August 23, 2005

APPLEBY AND BRIDGESTONE MAKE BOOM AT WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

Stuart Appleby Relies on Tour B330-S ball and J33P Driver in Ascent to
Top of PGA Tour Longest Drive Category

Covington, Ga. — In a week in which Bridgestone announced its new title sponsorship of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio for the next five years, Bridgestone Golf staff player Stuart Appleby hit the longest drive of the PGA Tour season. Teeing off in the third round on the par 5 16th hole, Appleby used the new Bridgestone Golf Tour B330-S golf ball and his Bridgestone J33P driver to boom a mammoth drive of 427-yards.

In addition to his 427-yard moon shot, Appleby also produced two other 400-yard plus drives on the same hole in rounds 1 and 2 of 408-yards and 412-yards, respectively. For the week, Appleby led the field in driving distance averaging 341-yards per drive, beating out eventual tournament winner Tiger Woods by over six yards per drive.

Bridgestone Sweeps Driving Distance Categories on the PGA Tour;
Distance Leader Hend Earns More Equipment for Returning Military

With Appleby’s impressive WGC driving performance, Bridgestone Golf now leads in both PGA Tour statistical categories relevant to distance. In addition to Appleby’s capture of the Longest Drive lead this week in Akron, Scott Hend continued his dominance in the PGA Tour Driving Distance category with a performance at the Reno-Tahoe Open in which he averaged nearly 333-yards off the tee. Hend who plays the Bridgestone Golf B330 golf ball and J33R driver is currently averaging 318-yards per drive, which is more than three yards ahead of his nearest competitor Tiger Woods.

Hend’s impressive performance this week in Reno translates into 33 new golf clubs for returning service men and women, as part of Bridgestone Golf’s “The Long Drive Home” program. In the program, for every yard over 300 that Hend averages each week in competition Bridgestone Golf donates equipment to the American Legion who then distributes it to randomly chosen service men and women returning from action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the program’s inception the last week of June, Bridgestone Golf has donated nearly $60,000 worth of products as a result of Hend’s weekly driving distance average.

To see the products Stuart Appleby and Scott Hend rely on firsthand, log on to the Bridgestone Golf website, www.bridgestonegolf.com.

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Bridgestone Golf, Inc., based in Covington, GA, manufactures and markets premium golf balls, clubs and accessories under the Precept and Bridgestone brand names. Bridgestone is represented on a world stage by a number of internationally famed golfers including, Stuart Appleby, Fred Couples, Nick Price, Charles Howell III and Brandt Snedeker. Bridgestone Golf, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Sports Co. Ltd., whose headquarters are in Tokyo.

Contact Information:
Jared Kelowitz
jaredk@jdpr.com
JDPR, 864-233-3776 x 24