Day: July 14, 2020

Fantasy Insider: the Memorial Tournament presented by NationwideFantasy Insider: the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020| 18:00

As golf fans and fantasy gamers, we’ve been fortunate to witness live action and have fun with it for a month now. The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide already is the sixth tournament since play resumed after the three-month hiatus. It’s also the last stand-alone event with as few as 132 golfers until the FedExCup Playoffs. We’re about to embark on one of the busiest, most diverse and unprecedented runs of wall-to-wall PGA TOUR action in history. Consider that after next week’s full-field 3M Open, there’s a doubleheader, a major (PGA Championship), the conclusion of the regular season and the three-event Playoffs. That takes us through Labor Day. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks After an “offseason” that will last only two(!) days, the 2020-21 season will commence with the Safeway Open. Another major (U.S. Open) will follow, as will a full slate of stops until the weekend before Thanksgiving, including yet another major (Masters). Then, because of the massive shifting of events, the Mayakoba Golf Classic was moved to the week after Thanksgiving. You can view the fall portion of the 2020-21 season here. When consumed all at once, it makes the last five weeks feel tame. So, if you’ve yet to get on the horn – smartphones qualify, right? – to assemble your league for Draft Day, consider this a timely reminder. As noted in this space recently, the curtailed Segments 3 and 4 in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf serve as a soft open for rookie gamers. Consideration on how to ration starts takes a back seat to the general learning curve of the format. However, on the other end of the educational spectrum is the benefit that front-runners possess because starts for the most valuable talent work as a line of defense without as much worry about missing out. Now, because Segment 4 includes a World Golf Championship, a major and three Playoffs events, it presents as more challenging, but three of the six tournaments will not have a cut, so league leaders need only concern themselves realistically with leaderboard finishes for bonus points. It’ll become increasingly difficult for those of us in pursuit to gain ground in the final two, especially. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide (in alphabetical order): Patrick Cantlay Bryson DeChambeau Dustin Johnson Rory McIlroy Jon Rahm Xander Schauffele You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Daniel Berger; Rickie Fowler; Viktor Hovland; Collin Morikawa; Ian Poulter; Patrick Reed; Webb Simpson; Justin Thomas; Gary Woodland Driving: Abraham Ancer; Daniel Berger; Paul Casey; Lucas Glover; Billy Horschel; Viktor Hovland; Hideki Matsuyama; Doc Redman; Webb Simpson; Kevin Streelman; Gary Woodland POWER RANKINGS WILD CARD Jason Day … What to do, what to do. Punctuated the Workday Charity Open with a 67 to finish T7. It’s his best finish in 12 appearances at Muirfield Village. In fact, he had only one top 25 prior (T15, 2017). The performance was balanced, too, with the usual emphasis on his short game and putting. Could it be that he’s turned a corner? On one hand, while the results haven’t been impressive lately, he has connected 11 red numbers since the second round of the RBC Heritage. He’s also sleeping in his own bed this week, which didn’t hurt last week. Gamers in pursuit should consider stowing him on the bench just in case. And, obviously, as the co-narrative applies in these cases, surround him with more reliable value to survive the cut. DRAWS Brooks Koepka … He was a late entry after missing the cut on the number last week. While he returns to the same course, this week’s event has the look and the feel of a major. That’s all that matters. Daniel Berger … Makes his way back to Muirfield Village for the first time in four years, but his forgettable history here is irrelevant. Instead, this automatic green light has everything to do with how well he played both before and after the hiatus. He’s rested since a T3 at Harbour Town, which was his fifth consecutive top 10. Rickie Fowler … OK. While he’s logged just two top 25s after opening the restart with a pair of missed cuts, that’s something. It’s evidence that the swing changes are taking hold and yielding confidence. With a pair of runner-up finishes among four top 15s at the Memorial, he owns as solid a record as any contemporary non-winner of the tournament, so he knows the place and it’s been kind. He’s ideal in DFS and for chasers. Billy Horschel … Well, he passed the litmus test about which I wrote last week. That said, his tee-to-green game for the Workday was substandard, especially on a welcoming layout like Muirfield Village, but he more than made up for it on the greens en route to a share of seventh place. With three top 15s in the last five editions of the Memorial in which to tap, he connected with course history and easily earned the endorsement this week. Abraham Ancer … He’s been playing too well of late to ignore, and now that he’s come into his own at this level, we should expect something inside the top 55 for the first time in what is his third appearance at Muirfield Village. Matthew Wolff … Tremendous rebound candidate. Needless to say, I believe in him even after a disappointing debut at Muirfield Village last week. Despite the positivity in his rhetoric post-round on Sunday at Detroit Golf Club prior to it, it’s possible that the inability to close imparted a greater effect on him than he was able to withstand. He’ll be fine, and now he has two rounds of experience on the course. Paul Casey Matthew Fitzpatrick Sergio Garcia Kevin Kisner Matt Kuchar Joaquin Niemann Louis Oosthuizen Patrick Reed FADES Justin Rose … After teasing with a fantastic display of putting right out of the break at Colonial, where he placed T3, he overcame suspect work on the greens at Harbour Town to finish T14. For the optimistic, and with a doubleheader at Muirfield Village on tap, even a poor effort at TPC River Highlands could have been classified as a one-off, but he continued to slide, and even worse, at the Workday where he hit only 17 greens in regulation and still need 57 putts to complete 36 holes. Even contrarians must pause. Jordan Spieth … Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us X-number of times, well, you lose our trust. Muirfield Village presents as a soft landing to work on his game off the tee, but his inaccuracy continues to apply pressure on his approach game, and he’s just not giving himself enough chances to score. Ignore his course success as a predictive component until further notice. Ryan Moore … With a sparkling record at Muirfield Village, he deserves at least fractional ownership in DFS, but he’s 0-for-3 in the restart and he limped into the hiatus as it was. Brandt Snedeker … New week, same message. With last week’s missed cut, he’s now a combined 0-for-7 at Muirfield Village. Byeong Hun An … Since 2016, he’s finished no worse than T25 (2017) at the Memorial. He also lost in a playoff in 2018. That track record aligns with his profile as a long hitter with a nice touch around greens, but the 28-year-old either hasn’t been able to go low enough or even avoid big numbers since the break. Trap. Charles Howell III Phil Mickelson Cameron Smith Bubba Watson Bernd Wiesberger RETURNING TO COMPETITION Kevin Na … His chronic back injury forced him to walk off Detroit Golf Club during the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic two weeks ago. He finished fifth at the Travelers the week prior. Lost in a playoff at the 2014 Memorial and finished T13 the following year. They’re his only notable performances in eight trips, but he’s exactly the kind of swing for the fence in whom chasers need to reply to make a dent. League leaders can’t risk touching him in short-term formats. Harris English … He had planned on competing in Detroit, but he tested positive for COVID-19 and has rested since. He’s built for Muirfield Village where he finished T18 in his last visit in 2015, so DFSers should be all over him. Tyrrell Hatton (wrist surgery), Daniel Berger (wrist injury), Bryson DeChambeau (transformed physique) and Collin Morikawa (first missed cut) all have overcome degrees of challenge to win recent PGA TOUR events, so it only makes sense that someone who has had to sit out due to COVID-19 will be the first to prevail. Wyndham Clark … He stumbled out of the gates of the restart, and then withdrew during his first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic with a sore back. Now making his Muirfield Village debut. NOTABLE WDs Bill Haas … Currently 203rd in the FedExCup, but he’s assured of no worse than conditional status for 2020-21. His fantasy value is marginal at best, but it’s curious to wonder if he’s considering burning a career earnings exemption (he’s currently 39th all-time). Just 38 years of age, he’s younger than the average usage, but with what’s set up to be a beefier season, the Geoff Ogilvy argument rushes to mind. The Aussie used his career earnings exemption in his age-40 season of 2016-17. His philosophy was that he’ll be more competitive at a younger age. Lo and behold, after a two-season hiatus from qualifying for the Playoffs, Ogilvy returned and finished 108th. Padraig Harrington … Also withdrew early from the Rocket Mortgage Classic. No change to my advice pertaining to him as shared in the Fantasy Insider for that event. Tom Lehman … He was eligible as the 1994 champ. Because winners of the Memorial before 1997 are add-ons, they are not replaced if they withdraw early. So, when he stepped out, the field dropped to 132 and cannot increase. POWER RANKINGS RECAP – WORKDAY CHARITY OPEN Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Hideki Matsuyama T22 2 Justin Rose MC 3 Patrick Cantlay T7 4 Justin Thomas P2 5 Brooks Koepka MC 6 Gary Woodland T5 7 Xander Schauffele T14 8 Matthew Wolff MC 9 Matt Kuchar T39 10 Viktor Hovland 3rd 11 Rickie Fowler T22 12 Kevin Streelman T7 13 Cameron Champ 67th 14 Marc Leishman MC 15 Jon Rahm T27 Wild Card Patrick Reed T39 SLEEPERS RECAP – WORKDAY CHARITY OPEN Golfer Result Adam Long T52 Henrik Norlander T31 Kyle Stanley MC Cameron Tringale MC Richy Werenski T35 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE GOLFERS ON THE PGA TOUR July 14 … Michael Kim (27) July 15 … none July 16 … Adam Scott (40) July 17 … none July 18 … Brendon de Jonge (40) July 19 … none July 20 … none

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‘Emotional. Inspiring. Uplifting.’‘Emotional. Inspiring. Uplifting.’

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020| 17:00

Anna Earl likes to say her father will cry even while watching a tire commercial, but maybe he’s just had a lot of practice. And rest assured his won’t be the only tears as Anna is given the Nicklaus Spirit Award at this week’s Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. It’s that kind of story. Barbara Nicklaus, who with 73-time PGA TOUR winner Jack is the driving force of the award, calls it “an annual highlight” for them both. “We always look forward to hearing the stories behind the smiling faces of these children,” she says. “Some are tragic, but through the efforts of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the perseverance of that boy or girl, and the unwavering support of their families, we get to share stories with happy endings.” Adds Jack, who with Barbara started the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation and the Play Yellow campaign to support children and children’s hospitals: “I can be a sentimental guy at times, a softie, but when you meet these Patient Champions or hear the stories of what our Nicklaus Youth Spirit Award winners have battled and overcome, well, if it doesn’t get to you, there is something wrong with you. When we see the impact the Foundation and these other efforts are having on children, it’s far more important than any 4-foot putt.” Each year at the Memorial, Jack and Barbara, along with the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and tournament officials at Muirfield Village, celebrate a roster of Patient Champions. They are kids who through perseverance and premier pediatric medical care have overcome long odds just to live their lives, but in many cases have done much more. Among them, Jack and Barbara choose one whose story is so remarkable that it simply must be celebrated. That’s the Nicklaus Spirit Award, and Anna Earl will be the 10th annual recipient. Golf as a refuge She was born prematurely at just 29 weeks, and parents Micheal and Michelle were told she had cerebral palsy. Any type of physical activity was going to be hard, so much so that as a young child, Anna — before any sort of competition — would preface it with, “It’s OK, Dad, I know I’m going to finish last.” She wore braces on her legs like Forrest Gump. “I got a lot of, ‘Run, Anna, run!’” she says in a recent phone interview that also included her dad. When she was 7, golf became a refuge even though her coach says she was so tiny and weak that she could barely pick up the club, much less advance the ball. “You always saw the big smile – she wasn’t going to let anything get in her way,” says Scott Davidson, the head pro at Carkersburg Country Club in Carkersburg, West Virginia, about two hours from Columbus. “They got her involved in the First Tee program, and sometimes she’d have to throw the ball to get it to move. But she kept going and kept going and kept going.” At age 8 she entered the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship, and dad Micheal said he wasn’t sure how it was going to go. As it turned out, there were no other contestants in the first round, but she still wore her first-place ribbon with pride, never having won anything before. Before long she was beating some of the older, bigger girls, and then some of the older, bigger boys. (West Virginia prep golf is coed.) Davidson kept thinking he and Anna’s parents would have to write a letter to petition for her to take a cart. Anna kept walking. “When she sets her mind to something,” Davidson says, “Anna Earl is going to get it done.” Her body almost didn’t let her. By 2017 the pain was such that she would come from middle school – its campus a regrettable welter of steps – and cry. Spasticity, a condition that causes stiff, tight muscles, was creating misalignments in her feet, knees, hips and back, and soon she had no choice but to be confined to a wheelchair. No more golf. Surgery was scheduled for a Monday – May 7, 2018 – and the name of the procedure was a mouthful: Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. Nationwide Children’s is one of the few hospitals that offers it. Dr. Jeffrey Leonard, who has vast experience performing the operation, would be her surgeon. Anna, then 13, was hesitant. “I wasn’t really a huge fan of it,” she says. “We had an appointment where we talked about it, and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty closed-minded.” Then again, perhaps you would be, too, if someone proposed cutting into your spinal cord and selectively snipping 60-75 percent of the nerves to your lower extremities. “If it was associated with her legs and her lower body,” dad Micheal says, “then they would snip it. If it didn’t get a reaction, then they moved onto the next one.” If successful, the operation would improve mobility, reduce pain, and relieve lower-limb muscle spasticity. With rehab, Anna might be standing in time to try out for her eighth grade golf team. A few days before the operation, Micheal took Anna to the club to hit a few practice putts. After being out of her wheelchair for only a few minutes, she was too tired to continue. As much as he tried to be positive, he wondered if it was the last time he would see her standing. Remarkable success stories You could fill a book with what it means to win the Nicklaus Spirit Award, but it’s basically wind in the sails for a kid who has been through a lot. And it changes slightly year to year. Matthew McClish of Galloway, Ohio, was honored last year after overcoming seizures, a brain tumor, and a stroke during one of his surgeries. He’d been the No. 1 player on his high school team with an average nine-hole score of 40, but now he had to learn to play one-handed. Jack and Barbara and the Nationwide Children’s team celebrated him at Muirfield Village. “It was amazing,” Matthew says of his VIP treatment. “It showed me how hard I tried to overcome everything that I’ve gone through. It was something I never thought I’d be given.” On Sunday of the tournament, Nicklaus was doing his usual clinic. He called Matthew up to hit a shot in front of the crowd, and suddenly 2018 Memorial winner Bryson DeChambeau came out of nowhere to present Matthew with a brand-new bag full of custom, single-length clubs. “We had met him the previous year on a whim,” says Matthew’s mom Angi. “He remembered Matthew and heard his story and surprised him at the end with a set of clubs and a bag and one-on-one lesson. I cried through the whole thing.” She and Matthew are now DeChambeau fans for life. Matthew, who graduated high school and now takes classes at Columbus State Community College while working for Amazon, is working toward a degree in Sports Management. He planned to intern at this year’s Memorial. Perhaps not surprisingly, Matthew became friends with 2018 NSA winner Maddi Webb at last year’s tournament. Webb is nothing if not gregarious, and they have similar stories. Maddi was diagnosed with a benign tumor in 2016; that it was intertwined with her brain stem was what accounted for her vision problems. The first operation took 11 hours, but complications – spinal fluid coming out of her nose – led to a second surgery in January 2017. Terrible headaches led to yet a third brain surgery. She fought through it all. “Meeting Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods on pro-am day,” Webb says of her 2018 Memorial highlight. “Just getting to spend the day with them was the experience of a lifetime. Tiger was throwing jokes around and he and Peyton were starting to talk about the day, and then Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth kind of joined in as well. “It was so interesting to see a different side of them,” she adds. Another highlight? Celebrating the doctors at Nationwide Children’s. A junior majoring in Communications at Ohio University, Webb is focused on giving back. She advocates for pediatric cancer patients, and after so much staring out her hospital-room window at the gray, gloomy Columbus sky, she launched a project to improve the view. “I was watching the holiday shows on the Hallmark Channel,” she says, “and I saw paper snowflakes and it came to me that that was how I was going to brighten the views for patients.” With the help of schools, sports teams, churches, and community groups, in the first two years they made 13,500 snowflakes, which go in baggies with an inspirational note from Webb and then are affixed to hospital-room windows. “It’s just taken off,” she says. As for her harrowing medical journey, she says, “In those situations it’s all about the mindset.” Griffin Hayden, 20, won the 2014 NSA but wasn’t well enough to attend. (His dad took his place.) He was diagnosed with leukemia in 2013 and went to Nationwide Children’s Hospital for stays of 20-30 days. He improved, then relapsed. He had a bone-marrow transplant, then another. High doses of prednisone to fight graft-versus-host disease caused avascular necrosis – blood supply is cut off to the bones – and he had both hips replaced. He suffered renal failure after high school and received a kidney donation from his older brother. Now in remission for almost six years, Hayden is a rising junior and plays golf for Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He follows 2016 NSA winner and Marshall University golfer Kyle Mitchell on Instagram and counts Jack and Barbara among his fiercest champions. “I’ve been able to go back to the luncheon every year,” Hayden says, “and Barbara and Jack have been great, getting me tickets every year, which won’t happen this year [due to the no-fan safety measures]. I was into contact sports, but then golf became my safe haven, something I could do to take my mind off what I was going through for a couple hours. I had a central line in my chest, and I figured out how to swing with that. I figured out a new swing because of loss of power with my hip replacements. “Billy Casper sent me a letter, and Jack wrote me a letter, and it meant a lot to me,” he continues. “It was very personal and drove me to keep going and get more involved in the game and improve and compete at a higher level. Winning the award grew my love for the game.” The operation that changed everything Anna Earl always punched above her weight. When she was named a starter on her middle school golf team, she was just 70 pounds and barely 4-1/2 feet tall. Once she was in a wheelchair, though, grit could take her only so far. She needed an operation. The Earls decided to go forward with Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy on April 31, 2018, which presented a troubling timeline. Unless things moved fast, Anna, who would be entering eighth grade, wouldn’t be able to start playing for her school’s golf team in August. Beth Deley, Dr. Leonard’s assistant, found a cancellation on May 7 and slotted them in. “We will always remember her doing this for us,” Micheal says. As for the operation, he adds, “Obviously this is not a routine surgery. People come from all over the world to have it there.” He remembers the helpless feeling of watching his daughter get wheeled away to the operating room. He remembers the doctor coming out to say it was a success, that Anna had to lay flat on her back for four days, and the comfort in knowing his wife could comfortably stay with her, in a couch that turned into a bed. Anna had to relearn how to stand, how to walk. For the 19 days that she was in rehab, mom Michelle never left her side except to go to the nearby Panera Bread restaurant. She thought about school, and playing on the golf team, and it would motivate her during 45-minute physical and occupational therapy sessions, followed by an hour or two break. “I had to relearn how to do pretty much everything,” she says. She was released two days before the tryouts in early August. She not only made the team as an eighth-grader, she made it again as a ninth-grader at Carkersburg High. Last year she finished 12th (out of 69 players) in the West Virginia State High School Girls Championship while walking – not taking a cart – on extremely hilly terrain. And that was the part she was most proud of. “They did an amazing job,” she says of the doctors and staff at Nationwide Children’s. No longer trying to walk on her toes, she can bring her heels to the ground. This attribute, which most of us take for granted, was so big that a picture of her feet wound up on the family Christmas card. “To see where she was and where she is now is remarkable,” says Davidson. “You can barely tell she had an issue right now. She’s got some pretty cool things in her future.” Now a rising sophomore at Carkersburg High, Anna enjoys the life of a normal teen-ager. Well, normal other than Jack and Barbara Zoom-bombing one of the golf team’s meetings last month to say Anna would be receiving the Nicklaus Spirit Award. Watching the meeting from coach Davidson’s office, Micheal smiled through his tears. “Emotional. Inspiring. Uplifting,” said Jim McCoy, Nationwide’s Vice President of Sponsorships, Meetings & Events. “That is how I would describe my reaction when hearing the stories of the Nicklaus Youth Spirit Award winners and seeing the kids on stage with Jack and Barbara Nicklaus. Each journey is unique but the common themes are always courage and determination. These incredible kids and their families are why Nationwide is so proud to join the Nicklauses and our tournament partners in supporting Nationwide Children’s Hospital and showcasing the truly life-changing outcomes they make possible.” Adds Steve Testa, President of Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation: “Nationwide Children’s serves families from every state in the nation, each one courageous and inspirational in their own way. When Jack and Barbara announce the Nicklaus Youth Spirit Award winner, it is a really powerful moment. That child represents the resiliency and bravery of all our patients. I’m always overjoyed for the winner, and it’s so heartwarming to see Jack and Barbara welcome this young person. We are so fortunate to have supporters like the Nicklauses, the Memorial Tournament, and Nationwide to propel forward our mission of helping kids everywhere.” When not practicing, Anna teaches the game to younger kids, paying it forward. She has picked out the place on her wall where she’s going the picture of her and Jack and Barbara, and looks forward to her second year at Carkersburg. Davidson expects her to start all the matches on what he calls “a pretty competitive coed team.” Anna thinks that sounds fine and keeps practicing. She had a tournament the other day, 18 holes. It was pretty hot. She walked.

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NASCAR All-Star Race 101: TV times, key statistics, revised procedures and moreNASCAR All-Star Race 101: TV times, key statistics, revised procedures and more

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020| 16:23

NASCAR Cup Series drivers are gearing up for Wednesday night’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Below is a primer for what’s sure to be a wild showdown under the lights at the .533-mile concrete Tennessee short track, which begins with the NASCAR All-Star Open […]

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Tiger Woods enters ‘very different world' at Muirfield VillageTiger Woods enters ‘very different world' at Muirfield Village

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020| 16:00

DUBLIN, Ohio – There’s nothing like a Tiger roar. It reverberates around a golf course, shakes the ground, echoes from the trees, and hits every spot on the property. When Tiger Woods does something great, which has been often over the last two-plus decades on the PGA TOUR, his competitors know. It’s unmistakable. At Muirfield Village, where Woods has won the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide five times, the highlight reels are seemingly infinite. The chip-in on 14 in 1999. Or what about the one on 16 in 2012? In each of them, along with the shot and a Woods customary fist pump or primal scream, you see raucous galleries going nuts. RELATED: Rankings Tiger’s wins from 2000 | Inside Tiger’s Memorial dominance And why wouldn’t they be excited. They’ve seen greatness up close. Witnessed history. Been given a story to tell the grandkids. Those roars not only sent shivers down many a competitor of Woods – who now knew they had another step on the mountain climb – but they invigorated Woods himself. The energy would flow through the feisty competitor and seemingly spur him on to even greater heights. So with all that being said, what is Woods going to do this week at Muirfield Village when he makes his long-awaited and much-anticipated return to the PGA TOUR? The Memorial initially was slated as the first Return To Golf event with spectators, but the continuing COVID-19 pandemic has ensured this won’t be the case. Woods will play his competitive rounds without an on-site gallery. Without the roars. Will he be able to summon the same competitive fire? “There’s nothing to feed off of energy-wise. You make a big putt or make a big par or make a big chip or hit a hell of a shot, there’s no one there,” Woods said Tuesday as he readies himself for his first TOUR event since February. “That’s what the guys are saying now, that it’s a very different world out here, not to have the distractions, the noise, the excitement, the energy, the people that the fans bring. It’s just a silent and different world.” The Tiger effect, as it has been called in the past, extends beyond the roars. Woods pointed out that he’s had cameras on him his entire TOUR career and even had large galleries during college and amateur golf. With that comes constant hustle and bustle, movement, things that can get in the mind of some golfers. Woods, however, had been trained by his father Earl from his toddler years to be able to deal with distraction. As Tiger grew older and began to enter competitions, his father would deliberately do things to try to put his son off mid-swing. Woods quickly developed an ability to stop mid-swing and to block out the circus around. Over the course of his incredible career and his record-tying 82 TOUR wins, Woods has been able to use the circus to his advantage. “For most of my career, pretty much almost every competitive playing round that I’ve been involved in, I’ve had people around me, spectators yelling, a lot of movement inside the gallery with camera crews and media,” Woods noted. “Watching the players play over the last few weeks, that hasn’t been the case, and that’s very different, and for the players that are a little bit older and that have played out here for a long time and have experienced it, it is very different. For some of the younger guys it’s probably not particularly different. They’re not too far removed from college or they’ve only been out here for a year or two, but for some of the older guys, it’s very eye-opening.” On Sunday, on Muirfield Village’s famed 18th green, Justin Thomas made a huge 50-foot putt for birdie to potentially win the Workday Charity Open in a playoff. It was the type of moment Woods has produced on countless occasions. But Collin Morikawa countered with a 24-foot birdie bomb of his own and would eventually win the playoff two holes later. Woods said Morikawa, who is one of the young guys recently out of college, would have faced a much tougher scenario with spectators in attendance. “A lot more difficult,” Woods said of Morikawa’s putt had there been on-site fans. “To see J.T. make that putt, he’s screaming, but no one else is screaming. And then when Collin makes it, he didn’t have that much of a reaction, but the whole hillside on 18 would have been just erupted. “I’ve been there when they’re throwing drinks towards the greens and people screaming, high fiving, people running around, running through bunkers. That’s all gone. That’s our new reality that we’re facing. “It’s so different not having the energy of the crowd, and for me watching at home as a spectator and one that has played this golf course and have heard the energy that the fans bring to these holes and these situations, not to have that is very different, very stark really.” So does Woods have a game plan for the new reality? TOUR events for the rest of the season will occur without on-site spectators. It could stretch into the new 2020-21 season also. “For me in particular, I’m going to have to just put my head down and play. But it’s going to be different, there’s no doubt about it,” he says. “That’s one of the more interesting things that it’ll be going forward. I think this is going to set up for not just in the short-term but for the foreseeable future for sure.” Woods enters this week having not played since the Genesis Invitational he hosted in February. His surgically fused back caused him trouble after that event and he had to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and was a scratch from The PLAYERS Championship before it was canceled after the opening round due to the pandemic. Since then he has taken the safer at-home route – except, of course, for his efforts teaming with Peyton Manning to beat Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity in May. “Physically I was very stiff at LA. I was not moving that well. Back was just not quite loose. It was cold. I wasn’t hitting the ball very far, wasn’t playing very well, and consequently I finished dead last,” Woods said. (He actually finished 68th, last of those to make the cut). “Fast forward five months later… as far as physically, I feel so much better than I did then. I’ve been able to train and concentrate on getting back up to speed and back up to tournament speed.” Woods is no stranger to coming back to competition off a long rest. Last October, he joined Sam Snead atop the all-time wins list in capturing the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan after undergoing knee surgery few months earlier. Coincidentally, one of the rounds was played without spectators due to storms. Woods also played without fans in the third round at the 2012 AT&T National at Congressional Country Club, an event that would end up as TOUR win No. 74 in front of raucous final-round crowds. Perhaps these can all be good omens as he tries for a sixth Memorial title and record-breaking 83rd win. “Over the last few years I’ve been used to taking long breaks, long time off and having to build my game and build it to a level where it’s at a TOUR level at home and then come out and play,” Woods said. “I would like to say that I’m going to win the event. That’s certainly the intentions. Whether that plays out come Sunday, hopefully that will be the case. It was three tournaments ago at ZOZO. There’s no reason why I can’t do it again this week. I’ve just got to go out there and do my work and make that happen.” If he does win, we might hear the roars from the litany of living rooms around the country after all.

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