It may have been Woods' slowest round ever but 40,000 fans were not complaining, writes KEITH DUGGAN, at Adare
IT WAS not the best round of golf Tiger Woods has ever played and, at a whopping six hours, it may have been the slowest. But it was a slow walk through adoration.
The most famous athlete in the world walked the sunny fairways of Adare Manor yesterday and the crowd all but genuflected in his wake. Some 40,000 people paid into the first day of the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am, the fifth edition of the glittering charity event first held in 1990.
The previous one, in 2005, raised more than €30 million. For 50 notes, people got a rather fetching souvenir cap and a chance to get up close and personal to a man who has generated a furious rush of headlines since his public fall from grace last December.
At 1.30pm, he appeared in his customary black slacks and shirt and caused the punters to swoon and shout and reach for their camera phones, eager to capture omnipotence.
“We waiting for a gun?” he asked as they dallied at the first tee. It wasn’t the greatest joke in the world but it broke the ice. Near by, a Garda sergeant tapped a young recruit on the shoulder. The guard was standing on the first tee, just metres from Tiger. “What duty are you doing?” the sergeant whispered.
The younger man looked panic stricken. “Floating,” he replied. His duty was clear. He was following the Tiger, same as everyone else and his duty was to shield and protect the greatest golfer in the world. Or at least admire his golf swing.
“There’s too many here . . . you should probably follow Pádraig Harrington,” his boss whispered.
It was probably the cruellest piece of rank-pulling in the history of the Garda. The younger man shuffled disconsolately away just as Tiger bent over to place his tee.
For the next six hours, Woods walked the golf course to constant calls of Irish men and women shouting “Tiger, Tiger,” sounding as if they had lost the family cat.
He waved politely, chatted to his team mates and behaved as if he didn’t notice that more or less everyone was following his every move. Kids who couldn’t quite grasp that actually meeting Woods might not be on the cards badgered stewards for access until one child, Ava Mulhall from Cork, bolted from behind the ropes, dodged stewards and ran towards the Tiger, who was walking up the fairway with Dermot Desmond.
The stewards tried to shepherd her away but Woods bent down, signed and the crowd cheered.
“Thanks,” she replied, when asked what she had said to the golfer. Ava is only six but is a dab hand at this: Woods was her 17th signature of the day and easily the most prized. Everyone wanted to be close the Tiger. Even his team mates beamed in his company. It must be nerve-wracking enough for amateur golfers to play in front of tens of thousands but to do so in front of the best player on earth means that your game can easily go to pieces.
“It is very enjoyable because as you can see, he is very open and approachable and easy to talk with,” said Bernard Droux, a Swiss financier with a very steady game. “JP is walking with us, the sun is shining, so it is perfect.”
JP McManus followed the Woods team. The man behind this event is so low-key that at times he fell back and walked beside the crowd and several did a double take before they realised who they were strolling alongside.
Elsewhere, the cast of celebrity golfers was motley: Kyle MacLachlan, formerly of Twin Peaks and Sex and the City, was matched with Liam Brady, formerly of Arsenal and Ireland; surely a golf conversation worth eavesdropping on.
Hugh Grant’s team included Michael Flatley. Charlie McCreevy played with Michael Douglas, who once gave life to Gordon Gekko, old “Greed is Good” himself.
At about four in the afternoon, a young couple were strolling on a shaded path not far from the 18th tee when a stray golf ball fell from the sky, bounced in front of them and came to rest in a bunch of thistles. Minutes afterwards a caddy came bouncing through the rough. His bib read Samuel L. Jackson. A dozen lads came racing through the rough followed by Samuel himself, who wore the careworn look of a golfer who had seen better days. His helpers found his ball. Jackson played while conducting a conversation with his army of fans.
"Name one movie I was in and I will," he said to a 10-year-old who marched up and demanded an autograph on his cap. The Jackson oeuvre is loaded with heavyweights: Goodfellas, Jungle Fever, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown. The audience waited eagerly to hear which classic the boy would choose.
" Snakes on a Plane," he said confidently. Mr Jackson nodded gravely and signed his name.
The event continues today and is sold out. Tiger Woods tees off at 8am. He can expect company.