Riviera crowds costly to Tiger Woods, give Rory McIlroy a headache

Rory McIlroy is no stranger to the mobocracy that chases Tiger Woods around a golf tournament, but even a player who’s teed it up many times with the aging superstar can’t believe how his boyhood idol deals with increasingly unruly crowds that may cost golf’s most popular player a few shots per event.

Indeed, McIlroy, who played the first two rounds of the Genesis Open with Woods and Justin Thomas, believes the hordes of spectators that move as one and cheer every Tiger swing, sometimes mid-stroke, may be detrimental to the former world No. 1’s scorecard.

Every aspect of his game let Woods down on his way to a missed cut during Friday’s second-round 5-over 76 — four shots over the projected cut line. There’s the ongoing struggle with his driver that began at the Farmers Insurance Open and produced just five of 14 fairways hit on Friday, shaggy iron play that led to nine missed greens, and the trio of three-putts on his incoming nine holes.

All in all, starting his third tournament — and second official PGA Tour event — since undergoing a fourth back surgery last April, Woods could not get anything going on a course where he said earlier in the week he “played awful.” It’s also a track on which he has never won in his 10 professional starts.

“I didn’t really play that well today. I missed every tee shot left and I did not putt well, didn’t feel very good on the greens and consequently never made a run,” Woods told reporters following an eight-bogey day on which his entire game was out of sync. “I knew I had to make a run on that back nine and I went the other way.”

Still, McIlroy suggested that not every missed shot was Woods’ fault.

“I swear, playing in front of all that, he gives up half a shot a day on the field,” McIlroy said after he was able to rise above the bedlam and play himself into contention with a 69 to go with an opening-round 71. “Like, it’s two shots a tournament he has to give to the field because of all that that goes on around.”

Woods agreed, though the distractions come with the territory for the guy everyone wants to watch.

“It’s cost me a lot of shots over the year,” he confirmed. “It’s cost me a few tournaments here and there.

“It’s been a lot because all it takes is one shot on a Thursday that you lose a tournament by a shot on Sunday. What people don’t realize, it’s not just something that happens on Sunday afternoon, this is cumulative and it’s par for the course,” Tiger added. “I’ve dealt with it for a very long time.”

Like three weeks ago at Torrey Pines, when an idiot yelling “Get in the hole” while Woods was putting likely produced a missed birdie putt.

Or Friday at Riviera, where boisterous fans inserted themselves into the action on the field.

“Just the whole thing,” said McIlroy. “‘Guys, you’ve got a six-foot putt, it doesn’t break as much as you think.’ Just stuff like this that they don’t have to say.”

Most other competitors are immune from the free-for-all that breaks out around Woods. But imagine the chaos the well-lubed fans surrounding the infamous par-3 16th at TPC Scottsdale during the Phoenix Open cause, and you get a snapshot of what Woods faces on each and every shot.

“Whoever’s teeing off at 8:30 in the morning doesn’t get that and can just go about his business and just do his thing,” said McIlroy. “He has to deal with that every single time he goes out to play.”

As do his playing partners, though Thomas, who entered the weekend tied with McIlroy at 2-under for the week and just five shots off the lead of a trio of 36-hole frontrunners, shrugged it off.

“You get used to it,” the reigning tour Player of the Year, who hopped aboard Woods’ private plane for the trip to Riviera, said after Thursday’s opener.

McIlroy, though finds the clamor surrounding Tiger exhausting.

“It’s tiring,” McIlroy said. “I need a couple Advil just to — I’ve got a headache after all that.”

Woods, as host of the tourney that benefits his foundation, will stick around for the weekend even though he won’t be on the tee sheet. On the plus side, he has two more days of practice before entering the cauldron of PGA National for next week’s Honda Classic.

The winner of 14 major titles who last hoisted a trophy in a regular-season event in 2013 was able to find something of a silver lining to an otherwise cloudy round under clear blue Los Angeles skies.

“I’m both pleased and also not very happy with some parts of it,” said Woods, who noted that his back was fine but that his feet and knees were aching after walking 36 holes. “It’s nice to be back competing again and to be able to go out there and play, practice after each round. That’s been nice, something I haven’t done in years. So, you know, keep building.”