standing, his tenuous hold on the No. 1 ranking and probably a lot of personal doubts as well.

“Winning golf tournaments takes care of a lot of things,” Woods said.

The PGA Tour announced news today that golf fans have been waiting for:

"Bridgestone Invitational fans will be excited to learn that Phil Mickelson will return to action at Firestone Country Club, his first tournament start since the U.S. Open in June."

His wife, Amy, and mother, Mary, are both being treated for for breast cancer. Mickelson withdrew from the British Open, citing his wife's health, and was taking a break from competitive golf to focus on his family.

Coming just a week before the PGA Championship at Hazeltine, it will be interesting to see if Mickelson now commits to playing that event as well. At Bethpage, before competing in the U.S. Open, Phil said that he didn't foresee coming back to competitive golf before August. "We won't know our treatment schedule after surgery until about a week or two, until we have some other tests done."

Mickelson has played in each of the 10 previous Bridgestone Invitational events and his best performance at Firestone was a tie for second in 1999.