It sounds different and it looks different, and so do those in the crowd who watch him tee off.

“He makes people who hit the golf ball a long way go, ‘Wow,'” Alvamar Country Club head pro Randy Towner said.

Said KU golf coach Ross Randall: “It’s just a different deal.”

How different?

“This practice facility is only a year old and it’s already obsolete,” Randall said. “It’s 370 yards.”

A junior at KU who has aspirations of joining the PGA Tour, Woodland said one of his drives recently was measured at 415 yards, a distance most golfers wish they could reach in two.

“There was a lot of wind that day,” he said, trying to make hackers feel better.

KU did not qualify as a team to compete in the NCAA regionals for the first time since 1997, but Woodland was invited as an individual. The silver lining: Randall, who usually spends his time during tournaments walking with Woodland’s teammates, can walk every hole with his top player.

The regional will be played at Sand Ridge in Chardon, Ohio, a nice break for Woodland. Last fall, when he was playing better than he played during the spring, Woodland won the Cleveland State Invitational on the same course with a three-round total of 202, a score that could have been lower if not for greed kicking in. He shot 67-66-69 for the easy victory.

“My goal was to get at 15 under and with three holes left I was at 14 under,” he said. “I heard then nobody was under par, so I was leading by 14 shots. I played aggressive then and I made bogeys (on the final three holes) to shoot what I did. It was a blast. The golf course sets up good for me.”

Woodland plays a practice round on Sand Ridge today then competes Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Eight teams and two individuals from each regional advance to the NCAA championships, played May 31-June 3 at the Crosswater Golf Club in Sunriver, Ore.

How well Woodland controls the golf ball and how well he putts, not his distance off the tee, will determine whether he advances.

Most long ball hitters make their balls draw (right-to-left for a right-handed golfer) to give them extra distance. Woodland plays a slight fade so the ball lands more softly and limits his mistakes when he misses the target.

“The golf course is hitter friendly,” Woodland said. “And it’s good to my eye. A lot of dogleg rights. And I love the thick rough too. I love the fact that if you miss it, the short hitters are going to get in trouble too.”

A Berryton native who played basketball as a freshman at Washburn University before transferring to KU, Woodland learned to play golf backwards, in a sense. Usually, golfers are taught to swing slow, get the mechanics down, then speed it up a little.

“When I was little, I tried to see how far I could hit it,” Woodland said. “I didn’t get lessons until I was a freshman in high school and that’s when I toned it down a lot. I heard Jack Nicklaus learned how to play that way too. ‘For two years go and see how far you can hit it and then come back and we’ll teach you how to do the other stuff.’ You can’t teach length, so it’s good to have.”

Woodland had his swing tested at the Titleist Research and Development Center in Carlsbad, Calif. He was told his ball speed was 191 mph, compared to an average range of 167-to-172 for tour players. He was told his club speed was 138 mph, similar to that of Tiger Woods. Woodland’s average carry was 338 yards.

He has been working on his swing with Dallas-based instructor Randy Smith of Royal Oaks Country Club, ranked by Golf Digest as the 18th-best golf instructor in the world. Woodland credits Randall with helping him tighten up his short game.

“This week he can talk to me as much as he wants, help me do anything,” Woodland said of the regional near Cleveland. “He can pretty much caddy for me. I still have to carry my own bag, but he can read putts, he can do everything for me. That’s a huge advantage.”

So is a ball speed of 191 mph.