DraftKings preview: Wyndham Championship

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Tiger Woods entered a new realm before returning to the place where he’s most familiar. Woods, who is scheduled to return to golf at the Hero World Challenge later this month, made his podcast debut with a 77-minute interview with University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma. Woods sandwiched the interview between a workout – “The endorphins are up,â€� he told Auriemma – and a 40-mile bike ride.  “I think I feel really good in the fact that my back’s not aching, my legs are starting to come back and my overall golf fitness is starting to come around,â€� said Woods, who had an anterior lumbar interbody fusion in April. “I’ve never had my back fused. It’s a different feeling. I’m a little bit tighter. I don’t have the pain. It’s a whole new realm for me. I don’t know if I’m going to loosen up or if this is the way I’m always going to be.â€� Later in the interview, he said that the surgery has helped his posture while addressing the golf ball. “Any time (before surgery) I tried to build a good posture over the golf ball, I would get pain down my leg and my right foot wouldn’t work,â€� he said. He’ll also be able to run soon, something he hasn’t done in five years because of his back problems. This is likely the longest recorded interview with Woods that’s ever been released. It was impossible to not learn something new from it. But in a forum that begged for him to open up in an unprecedented way, the listener was left without any significant insights or revelations that gave a deeper understanding of Woods. Some of that responsibility, of course, falls on the interviewer, and Auriemma didn’t seem interested in pushing his friend too far into unprecedented territory. Even so, it’s always enjoyable to listen to Woods talk about golf. He’s arguably the greatest golfer of all time, and an astute student of the game. The podcast was like prime-time television: entertaining, but not paradigm-shifting. Woods’ interview came in the second episode of “Holding Court with Geno Auriemmaâ€�. Basketball stars Kyrie Irving and Sue Bird headlined the show’s debut. Woods and Auriemma discussed the golf ball (Woods joined the chorus of voices calling for it to be rolled back) and influences in Woods’ life, as well as fly fishing and his vengeful 9-and-8 win over Stephen Ames in the 2006 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. “I just think that he didn’t quite respect the way I could play the game of golf. I just had to show him that I could still play,â€� Woods said. “You have no idea how ticked I was to miss that putt on the 10th hole to beat him 10 and 8.â€� Woods and Auriemma had a chummy rapport, and most of the interview had the tone and depth you would expect from a conversation between two men whose success has come in the sporting realm. The conversation did drift occasionally into Woods’ life away from golf, though. He said his children, Charlie and Sam, play soccer and flag football and enjoy fishing. “I’m trying to get my son into fly fishing,â€� Woods said. “That’s something I thoroughly enjoy, to be able to present a fly in the perfect spot and have it drift over a fish and have him hit it.â€� Woods called a good cast “the ultimate.â€� He told the story of his children meeting Lionel Messi and Rafael Nadal, and how he impressed on them that the two men they’d just met are legends in their respective sports. “They said, ‘Yeah, but we live with one, too,’â€� Woods said. “I didn’t really think that they knew me that way. That put me backwards a little bit. I was very shocked by that.â€� Auriemma, who said he won an $800 off Woods from a wager on last year’s Hero, did try at least three times to get him to talk about his closest friendships. Woods didn’t give much, leading Auriemma to ask if he’d ever consider a career in politics because of his propensity to answer a question without revealing too much. “Everything you say is very measured, very thoughtful, very thought out,â€� Auriemma said. “I’m surprised because our friend Charles (Barkley) is like turning on the spigot.â€� Woods referred to “a couple guys in the business world, self-made billionairesâ€� when asked about his confidantes, though that question also led him to talk about getting his handprint set in cement with Nelson Mandela. Three copies of the cast were made: one for Woods, one for Mandela and one for Mandela’s museum. “I still get chills just thinking about it,â€� Woods said in probably the weightiest moment of the interview. “The middle of the palm, the blank spot, is the shape of Africa.â€� Woods said he plays golf with Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler and employees in his office but also admit that, “I have a lot of acquaintances.â€� His closest friends are the people from his childhood, but “they have their own lives. We’ve grown up together, done a lot of things together, but we all lead different lives.â€� When asked who gets to see the “realâ€� version of himself, Woods fell back on his oft-discussed enjoyment in giving his peers and fellow players “the needle.â€� “It’s usually my friends. It’s me giving them a bunch of crap about a lot of different things, more than anything when we compete,â€� Woods said. “That’s when it really gets fun.â€� Auriemma is obviously a passionate golf fan – he quickly recalled Oregon’s Pumpkin Ridge as the site of Woods’ third U.S. Amateur victory – and the highlights came when he asked Woods about his time between the ropes, where Woods said he feels “more at home there than I do most places.â€� Woods said he would like to see the golf ball fly shorter distances and called for bifurcation (different rules for professionals and amateurs) but said the difficulty lies in determining the “line of demarcationâ€� where the divide in rules should occur.  “If the game keeps progressing the way it is with technology, the 8,000-yard golf course is not too far away,â€� he said. “I don’t see (bifurcation) happening in the near future, but at least there’s talk about it now.â€� Woods named Moe Norman and Lee Trevino as the greatest ball-strikers he’s ever seen, and said that Vijay Singh and David Duval were the best among his contemporaries. Among this current crop of players, he singled out Thomas, the FedExCup champion, and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson. Of Thomas, Woods said: “The way Justin Thomas hits the ball is pretty impressive. It doesn’t have a whole lot of curve to it. He hits it very, very flush.â€� And he noted Johnson’s ability to “hit the golf ball at that speed and that velocity and not hit it crooked.â€� Comparing today’s players to their predecessors, Woods said that YouTube has led to the end of unique golf swings because it gives players an endless number of technically sound swings to analyze from every angle. “You can copy a golf swing and make yourself look like that particular person,â€� he said. “These guys didn’t have video cameras. They had to go find it in the dirt and whatever worked for them, that’s what they went with.â€� Auriemma closed the interview by asking Woods for ways in which he felt he was misunderstood. He compared himself to a courtroom lawyer to dispel the theory that he didn’t enjoy the game, which he called his “bastion.â€� “If you’re a lawyer and you’re in the courtroom, are you smiling the entire time as you’re trying to win your case? No, because you have work to do,â€� Woods said. “That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to grind it out and shoot the best score possible, and it takes a certain level of focus for me to do it. Unfortunately, that’s what people have based their assumptions on. What they see.â€�

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Here are nine tidbits from the first round of the Quicken Loans National that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm hosts for the second time and measures 7,107 yards (Par-70).   KNOW THY ENEMY These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf game presented by SERVPRO. Perfect scoring conditions greeted the morning wave as Andrew Landry tied the professional course record with his bogey-free 63. The afternoon side wasn’t bad either, as another 63 by J.J. Spaun gave us co-leaders after the opening round. The weather will just be hotter tomorrow and the winds relatively similar, so there won’t be a tactical advantage on tee times. The afternoon folks will need to be properly hydrated! PEOPLE’S CHOICE J.B. Holmes isn’t a name we’ve seen at the top of the list or even on the list in recent memory. Gamers are riding the wave of hot, albeit deliberate, play from the big hitter from Kentucky as he’s hit the podium in his last two events. He found 10 fairways and 10 GIR but could only get up-and-down on four of the eight he missed. The ones he did hit left him 117th out of 120 players in proximity. His best round in five here is 71 so gamers will have a decision whether or not to use the bench in Round 2. This was only his second round in the black in his last 17 rounds. RECORD DUO Landry and Spaun both used seven birdies without squaring a bogey to set the first round pace. Since his victory at the Valero Texas Open, another difficult track, Landry has played just two of six weekends and his best payday is T65. He MC last week 81-67 but that was a distant memory today. Spaun popped up at Trinity Forest where he opened with 64 and closed with 63 to share third. Gamers hoping to ride that wave were smacked with MC, MC and T47 in his last three outings. Spaun led the field in Round 1 in SG: off the tee as he split 12-of-14 fairways (T1). He fired 73-78 here last year to MC. HOST WITH THE MOST Tiger Woods finally gets a chance to play at his own tournament, and he looked to create some momentum with a new putter in the bag. Gamers remember that he blistered Memorial tee-to-green but made absolutely nothing. The putter didn’t solve all of his problems as he lost over one shot on the greens but his tee-to-green game wasn’t on point either. The greatest part of Woods’ game is his ability to grind. He wiped out a double with a pair of birdies and added 15 pars to sign for 70 (E). An early start on fresh greens should kick-start the putter in Round 2.  HOOK ‘EM That sound you hear every Thursday is Beau Hossler. For the 10th event running his Round 1 scorecard is in red figures. For the third event in a row it has been 66 or better has his six birdies and one bogey added up to 65 (T5) today. Finishing the job is the next step as he’s only hit the top 10 in one of those three events, T2 last week at TPC River Highlands. He hasn’t MC in this stretch either so this isn’t smoke or mirrors. CIAO! Francesco Molinari made his way into the top 10, and rightfully so as gamers are paying attention. He enters the week in an excellent form as his last three worldwide paychecks have been for a win, second and T25. If the main requirement this week is navigating this track tee-to-green it shouldn’t be any surprise he opened with 67. BRAKES PUMPED While 71 (+1) didn’t knock Kyle Stanley out of contention, it surely wasn’t the start gamers were expecting from the defending champion. Driving wasn’t the issue as he found 12-of-14 fairways but his approach play saw him check in at No. 98. The good news is he’s third on TOUR in GIR so this goes down as an aberration for me and I’m expecting normal service to resume tomorrow.  WALK THE LINE Jimmy Walker has played great for almost three months, and that’s why his 74 in Round 1 was surprising. Marc Leishman only hit three fairways and shot 67, so scoring here can happen. Walker found just seven fairways but checked in at No. 111 in SG: putting and only saved par in three of seven chances missing GIR. He opened on No. 10 with an unplayable and a water ball for double-bogey seven so it could have been worse! He’ll need to make more than one birdie in Round 2. STUDY HALL The Round 1 scoring average was 69.992 (-0.008) as opposed to 71.203 in the inaugural year last year. The 18-hole lead last year was 65. No wind helps! There were eight bogey-free rounds all of last year as this course was the most difficult (non-major) on TOUR. There were five on Friday as red-hot Andrew Putnam (64), Seamus Power (66) and Joel Dahmen (66) joined Landry on Spaun in the clean card club.  C.T. Pan (67) broke his driver on No. 14, but still found a way to birdie that hole and the next two. His eight birdies for the round led the field. He gets to put in a new driver on Friday.

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