Todd Lewis - August 23, 2012

• By Morning Drive Team
• Aug 23, 2012 7:40 AM ET

Golf Channel Reporter Todd Lewis is at Bethpage State Park this week for The Barclays. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are teeing off early this morning alongside Zach Johnson and there is a very good buzz around this group at Bethpage State Park especially after the refreshing and humorous exchange between Rory and Tiger in the Media Center during Wednesday’s News Conferences. Rory joked that he wanted to face Tiger at Medinah and kick his butt and the both of them exchanged some laughs and a low five as Rory left the stage and Tiger approached the stage. Tiger’s attitude towards Rory indicates a bit of maturation on Tiger’s part. Rory at the age of 23 is in a very similar position that Tiger was at that age and not only does Tiger understand what Rory is going through right now, but he also respects Rory as a player and seemingly as a person.

Lewis is making his first trip to Bethpage State Park this week and after arriving on Tuesday, he watched Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler take on Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley in a practice round. It is an amazing course and a very long course. Big hitters will have an advantage but everyone will be hitting mid to long irons into the greens. The course is playing very soft this week because of recent rain which gives an additional advantage to long hitters.

Keegan Bradley played golf at St. John’s University and the team would often play golf on the Red Course at Bethpage State Park. Bradley told a story of how the Superintendent at Bethpage State Park would allow the St. John’s team to come to Bethpage on Monday when the Black Course was closed and play the Black Course when it was empty. Bradley thoroughly enjoyed those experiences with his team and the best round he ever shot during those Monday rounds was even par and he is obviously going to try to break that record this week.