PGA: McIlroy’s driver was among 50 or so tested

The PGA TOUR returns to Canada this week for the RBC Canadian Open. This year marks the first time since 2019 that the event will be featured on the PGA TOUR schedule, as the pandemic led to cancelations of the event in 2020 and 2021. Rory McIlroy is the last winner of this event when it was held at Hamilton Golf & Country Club in 2019. This week does feature a full field, with more than 150 golfers in the attendance, and will feature a strong top end, with five of the top 10 golfers in the OWGR teeing it up. The event will take place at St. George’s G&CC, a 7,014-yard par 70 that last hosted the event in 2010. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: $800,000 Pitch + Putt [$200,000 to 1st] With the U.S. Open taking place the week after the RBC Canadian Open, a lot of big names have made the trek up North to get in some competitive practice. Both Justin Thomas ($10,900) and Scottie Scheffler ($11,100), the year’s first two major championship winners, are in the field. Sam Burns ($10,000), winner at another tricky par-70 track (Colonial) two weeks ago, is also making an appearance. As is Cameron Smith ($10,300), who suffered a dismal Sunday last weekend and ended the Memorial Tournament T13. The last time we saw the RBC Canadian Open played, it was on another shorter par-70 track in Hamilton, and that event was won at -22 by Rory McIlroy ($10,500). Given the way some of the top names in the world have performed this year, it wouldn’t be shocking to see another dominate win by one of them on what will be a shorter than normal setup for the pros. STRATEGY Shorter courses tend to put an emphasis on short irons, short games and putting. We should expect the Stanley Thompson-designed St. George’s G&CC to emphasize those specific facets of the game. In 2010, we saw Carl Pettersson take down the event at St. George’s, a player who ranked 137th in driving distance that season. Pettersson also ranked third in strokes gained putting that year and was able to craft a round of 60 on St. George’s in the third round, on his way to the win. The greens at St. George’s are bentgrass and, with rain in the forecast, could be very receptive for 2022. McIlroy ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting on bentgrass greens over the last 24 rounds. Players who have good track records at short courses and have solid proximity stats with their short irons should also be valued highly this week. Matthias Schwab ($7,300) and Rory Sabbatini ($7,200) both rank inside the top 10 in proximity from 125-150 yards over the last 24 rounds while Smith and David Lipsky ($7,300) both rank inside the top 10 in proximity from 100-125 yards over that same span. Last year, the week before the U.S. Open, we saw Garrick Higgo take down his first PGA TOUR title at the Palmetto Championship, in what was only his second PGA TOUR start. Strange things can happen the week prior to a major, and there’s plenty of interesting names down the field to take a look at this week for our daily fantasy golf lineups. GOLFERS TO CONSIDER Cameron Smith ($10,300) Smith found himself in contention again last week but fell back to T13 after a poor Sunday. He has wins at both Waialae Country Club (Sony Open) and TPC Sawgrass (THE PLAYERS), two shorter tracks on the PGA TOUR where short irons, short games and putting are all magnified. The course this week will be much less demanding off the tee than the venues seen in Smith’s last two starts, and that should allow the rest of his game to shine through. He’s been showcasing an elite approach game of late and ranks first in proximity from 100-125 yards out over the last 24 rounds. Starting DFS lineups with Smith this week on a suitable layout makes complete sense when looking at the top of the board. Corey Conners ($9,600) Conners has typically held himself very well at some of the shorter tracks on the PGA TOUR. He landed a T12 at Hilton Head in April and was also T11 at the aforementioned Waialae Country Club in Hawaii this January. Obviously, the Canadian will be playing in his national open, which will make this week a little more special for him than the rest of the field, so seeing him attack with a little more seriousness wouldn’t be shocking. A wet course with high greens in regulations also wouldn’t be terrible for Conners, as he gained over 8.0 strokes on approach last week at the Memorial and is second in the field in proximity stats over the last 50 rounds. David Lipsky ($7,300) If you’re looking to take a shot with a player lower down the board this week, then perhaps think about looking to Lipsky, who has been playing solid golf of late. The former Korn Ferry Tour and European Tour winner ranks 12th in Strokes Gained: Approach stats over the last 50 rounds and has done well over the last couple of weeks on tougher setups (T37 last week at Muirfield). Lipsky’s strong short-iron game should shine through at St. George’s, and he won’t be as disadvantaged by his lack of distance off the tee. Stephan Jaeger ($7,300) and C.T. Pan ($8,100) are a couple of other potential value targets for DFS this week, as they’ve been trending well on approach and should set up well for this older, more technical venue. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: $800,000 Pitch + Putt [$200,000 to 1st] Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and customer (my username is wavegoodbye) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. 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The opening round had Phil drama, club tosses and turkeys. What’s ahead during the second round of the U.S. Open? We’ve got it covered.

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The grim news we are hearing daily about the COVID-19 pandemic has brought back painful memories for Audrey Leishman. Five years ago, she was in a Virginia Beach, Virginia, hospital fighting for her life. In addition to sepsis and toxic shock syndrome, she had acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the same thing that has proven so deadly to countless coronavirus patients across the world. “ARDS is the worst thing I have ever gone through,â€� she said recently. “It felt like I was drowning.â€� “It was the worst time of her life,â€� Audrey’s husband Marc echoed. “It was the worst time in my life, too. I didn’t even have it.â€� Related: For more on how players are giving back, visit PGATOUR.COM/IMPACT Like so many of the COVID-19 patients with ARDS, Audrey was put on a ventilator for five days. The doctors told Marc that his wife had just a 5 percent chance of survival, and the couple said they loved each other for what might have been one last time. But Audrey fought. So did her doctors and nurses. And they saved her life. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic began invading the United States, Audrey and Marc, the five-time PGA TOUR champion, knew what they wanted to do. They wanted to find a way to help the emergency room and ICU staffs in hospitals near their Virginia Beach home who were on the front lines every day. “With our personal experience of me getting sick, we realized how hard these doctors, nurses, the support staff, respiratory therapists, how hard they all work to keep patients alive,â€� Audrey explained. “I wouldn’t be here without them, and so we wanted to support them.â€� But how? Audrey texted the pulmonologist who she says saved her life, as well as one of the physician’s assistants on her case. She also contacted some of her friends who are nurses. What did they need? How could the Leishman’s aptly named Begin Again Foundation make a difference? While the lack of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers is, she said, “literally keeping me awake at night,â€� she knew that was too vast a problem to tackle. Other friends simply told her to pray for them. Her response? “Absolutely, but I want to do more than that.â€� Someone mentioned that restaurants were afraid to deliver food to the hospitals, and suddenly the Leishmans had an idea. They have lots of friends in the hospitality industry, people who have donated food and other services for the Begin Again Foundation’s celebrity golf classic over the last four years. With restaurants closed to in-house dining and able only to offer takeout in these days of stay-at-home orders and social distancing, those businesses were suffering, too. Why not help them by buying meals that might allow the owners to pay employees for a little bit longer, then having them delivered to different hospitals? “It just seemed like a really natural fit,â€� Marc said. “With what happened to Audrey … we know how, on a normal day, we know how hard the medical staff work. And I mean when something like this is going on and it’s got to be, I don’t want to say tenfold, but more than that, like 100 times harder. They’ve got so much more going on, and a lot of them aren’t getting home to see their family because they might be infected. So, it’s just a huge burden on them. “And then the restaurants having to be closed for eating, we want to keep them employed. And I know four meals for just us … it’ll make a little difference, but not a huge difference. … I don’t know how many meals they’re buying, but 60 or 80, or whatever it is. If we buy that many, that could make a difference to that restaurant, possibly staying open or not. “We’re just trying to help in any way we can.â€� The first hospital the Begin Again Foundation served – quite literally, and quite fittingly – was the Sentara Princess Anne, which is where Audrey got her second chance at life. And the couple is in it for the long term, too, sending meals to a different hospital each week, because they know all too well that defeating COVID-19 is not going to happen quickly; it’s a marathon, not a sprint. “One thing I have seen is that a lot of people offer to help right in the beginning,â€� Audrey said. “That just comes to happen in any kind of crisis. I still want to be there when it’s getting harder for people to help. … Especially in a situation like this as time goes on and people are out of work for longer, it may be harder and harder to do so. “We’d like to keep doing this for as long as we can.â€� That’s not all Audrey and Marc are doing, either. In partnership with the Patient Advocate Foundation, the Begin Again Foundation, is also giving out 10 $1,000 grants per month to survivors of ARDS, sepsis or toxic shock syndrome. These LEISHLines can be used to help with uninsured expenses like rent, utilities, food, lodging and transportation. And recently, the Foundation placed an order for 1,000 cloth masks to be delivered to grocery stores in Virginia Beach to protect the cashiers and stock clerks who work there. A Masters flag signed by Tiger Woods will be auctioned off to support those efforts. Marc and Audrey have been keeping busy at home, too. They have two sons and a daughter, aged 2 to 8, who miss their friends. FaceTime calls help, though, and there is plenty of schoolwork now that Mom and Dad are doubling as teachers for the foreseeable future. Marc is quick to point out that his specialty is the physical education part. He’ll leave the math and English lessons to his wife. “I’m helping Harvey, he’s only in second grade and there’s a few things I’m like, dude, I don’t know how to do this,â€� Marc said with a chuckle. “… They’re doing addition and subtraction a different way now. So, I don’t know how to do that. There’s a lot of things I can help with, but there’s a lot that I can’t as well.â€� He can help Harvey with chipping and putting, though, at the short game area in the backyard. And Ollie, who’s 6, has taken up Taekwondo and kick-boxing – and his father has a shiner to show for that after an accidental headbutt. The family lives on a golf course that is closed right now so there have been field trips, of sorts, to fish and look for frogs and tadpoles. Now that the weather is getting warmer the pool in the backyard is getting some use, and Marc has also taught the kids how to build fires and cook smores. Golf has been put on the back burner. Leishman, who won the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year, said it just doesn’t feel right. “Once the weather gets good and everyone is allowed out there again and things are sort of starting to turn for the better,â€� he said “I think that’s when I’ll start to get back into it. … “A lot of tournaments this time of year that I really enjoy, and to be missing them is tough. But again, the family times, they’re positive.â€� And so is the work of the Leishman’s Begin Again Foundation.

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