Tiger Woods reverted to his old form on Thursday, firing a 65 in the opening round at The Barclays. Any other week, and we would be treated to the normal round of “Tiger is back!”/”Tiger is not back!”/”Tiger’s mistress is performing at a gentleman’s club down the street!” articles. This feat, however, came just after he filed for divorce from his wife, Elin, on Monday, eliciting an academic level of speculation from those analyzing Woods’s vague answers. Was it some kind of mental release? Could this be the beginning of our old Tiger?  “It would be too simplistic to suggest that Woods’ divorce has unburdened him to the point that he can now focus on his career and play worry-free golf,” ESPN.com’s Jason Sobel writes. “Those proclaiming that Woods is back after his seven-birdie, one-bogey round should recall similar decrees made during the U.S. Open two months ago, when he posted a back-nine 31 in the third round at Pebble Beach, only to falter one day later.”  “Not going to make too big a deal about this. Could have just been a fluke,” The Journal’s Jason Gay writes. “He was due to break out soonit’s been a messy slog of a summer.”  Woods toyed with the media a little bit with his comments after the round. “I need to wrap my head around having a commitment level going forward with this new change,” Woods said, according to the New York Post’s George Willis. Was he finally going to address Elin??, “ because this would be my fourth new swing since I’ve be on the Tour.” Pffffftttt. He got us.  To swing coach Sean Foley’s credit, what he may or may not have Woods doing seemed to work on Thursday. Tiger eschewed drivers for smaller woods and irons, and began hitting fairways and greens with more regularity than we have seen all year from him. He seems to be embracing even the most unorthodox of practices. “Woods has worked hard with Foley,” the Times Colonist Mark Hermann writes, “hitting balls in his bare feet to slow down and improve his balance.”  The new philosophy seemed to help Woods. After a horrendous start to his practice on the range, he remembered a few things Foley had told him and made the adjustments. “If I had the same warm-up at the PGA, I wouldn’t have known how to fix it because it was too new,” Woods told the American Chronicle’s Steve DiMeglio, among others. “At least now I know how to fix it. Once I fixed it, I was able to go out and play.”  Still, there’s no guarantee that Foley’s advice will be able to hold up through the weekend, and that Woods won’t re-revert to the erratic stranger we’ve seen this summer. “There’s a happy balance in there somewhere, and Woods will eventually find it,” Fanhouse’s David Whitley writes.”His life will eventually regain a new normalcy, and his game will eventually regain its old normalcy. It’s simply not normal, however, to have all your problems whisked away by a judge’s signature.”  Fantasy football draft season begins in earnest this weekend, which means very different things depending on whether you play or don’t but live with someone who does. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Peter Hartraub offers a 20-question quiz that leaves many fantasy football players tantalizingly close to needing what Hartraub refers to as a fantasy intervention. “Every year, when I go to the San Francisco home of a friend who hosts the draft, I half expect to walk into his backyard and see my wife, parents, sister and Dr. Drew Pinsky sitting in a circle looking uncomfortable while clutching their prepared statements,” Hartraub writes.  The origins of fantasy footballwhich, having been founded in the 1960s, predate those of fantasy baseballhave gone relatively unnoticed. Matt Schauf of Fantasy Sports Business did his best to remedy this with a four-part series on the founders. “Forty full years before we were introduced to concepts such as the World Championship of Fantasy Football, this visionary group invented concepts such as the draft, individual defensive players, and a trophy that encourages even the worst teams to play out the season.”  Florida Marlins rookie left fielder Logan Morrison hit his first major league triple on Wednesday, his 23rd birthday, at New York’s Citi Field. These two feats were greatly overshadowed, however, by the presence of Morrison’s father, Tom, in the stands. Tom Morrison, 51, and a non-smoker, was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in April and almost died twice in the hospital while Logan was collecting his first hits in July. Doctors gave Tom the okay to travel to New York to see his son play But because of his physical state, he was forbidden from flying. So he took a 29-hour train ride from his hometown of Slidell, La.  “It’s just nice being able to sit in the park, and watching him,” Tom Morrison told the Miami Herald’s Clark Spencer in a stellar piece. “It’s probably the best recreation I have.”  The Daily Fix will spare you the empty indignation that other outlets are throwing at Michael Jordan’s son, Marcus, for his now-deleted tweet last weekend that indicated he was partying in Vegas while under 21 (he is 20) while also somehow managing to drop $50,000 in a day. Instead, ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan brings up an excellent point: the University of Central Florida basketball team features both Jeffrey and Marcus Jordan on their roster.  “Neither is an elite player,” Brennan writes. “Jeff was a one-time walk-on and defensive specialist at Illinois, while Marcus averaged 8.0 points per game at UCF as a freshman. But still, if only for public relations purposes, having both sons of the greatest basketball player at your program is undeniably unique. And, in its own way, pretty cool.”  Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself  write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Nando at nandodifino@yahoo.com.
A killer round days after the divorce becomes final. Plus: Wisdom for fantasy football addicts; two Jordans, one college lineup; and more.